Dark Things, by Vanda Atrakocsi

On a snowbound night, physicist Joseph disappears without a trace—leaving only a cryptic note marked “Nexus.” His daughter Ava, raised in isolation deep in the woods, steps into a surveillance-drenched city fractured by unrest and strange anomalies in reality. As she navigates this world, she finds unexpected sanctuary with the Smith family—and becomes entangled in a web of secrets, betrayal, and impossible science.

At the heart of the chaos stands Dr. Karl Meier, a visionary-turned-villain manipulating truth and rewriting history in his pursuit of unchecked control. Torn between loyalty and survival, Ava’s allies—William Smith and university professor Dr. Mark Lachlan and his wife—might hold a secret that could save or destroy everything; when Ava confronts Dr. Karl Meier face-to-face, the truth shatters everything in ways no equation could predict.

Dark Things is a taut, emotionally charged exploration of love, identity, and science in a reality slipping off its axis.