Who Knows You by Heart
A Novel
by C. J. Farley
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Pub Date Nov 11 2025 | Archive Date Jan 06 2026
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Description
Part social thriller, part modern love story, Who Knows You by Heart is a sly, witty, and endlessly discussable tale of Big Tech, new money, relationships, race, and discovering what’s real in an age of artificial intelligence.
Octavia Crenshaw, a Jamaican-American coder living in Manhattan, is broke, burned out, and haunted by her parents’ deaths. Desperate to pay off some debts, she ditches her nonprofit job for a high-paying gig at Eustachian Inc., a Big Tech company that specializes in audio entertainment. Language, communication, human connection—these are the markets Eustachian wants to revolutionize...and dominate.
Octavia finds herself swept up in the world of the Tech Titans, with its lure of instant riches and its seemingly limitless future. But as one of Eustachian’s very few Black employees, Octavia is uncomfortably aware of things that seem to escape her coworkers: unexplained tech glitches, cryptic remarks, a mysterious secret floor in the corporation’s gleaming headquarters.
But she sets her suspicions aside when she’s recruited by another Black coder—the infuriating but attractive Walcott—to collaborate on a secret project code-named Zion. Zion is a new kind of AI-powered storytelling, one that’s programmed to be free from the racist and sexist biases that plague other AI products. Zion could launch Eustachian into a bold new future and make its developers super rich while righting all kinds of injustices. Octavia and Walcott’s excitement over their creation sets off romantic sparks between the two of them, until they discover a toxic secret about their employer—something that they can’t unlearn, or overlook, but must overcome.
Available Editions
EDITION | Hardcover |
ISBN | 9780063418639 |
PRICE | $30.00 (USD) |
PAGES | 288 |
Available on NetGalley
Featured Reviews

From the first chapter, I could feel the emotional undercurrent pulling me in. This isn’t just a story; it’s a layered exploration of memory, grief, and that aching question we all ask: "Who really sees me?" The writing felt intimate, like the author wasn’t just telling a story but sharing a piece of their soul. The pacing was steady, with enough tension to keep me turning the page, but also those tender pauses that made me reflect on my own relationships.
I especially appreciated how the characters were messy, complicated, and real. There were moments that frustrated me, moments that cracked me open, and moments where I just sat there clutching the book to my chest.
If you’ve ever wrestled with your identity, struggled to be understood, or questioned whether love can find you even in the hardest seasons—this book will resonate. It’s not about perfect answers; it’s about the beauty of being fully known, even in your chaos.
Thank you to the author and publisher for trusting readers like me with this early glimpse. I won’t be forgetting these characters anytime soon.
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