Nepo

In the rain-drenched Los Angeles of 2233, sixteen-year-old Shayan “Shy” Soraya has fame built into his DNA.

He is a clone of a legendary actor, raised to reproduce the performances and public persona of a man he has never met. Even away from the camera, Shy is expected to play the part. Refusal could mean retirement. For a nepo, that amounts to a life sentence.

When armed men ambush his car in the slums, Shy ignores every safety rule he has been taught and rushes to save his bodyguard. A leaked video turns him into an overnight hero and revives his faltering career.

But Shy saw something the video does not show. Moments before the attack, an older version of himself appeared in another car.

His search for an explanation leads him to Agustín, a neurodivergent teen from the slums whose brother died in the ambush. Agustín insists his brother was forced to take part. He also believes someone deliberately placed two clones of the same actor in the path of the attackers.

As they investigate, their questions lead back to the institutions that created Shy and control whether he is allowed to keep living as Shayan Soraya. Agustín also recognizes something in Shy that Hollywood has never acknowledged. If he is right, the people who made Shy may have been lying to him from the beginning.

A neuropunk thriller about a boy created to play someone else—and what happens when he decides to find out who he is.

Book One of the Endi Cycle.