She's Lost Control

by Faith Gardner

She hunts trolls for a living. She never considered one might hunt her back.

Eve Alexopoulos is a journalist by title, a troll-hunter by trade. Her column "What's Your Problem, Bro?" has spent years dragging the internet's most toxic abusers into the light— and the book deal that followed was big enough to buy herself something a Sunray, Jolvix's flagship self-driving vehicle. Sleek. Solar-powered. State-of-the-art.

And programmed, she'll soon discover, by an engineer who takes her work very personally.

When her Sunray locks its doors and stops obeying her commands, she realizes the truth.

He's already in control.

Previously published as Eve in Overdrive

Genres: Thriller

114 pages, Paperback

Published April 9, 2026

About the author

Faith Gardner is the author of adult suspense and YA novels. She lives in the Bay Area with her family.

Reviews

[jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

I ate this book up. It pulled me in right from the start and I just flew through it. Such a unique story and so timely with the advances we’re currently seeing in our society. Also highly recommend downloading the bonus chapter - it scratches that itch of wanting to know what happens immediately after!

A girl is at a crossroads in her career and finds herself trapped inside her brand new, luxury robot car after it gets hijacked by someone from her past. The story follows Eve as she fights to survive this horrific situation she’s found herself in.

The length of this novella was absolute perfection. If you’re looking for a bite sized, page turner that gives Black Mirror vibes, this is the perfect palate cleanser.

[Lauren Thomas · Rating 2 out of 5]

Let me start by saying- I needed a fast/short thriller to finish on the last day of the month to up my monthly book count.

I think this was an Amazon first read book I snagged and my luck with those…is well, not good. Also, my luck with short stories/novellas… also not too good.

This book was ridiculous. It was way too far fetched. The writing was horrible and I caught multiple grammatical errors.

Giving it a 2 because overall, I did ACTUALLY want to know the outcome (hoping the book would get better- it didn’t). Though the ending was a slight cliffhanger, I absolutely did not download the free extra chapter, because well, I barely wanted to finish the original chapters….

[Sarah Helen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This thriller had me hooked . The premise alone…a woman being kidnapped inside a self-driving car is unsettling! Each chapter left me wanting more and a need to know what was going to happen next.
For me I think I just needed a little bit more, I needed closure on what Eve did next, did she get her book deal? did she write about her ordeal? Did she get her column back? Did she sue the hell out of ‘sunray’?
But overall, I enjoyed this gripping and original thriller that plays on modern fears about technology. it’s definitely worth a read!

[lauren caldwell · Rating 3 out of 5]

I fear TikTok hyped this up too much. I was hoping for something devious and obsessive. This was just a bleh read for me. Very dystopian but also definitely something that could happen in about 3 years in America. Woman gets kidnapped by a self driving car… Or is it the car or someone worse?

[Karen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Eve is a sharp tongue journalist whose column exposes the actions of online trolls and their crimes. But a new luxury self-driving car turns into a hostage situation, when the engineer in charge of programs turns out to be one of her exposes.

[Alexa · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've read a lot of psychological thrillers but this one was definitely different.What a fantastic idea for a book.If you're looking for credibly short read, but also something really good that keeps you on your edge.This is the book!

[Dori · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5

[Melissa Cruz-Loyola · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a short novella, but so much fun. From start to finish this was crazy. I can’t imagine this happening in real life.