Paradise has room for 10,000 citizens. Someone just lost their place.
A dystopian thriller, coming 2027. Join the readers following it from the start.
Citizen Justice Alert
Claira Good, Paradise's beloved school teacher, wanted to be a mother. Instead, she's been cited for tampering with her motherhood screening results.
Now she's being sent below The Dome, where the exiled live on display and nobody comes back up.
The Dome is the center of Paradise. A glass structure the size of an arena, it sits at the heart of Reflection Park in Terminal Square, and the whole city circles it. Every day, citizens come to look down at the worst criminals in Paradise, sent below The Dome to a prison deep underground. It's a ritual, a reminder of why peace and order matter, and a warning no one questions.
They know they're being watched. They just can't see who's watching.
Claira has spent her life teaching Paradise's children what happens to those sent below The Dome. She believes the stories she tells: that the exiled deserve their punishment and that Paradise's system is just.
Then she's sent below herself. The people she finds there, and the truth behind The Dome, force her to question everything she taught her students.
Rider
Claira's stoic and unwavering boyfriend remains in Paradise while she faces life below The Dome. He refuses to accept her exile as the end of their story and will do anything he can to bring her home.
Claira
Cut off from everyone she loves, Claira holds on to her memories of Rider. But with the glass between them and no way back up, she must face the possibility that the life they planned together is gone forever.
John Manos is a UX designer and web developer whose work has given him a front-row seat to how engagement loops shape human behavior. That experience led him to a bigger question: is our culture heading in the right direction? The question became his debut novel, The Dome Watchers.
For years, John has livestreamed video games on TikTok, building an audience with millions of views through calm, relaxing streams designed to help people unwind. He knows what it's like to be watched, and his novel explores a world where every move is observed and no one below The Dome can see who's watching.
Inspired by The Hunger Games and The Maze Runner, John writes dystopian fiction for adults who grew up with those stories. The science fiction of Steven Moffat showed him how speculative worlds can deliver an emotional punch.
John shares his home with two cats, Bella and Bello, who act completely feral and are somehow highly domesticated.
The Discord is the best way to stay up to date: news about the book, a blog about writing it, art, visuals, and reader theories.