Part of Us Dark Few
First published 2023
Khalani Kanes has spent her entire life trapped beneath the surface in Apollo, an underground city where hope dies in darkness. She dreams of reaching Genesis, the last domed settlement where humans still live above ground. Instead, she receives a life sentence for a crime she never committed. Braderhelm Prison becomes her new world, filled with killers as cellmates and brutal guards who live to inflict pain. Captain Takeshi Steele controls her block with an iron fist. Every moment becomes a fight to stay alive among the murderers and avoid the captain's attention. But hidden dangers lurk deeper than the obvious threats. Khalani discovers that escaping to the surface has never been done successfully. Her enemies will spill her blood across the prison walls before they allow her to reach daylight. Between Takeshi's cruelty, the violence of fellow inmates, and her own breaking sanity, death waits around every corner. The story follows her desperate struggle to survive in a place designed to destroy the human spirit.
Genres: fiction, dystopia, survival, thriller
Vibes: claustrophobic, dark, desperate, gritty, intense, suspenseful
Tropes: enemies-to-lovers, institutional-corruption, survival-against-odds, wrongly-accused
Setting: Apollo, Genesis, Braderhelm Prison
Paperback
Content warnings: abuse, graphic-violence, torture, violence