Ashes of the Arena

Equal parts grim satire and tender friendship, this novel follows a reluctant online star as he learns the price of fame inside a rigged spectacle. Expect grit, heart, and a world that looks eerily like our own. 

Luca wanted sunrise photos to be pretty—he never thought they’d change his life. Posting one risky set of pictures nets him enough Digicreds to keep his family barely breathing and a messy, brilliant woman named Quinn who can turn followers into fortune. She trains him to look like the luckiest idiot in the Arena, to play soft until the camera craves blood—but training comes with rules: no meds, no questions, no contracts.

Those rules are meant to protect the scheme; they also keep secrets. As the matches stack and the crowds scream, Luca learns how the system trades pain for views and how people like Quinn survive inside it. When the producers push for a staged engagement to boost bets, Luca must choose between performance and brotherhood—between a shot at the Dome and the cost of his own soul.