{"product_id":"gate-9b-amy-wertz-9798243971959","title":"Gate 9B: The Apocalypse Begins as a Workplace Dispute","description":"\u003cp\u003eCharlie Carter has spent years perfecting the art of being invisible.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAs a night janitor in a sprawling airport, he moves through fluorescent corridors long after the last passengers have gone home-cleaning up messes no one remembers, living a life no one notices. Routine is what keeps him intact. Routine is what keeps him from thinking.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eUntil the night the system sends him somewhere that doesn't exist.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eGate 9B isn't on any map. It shouldn't be there at all. But behind a corridor that no one else can see lies a waiting area filled with the dead-souls caught between life and whatever comes next. And at the center of it all is Valdis, a Valkyrie tasked with processing the endless flow of human endings.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eExcept the system is breaking.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWhat was once sacred has become procedural. Death is no longer a passage-it's a process. Souls are categorized, evaluated, and moved along according to rules no one questions anymore. The ones who enforce it are exhausted, injured, and forgotten. And the longer the system runs like this, the more it begins to fail.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWhen Charlie does the impossible-when he stops a soul from being processed and makes her death matter-he becomes something the system was never designed to handle: a witness.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eNow drawn into a hidden infrastructure that governs death itself, Charlie finds himself at the center of a growing crisis. Valkyries are burning out. Souls are backing up. The boundary between life and death is beginning to fracture. And when the system tries to correct itself, it doesn't fix the problem-it threatens to erase it entirely.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBut the deeper Charlie goes, the more dangerous the truth becomes.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBecause death isn't just happening.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIt's being managed.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAnd if the system collapses, it won't just take the dead with it.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIt will take the living, too. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eGATE 9B\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003e \u003c\/b\u003eis a literary speculative horror novel about death, bureaucracy, and the cost of caring in a system built not to.\u003cp\u003eFor readers of \u003ci\u003eAnnihilation\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eThe City We Became\u003c\/i\u003e, and \u003ci\u003eSeverance\u003c\/i\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Amy Wertz\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9798243971959\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Independently Published\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 01\/18\/2026\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 214\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.64lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 9.00h x 6.00w x 0.45d","brand":"Amy Wertz","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":49172468007167,"sku":"9798243971959","price":17.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/gate-9b-amy-wertz-9798243971959","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}