Secrets of Hopelight

The future Earth where Nubbin Beck lives is as unforgiving as The Company that runs it. She has never been outside, only peered through a glass barrier at a punishing desert where daytime temperatures boil the blood and monstrous, human-devouring insects dominate the night. Nubbin's family survives in a technology-driven cave community named Hopelight Enclave, one of dozens of enclaves networked and managed by The Company, which came to power after developing a disease-eliminating microchip. Now every man, woman, and child carries a chip, so the Company can monitor the health of its employees, while controlling access to water, food, and other life-sustaining resources.

After her family risks their lives to rescue a stranger from the desert—an ex-Company employee thought to be dead—Nubbin struggles to keep the fugitive hidden in her home. He has plenty say about The Company and its malicious plans for the microchip. If what he says is true, she knows she must warn her friends and their families. Determined to uncover the truth, Nubbin learns that questions are not only prohibited, they can be deadly. And of all the secrets she uncovers, Nubbin herself lies at the heart of the most shocking.

Secrets of Hopelight is the first book of a middle grade dystopian series where humans cling to scattered enclaves, giant lizards roam the wasteland, and a paternalistic corporation rules every aspect of life.