Invisible Son

Invisible Son (2023) is a novel by Kim Johnson. The novel centers around 17-year-old Andre Jackson as he returns from juvenile detention to discover that one of his friends is missing and that finding him may lead to more information about the circumstances of his own arrest. Johnson has also written This Is My America (2020) and The Color of a Lie (2024), which, like Invisible Son, were geared toward young adults. This Is My America was awarded the Pacific Northwest Book Award and the Malka Penn Human Rights Award for Children’s Literature. This Is My America and Invisible Son were also chosen as NPR Best Books.

This guide refers to the 2023 Random House Children’s Books edition.

Content Warning: The source text and this guide discuss child abuse, racism, racist violence, police brutality, murder, the death of a loved one, and attempted death by suicide. They also briefly mention drug and alcohol abuse.

Plot Summary

The novel opens on February 27, 2020, with Andre Jackson on his way to his grandparents’ house after being released from a juvenile detention center. He is now taking part in a community monitoring program, for which he wears an ankle monitor and has to complete community service hours. He was arrested for stealing, though he is innocent and wants to know why his friend Eric let him take the blame for what he and their other friend Gavin did.

He is welcomed by his grandparents and then goes over to their neighbors’ house soon after. There, Eric lived with his biological sister, Sierra; their adopted siblings, Luis, Kate, and Brian; and their adoptive parents, Mr. and Mrs. Whitaker. Andre looks up to Mr. Whitaker because Mr. Whitaker seems to believe that he was innocent. Mr. Whitaker tells him that he is running for city commissioner. Andre also learns that Eric left shortly after Andre was arrested. No one knows where he is.

Andre begins to readjust to life at home, just as news about the coronavirus appears on television. He sees his friend Boogie, and they talk about Eric. Andre doesn’t want to believe that Eric put the stolen goods in his locker at work, which had been a major piece of evidence against him in his case. Andre also sees both of his parents, though he worries that his whole family will always look at him differently now that he’s been to juvie. After running errands with Boogie, his juvenile court counselor, Marcus, stops by and tells Andre that he needs to let him know when he’s out of the house. Another juvenile counselor, “Cowboy Jim,” is investigating other robberies and is looking into further charges against Andre.

Later, Andre and Boogie start up Andre’s YouTube channel again, where he records reactions to old music. His follower count has grown exponentially since he was livestreaming when he was arrested. Sierra joins them and then stays after Boogie leaves. Andre has always had a crush on her.

On March 1, Andre begins his community service hours at his old job at the Albina Parks & Recreation department. On his way home, he calls Gavin to confront him about letting Andre take the blame for the robbery. Gavin says that the last time he heard from Eric, he was going to turn himself in. Andre isn’t sure if he should believe him. A few days later, Boogie and his family are sick. Andre’s grandfather also gets sick, and when Andre goes to pick up a few prescriptions for him, Mr. Whitaker is there. He tells Eric that he and Mrs. Whitaker had to check Eric into a mental health facility before he disappeared and that his other children don’t know. When Mr. Whitaker leaves, Andre realizes that he didn’t buy anything.

Soon after, Andre and Sierra call 911 when Andre’s grandfather stops breathing. The next day, they also wake up sick and test positive for COVID-19. They quarantine together. Once they recover, Andre goes with his grandma and Sierra to visit his grandfather, but they aren’t accepting visitors. Andre’s mom, who is a nurse, says to wait and that she’ll look into it. Andre uses the time in the hospital to go to the psychiatric ward, where he asks a friend of his mother’s if she remembers an Eric Whitaker since he would’ve been taken to this hospital. She can’t disclose medical information, but she says that his name isn’t familiar. Andre wonders why Mr. Whitaker lied.

Andre starts doing community service at Parks & Rec, and he’s allowed to start swimming again, which he loves. Within a few weeks, Boogie’s aunt dies from the virus. Andre’s grandfather passes away shortly thereafter. No one but family is allowed to attend the funeral. One night, Marcus comes by because Andre accidentally knocked his ankle monitor off its charger and it died. He’s surprised that it took Marcus all day to come by. He also asks Marcus for help looking into Eric’s disappearance.

George Floyd’s murder sets off a series of Black Lives Matter protests as Andre continues to look into Eric’s disappearance. Andre himself is also stopped by the police and made to kneel on the ground. Marcus saves him. However, Andre is heartened that the protests are lasting so long.

One day, when all the Whitaker children are at a protest, Mrs. Whitaker sees Andre and invites him inside. She’s drunk and eventually goes to bed after she and Andre disagree about the message of the Black Lives Matter movement. Andre uses the opportunity to go through Mr. Whitaker’s desk, where he discovers a file with his name on it and applications to boys’ boarding schools. He also sneaks up to Eric’s room and finds some of his prized possessions, which he knows Eric would’ve taken if he’d left of his own accord.

On May 31, Andre uses the information he found in Eric’s room to open Eric’s locker, which contains a backpack full of money. Andre takes it home to count it. Soon after, he goes to his mom for help, who recounts how, when Andre was 12 years old, Mrs. Whitaker, Luis, Sierra, and Eric came to the hospital. The doctor called for a welfare check, but Mr. Whitaker arrived just in time to stop it. Soon after, all three children were adopted. She thinks that Andre should wait to act because Mr. Whitaker is powerful.

A few days later, Kate and Luis invite Andre to their house. While he’s there, he sees Mr. Whitaker giving an interview on a video call and saying that everyone now knows that Black lives matter and that officials should break up the protests because of the pandemic. Right afterward, Mr. Whitaker talks to Cowboy Jim, who tells him that violent protesters are going to infiltrate the Black Lives Matter protest to make it seem like they’re a terrorist group. Mr. Whitaker says they should let it happen so that there might be a recall vote on the governor and he can run in the special election. He also tells Jim to continue keeping an eye on Andre.

Shocked, Andre knows now that he has all the information he needs to expose Mr. Whitaker’s corruption and role in his arrest. He leaves, wanting to alert protesters of the violence coming. He ends up going with Boogie, Kate, and Luis to find Sierra—who is already there and planning on reading letters she found from Eric that explain how he committed the robbery and how their adoptive mom tried to kill them with carbon monoxide poisoning when they were little. Andre uses his YouTube channel to spread the word about violent protesters, and then he calls Mr. Whitaker while livestreaming, getting him to admit that he was working with Cowboy Jim. He and Sierra leave, though Andre now feels fulfilled by the movement and expresses how important it is that their voices be heard.

He returns home, where Cowboy Jim waits to arrest him for arriving after curfew. He has also found Eric’s backpack. Marcus appears, and he says that he will tell people that Jim planted the backpack. He also says that Mr. Whitaker is going to turn on Jim, who then leaves. As Andre talks with the Whitaker siblings, Luis reveals that Eric came home one night when no one else was there but their parents. He heard Eric fight with Mrs. Whitaker and then a loud noise. Everyone realizes that Eric is dead and that Mrs. Whitaker killed him.

Marcus has to arrest Andre because he violated the terms of his community monitoring program. Andre gets to return home because of community health concerns, and he has a hearing where he is not penalized for his behavior, though he gets a new ankle monitor. His lawyer works on an appeal in his case based on the new evidence. The police have closed off the Whitaker house, though Mr. and Mrs. Whitaker still live there. They look for evidence of Eric’s murder, and Andre realizes that he’s been buried under the rose bushes. The Whitaker parents are arrested. Andre, the Whitaker siblings, and his family hold a memorial service for Eric.

Andre chooses to go to community college the next year so that he can help at his dad’s bookshop and be near his family. He and Sierra—who have started dating—enjoy time together, and the novel ends with them resting in the backyard. The author also includes “Andre’s Playlist.”