The novel follows the overlapping stories of Yuki Oyama, a Japanese-American girl in 1960's New York who fights to become an artist, and her estranged son Jay, who in 2016 must travel to Berlin to confront a mother who abandoned their family when he was two.

There was a "fierce" six-way bidding war among publishers for the manuscript,[9] and Harmless Like You was praised by Lorrie Moore and Alexander Chee.

[15] In America, The New York Times Book Review placed the hardback and paperback releases of the novel in its "Editor's Choice" section.

[16][17] National Public Radio selected Harmless Like You as a Great Read and noted that the novel was "highly anticipated".

"[22] In The Guardian, Molly McCloskey criticized the novel's writing, particularly its unconvincing use of a feminist viewpoint, while also noting that Starling Days contained "indications that Buchanan is a better writer than this work would suggest" and concluding that the book "offers consolation" to readers.

[24] In 2022, Sceptre acquired the rights to publish Buchanan's third novel, titled The Sleepwatcher, which tells a story about adolescence and family from the perspective of a 16-year-old girl who is able to move around undetected while her body remains in bed.