Too Much Noise

Kael Vasquez is a Vibe Manager. His job is to optimize your happiness. The neural collar around his neck ensures he never feels anything else. In the Sanctuary Cities, emotions are managed, contentment is mandatory, and the system works. Sadness has been solved. Grief is a symptom. The collars-called Halos-keep everyone green, calm, productive. Until the day his mother dies. When Kael's Halo malfunctions, he experiences grief for the first time-raw, unmanaged, devastating. And as he searches for answers, he discovers a truth the system has buried: his mother wasn't sick. She was killed. Her crime? She couldn't stop being sad. Now Kael must choose: accept the comfortable numbness the Halo provides, or join a fractured underground of the non-compliant-people who would rather suffer than be cured. But in a system that has learned to profit from everything-even dissent-Kael begins to wonder if genuine rebellion is even possible. "We broke the wall. They built a gift shop in the rubble." Too Much Noise is a literary dystopian novel about the banality of evil-where the villain isn't a monster, but a neighbor who kills you with paperwork and then brings you a casserole. It asks: What do we lose when we optimize away pain? Who benefits when the population can't feel angry, can't feel sad, can't feel at all? Perfect for fans of the corporate satire of Severance, the quiet devastation of Never Let Me Go, and the sociological horror of Brave New World.

Pagina's: 232, Paperback, Independently published