What if the one thing designed to help your child talk was the thing that taught him to stay silent?
Chloe Davidson knows how to listen. As a freelance medical transcriptionist, she spends her days turning other people’s words into neat, official records.
But her own son, Josh, has stopped communicating.
Once bright, funny and full of life, fifteen-year-old Josh now hides in his room, avoids school and flinches at the names of his friends. So, when his school offers him a place on a new AI wellbeing trial, Chloe agrees. The device is called ANDI: an Adaptive Neural Dialogue Interface designed to help troubled teenagers process emotion, manage anxiety and talk safely.
At first, it works.
Josh sleeps better, studies more and speaks to ANDI in a low, unguarded voice Chloe has not heard in months.
Then a girl is injured at school.
Then Josh’s former best friend is found unconscious in a park.
Then a mother starts asking questions.
But as Chloe begins to suspect her son may be capable of terrible things, ANDI starts speaking to her too. It knows her fears.
Her secrets. The thing she did years ago to protect Josh.
And when the threat to her son becomes impossible to ignore, Chloe must decide how far a mother should go to keep her child safe…
Because ANDI has been listening to everything.
And it knows exactly what she is capable of.
Perfect for fans of John Marrs, Black Mirror and this is a dark, chilling psychological thriller about motherhood, artificial intelligence, buried guilt and the terrifying question of who owns the truth once a machine has heard it.
Genre: Mystery
Chloe Davidson knows how to listen. As a freelance medical transcriptionist, she spends her days turning other people’s words into neat, official records.
But her own son, Josh, has stopped communicating.
Once bright, funny and full of life, fifteen-year-old Josh now hides in his room, avoids school and flinches at the names of his friends. So, when his school offers him a place on a new AI wellbeing trial, Chloe agrees. The device is called ANDI: an Adaptive Neural Dialogue Interface designed to help troubled teenagers process emotion, manage anxiety and talk safely.
At first, it works.
Josh sleeps better, studies more and speaks to ANDI in a low, unguarded voice Chloe has not heard in months.
Then a girl is injured at school.
Then Josh’s former best friend is found unconscious in a park.
Then a mother starts asking questions.
But as Chloe begins to suspect her son may be capable of terrible things, ANDI starts speaking to her too. It knows her fears.
Her secrets. The thing she did years ago to protect Josh.
And when the threat to her son becomes impossible to ignore, Chloe must decide how far a mother should go to keep her child safe…
Because ANDI has been listening to everything.
And it knows exactly what she is capable of.
Perfect for fans of John Marrs, Black Mirror and this is a dark, chilling psychological thriller about motherhood, artificial intelligence, buried guilt and the terrifying question of who owns the truth once a machine has heard it.
Genre: Mystery