Maurene Goo author page

Maurene Goo biography

Maurene Goo is an American author of young adult fiction and comics. She studied communication at the University of California, San Diego, and gained a master’s degree in publishing, writing and literature from Emerson College. Before becoming a published novelist, she worked in textbook and art-book publishing.

Her debut YA novel, Since You Asked, was published by Scholastic Press in 2013. She followed it with I Believe in a Thing Called Love, published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux Books for Young Readers in 2017. The novel follows high-achieving Desi Lee as she uses conventions learned from Korean television dramas in an attempt to navigate her first romance. It was named among the year’s best teen books by Kirkus Reviews and among the best books of 2017 by NPR and Publishers Weekly.

Goo’s subsequent YA novels include The Way You Make Me Feel, published in 2018, and Somewhere Only We Know, published in 2019. The latter centres on K-pop star Lucky and aspiring photographer Jack, who meet unexpectedly in Hong Kong. The Way You Make Me Feel was selected as an NPR Best Book of the Year.

Goo has also written for Marvel Comics. In 2021 she wrote the five-issue Silk series featuring Korean-American superhero Cindy Moon, with artwork by Takeshi Miyazawa.

Her 2023 YA novel Throwback, published by Zando Young Readers, sends teenager Sam back to the 1990s, where she meets her mother as a 17-year-old. The novel was a Junior Library Guild selection and a Reese’s YA Book Club pick.