Josuee Hernandez – Jill Grinberg Literary Management

Josuee Hernandez

Josuee Hernandez is a writer based in Portland, Oregon. His debut YA novel, What We Did to Each Other, was published by Flux and was a Bronze Medalist at the 2026 International Latino Book Awards and a Silver Medalist at the 2026 Moonbeam Awards. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in English Literature from the University of Oregon, a Master of Arts in English Literature from Portland State University, and a Master of Arts in Education, also from Portland State University. When he’s not writing, he serves as an educator for K-12 youth. Find him at www.josueehernandez.com.

Agent

Larissa Melo Pienkowski

What We Did to Each Other

It’s the early 2010s, and seventeen-year-old Yesenia Rivera hates everything about herself: her brown skin and wide nose, her curly hair and hand-me-down clothing, and her inability to fit in with either the Mexican girls or the white girls at her school. So when her mother’s new job requires them to uproot their lives and move to the Pacific Northwest, Yesenia devises a plan to remake herself completely. Cloaked in skin lightening cream, blue contact lenses, dyed-blonde hair, and a “whiter” name, Yesenia’s-aka Jessie’s-newfound ability to pass as white in her new school gets her the popularity she’s always dreamed of. Yet as her brazen confidence morphs into hubris, all it takes is a couple of slip-ups for someone to take notice.

Guillermo Rivera-aka Willy, an easier-to-pronounce nickname bestowed upon him by his classmates-is no stranger to sticking out at their predominantly white high school, right down to his too-small wrestling shoes. Bothered by how little he’s able to help his low-income mother and seduced by the prospect of financial stability, he reluctantly settles into a flattened, stereotyped version of himself in exchange for being needed by his white peers. But when selling to Jessie’s new friends pushes him farther out of his comfort zone and, dangerously, into theirs, both he and Jessie begin to suffer the mounting cost of what whiteness demands of them. The more they’re forced together, the more their tenuously crafted double lives threaten to crumble. Until one day, when those lives collide . . .

Praise for What We Did to Each Other

“…Hernández wields the insecurity and desperation of his protagonists like the destructive weapons they are, all the way until the inevitably horrific conclusion.” —Logan-Ashley Kisner, author of Old Wounds

Publisher

North Star Editions / Flux

Publication Date

September 30, 2025

Age Category

Young Adult

Genre

Psychological Thirller

Rights

JGLM