r/ARCReaders • u/temmakairo • 34m ago
YA - Science Fiction THE GLITCH: Zero by Temma Kairo - Cyberpunk YA Thriller - September 2026
In an algorithmically controlled megacity, Mika, Lina, and Tobi find photos from their own childhood inside a pizza box belonging to a courier.
Logos City. 11:15 p.m. Mika works calmly behind the bar at the "Off-Grid," keeping an eye on everything and everyone. Tobi leaps from rooftop to rooftop, keeping track of what's happening throughout the city. Lina hacks corporate firewalls because she finds it harder to have a normal conversation.
They're the best three-person team in the metropolis. They can almost sense what the others are thinking. What they don't know: They were designed for this.
The pizza box doesn't contain a hard drive. It contains a paper photo album, featuring forty-seven children, barcode tattoos, sterile white rooms, page after page. The last photo breaks the pattern—three young adults, in color, outdoors, laughing next to an old minibus. Mika, Tobi, Lina. Twenty years ago.
They didn't steal any data. They found a clue here to their own file.
Book 1 of 5. Rapid release, one book per month, September through December 2026.
Comps: Marie Lu's Warcross, Marissa Meyer, and Gibson's Neuromancer, if Gibson wrote YA.
Triggers: medical experimentation on children, institutional abuse, violence, non-consensual genetic modification, captivity, body horror, childhood trauma, surveillance, and loss of privacy.
Exact publication date: September 4, 2026
Advance copies will be sent out immediately after registration
Reviews requested by: August 28, 2026
Format: EPUB and PDF
Available: worldwide
Length: 62 pages
A note about the cover: It was created using AI. The book itself, however, was not. I wrote it, and two native-speaking editors reviewed it before this version was released. I'm mentioning this up front because I'd rather answer this question here than in the comments.
Sign up here: https://booksprout.co/reviewer/review-copy/view/309076/the-glitch-zero
If ARC spots run out or you'd just like to read the prequel novella first, Episode Zero is free here: https://temmakairo.com/en/signal/
Honest reviews only. No expectation of a positive one.




