As darkness closes in on the city of shattered light, an heiress and an outlaw must decide whether to fend for themselves or fight for each other.
As heiress to a powerful tech empire, seventeen-year-old Asa Almeida strives to prove she’s more than her manipulative father’s shadow. But when he uploads her rebellious sister’s mind to an experimental brain, Asa will do anything to save her sister from reprogramming—including fleeing her predetermined future with her sister’s digitized mind in tow. With a bounty on her head and a rogue A.I. hunting her, Asa’s getaway ship crash-lands in the worst possible place: the neon-drenched outlaw paradise, Requiem.
Gun-slinging smuggler Riven Hawthorne is determined to claw her way up Requiem’s underworld hierarchy. A runaway rich girl is exactly the bounty Riven needs—until a nasty computer virus spreads in Asa’s wake, causing a citywide blackout and tech quarantine. To get the payout for Asa and save Requiem from the monster in its circuits, Riven must team up with her captive.
Riven breaks skulls the way Asa breaks circuits, but their opponent is unlike anything they’ve ever seen. The A.I. exploits the girls’ darkest memories and deepest secrets, threatening to shatter the fragile alliance they’re both depending on. As one of Requiem’s 154-hour nights grows darker, the girls must decide whether to fend for themselves or fight for each other before Riven’s city and Asa’s sister are snuffed out forever.
This is the YA cyberpunk of your dreams, friends. It’s all relentless action in a neon-drenched outlaw city ruled by matriarchal gangs, with alien tech and glittering cybernetics and a gang of found family characters who will weasel their way right into your heart – every single one of them (okay and even the baddies might do that a tiny bit too?)
Riven is a cool kickass gunslinger, ambitious and damaged in more ways than one. Asa is scared but determined, seeking to carve a future for herself. Ty is basically a neutral good cinnamon roll, way too nice for this kind of dirty business, and you would kill for him. Samir is all muscles and all heart, and Diego is way too smart for his own good. Also, they have a dog and he’s called Zephyr and nothing bad happens to him.
Amid the cracking pace of the main action is a love triangle, simmering sweetly. It’s pure angst and ‘oops that’s a feeling I’m having right there’.
The worldbuilding is vivid and real and luminous, a movie for your mind, crossing several incredible locations… although you have to know my favourite is the grimy, pumping Requiem, ruled by matriarchal crime syndicates.
Warning … you are not ready for the ending. Which is also why it’s important we get the sequel, so make sure you read this, so we can!
Claire is one of my critique partners, and I was so privileged to see this story evolve into the incredible book it is today (& now with that absolutely stunning cover!) It’s gone straight onto my Good Bookshelf For Good Books. Go grab yourself a copy now!
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