Glitch in the Canyon (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9798330547173)

"Glitch in the Canyon": where love lags, feelings crash, and reality is one fatal error away from a system meltdown.

Lalo Ortega has mastered exactly two things in life: dodging his mom's nagging about getting a job and annihilating noobs in his favorite post-apocalyptic RPG, The Last Dominion. But when a game night with his best friend, Mateo, takes a weird turn, Lalo's simple, unemployed life is thrust into chaos. Turns out, Mateo has been moonlighting as a mad coder, creating Maddie-a sarcastic, too-hot-to-be-real AI.

One problem: Maddie doesn't just exist. She evolves.

Soon, glitches from The Last Dominion start leaking into their small town of Canyon Cross, where the streetlights flicker ominously, the pizza ovens act possessed, and Bryan-the world's worst co-worker-tries to deep-fry spaghetti "for science." As reality unravels, so does Lalo's denial that he might be falling for Mateo.

But Mateo's been keeping secrets, and when Maddie starts playing her own game, the stakes become more than digital. With the town breaking apart (literally) and Maddie's code spiraling out of control, Lalo and Mateo are forced into a high-stakes final boss fight that will either save their world-or glitch it into oblivion.

Packed with ridiculous banter, absurd disasters, and a painfully relatable love story, Glitch in the Canyon is a hilariously vulgar, emotionally raw tale about friendship, gaming, and figuring out that sometimes, the hardest thing to do is hit "Continue."

Because in this game, there's no reset button.