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Extropia
In 2164, the privileged live online. Tanked up and jacked into the vast and beautiful digital world Inside, controlled by a handful of enormously powerful corporations.
Ayven Reynolds has never seen it. Blind since childhood and raised in the Cascade Mountains by a community who believe the virtual world is an abomination, she believes the people sleeping in their tanks have abandoned their humanity.
Inside, she can see.
Bache Parker knows exactly how beautiful the Inside is. He also knows what it costs to lose it. Exiled from the Inside after a hack gone wrong, he spends his days tending other people's tanks while the world he used to belong to sits just out of reach. He has stopped expecting things to change. What he doesn't expect is the girl who shows up soaking wet on his doorstep in the middle of the night.
When their paths collide in a rain-soaked future Seattle, they are pulled into a rebellion with blood on its hands, and a goal to save humanity. Neither the cause nor the people fighting it are simple. And Bache and Ayven, falling reluctantly into each other's orbit, have to decide what they believe about the Inside, about the people willing to destroy it, and about each other, before someone else makes that decision for them.
Extropia is a YA cyberpunk romance about virtual reality, class divide, forbidden technology, first love, and what it costs to see the world clearly — even when you've been blind your whole life.
Ayven Reynolds has never seen it. Blind since childhood and raised in the Cascade Mountains by a community who believe the virtual world is an abomination, she believes the people sleeping in their tanks have abandoned their humanity.
Inside, she can see.
Bache Parker knows exactly how beautiful the Inside is. He also knows what it costs to lose it. Exiled from the Inside after a hack gone wrong, he spends his days tending other people's tanks while the world he used to belong to sits just out of reach. He has stopped expecting things to change. What he doesn't expect is the girl who shows up soaking wet on his doorstep in the middle of the night.
When their paths collide in a rain-soaked future Seattle, they are pulled into a rebellion with blood on its hands, and a goal to save humanity. Neither the cause nor the people fighting it are simple. And Bache and Ayven, falling reluctantly into each other's orbit, have to decide what they believe about the Inside, about the people willing to destroy it, and about each other, before someone else makes that decision for them.
Extropia is a YA cyberpunk romance about virtual reality, class divide, forbidden technology, first love, and what it costs to see the world clearly — even when you've been blind your whole life.
409 pages, Kindle Edition
Published May 1, 2026
About the author
Jae Darcy
1 book1 followerJae Darcy is a content writer and marketer who lives in the starry hills of Western Massachusetts. She first dreamt up Bache, Ayven and their world in 1996, when she entered her first online RPG chatroom, and has been astonished to watch this reality get closer and closer every year since.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
May 9, 2026
Wow, where do I start? Mind blown! The author creates such a unique and clever universe in which the book is set - a potential future the reader could see playing out in the world, where the privileged live in a perfectly crafted online construct, living beautiful and carefully manicured lives, while the marginalized take care of their comatose bodies and what is left of the planet.
I'm obsessed with Bache, a flawed genius who has been through so much and almost given up. But thankfully he has a few trusty loyal mates (I want another book with more Dex!) by his side.
Our heroine Avyen is truly lovely, loyal and capable, it is hard not to fall in love with her, even as you want to scream at her for not trusting the right people.
Both the word in which the book takes place and the characters are rich and layered and well worth your time. I am crossing my fingers that the author works on a sequel set in this universe, I desperately need more of the Inside!
I'm obsessed with Bache, a flawed genius who has been through so much and almost given up. But thankfully he has a few trusty loyal mates (I want another book with more Dex!) by his side.
Our heroine Avyen is truly lovely, loyal and capable, it is hard not to fall in love with her, even as you want to scream at her for not trusting the right people.
Both the word in which the book takes place and the characters are rich and layered and well worth your time. I am crossing my fingers that the author works on a sequel set in this universe, I desperately need more of the Inside!
May 3, 2026
4.5 stars
This is a moody, ambitious YA dystopian novel with an old-school cyberpunk soul. Set in a future Seattle where the privileged live their lives online while their bodies float in corporate tank towers, the story follows Ayven, a blind girl raised in an anti-technology/terrorist mountain commune, and Bache, a damaged former hacker permanently exiled from that world, knows exactly how corrupt it is — and still grieves the loss of it. When Ayven’s hidden past pulls her into the orbit of NeuroGen, the big tech corporation that controls the Inside, both characters are forced to confront the systems that effectively made them who they are.
It's a subtle, timely premise. Not just “government bad” or “technology bad.” Technology can be beautiful and dehumanizing; nature can be healing and oppressive; rebellion can be righteous and cruel; the body can be both a prison and the thing that makes us human. The book asks: is it really terrorism if it's both existentially and morally right? What is freedom, really?
The worldbuilding is one of the book’s strongest assets. It's grimy, atmospheric, and full of memorable details, from “meat minders” tending warehoused bodies to the Bootjacks who police the boundary between online and offline life. The romance is on a slow-burn and works, especially because both leads are wounded in ways that mirror and complicate each other.
Ayven is a compelling heroine. She's capable but sometimes overwhelmed, and perceptive in ways the world around her seems to underestimate. Bache is equally appealing. He's bitter, guilty, funny, wounded. They are both exiles from the lives they thought they understood, and each locked out of the world the other is being pulled toward, which sets up interesting tension.
The novel occasionally carries the weight of its own mythology, and some of the cyberpunk terminology has a retro feel. But the story is strong and the central premise feels very relevant in an age of virtual escape, corporate platforms, algorithmic power, and bodies increasingly treated as inconvenient hardware.
Overall, I'd call it this a smart, romantic, political and surprisingly human dystopian sci-fi for readers who like sci-fi that goes down smooth with a little moral wrestling as a chaser.
This is a moody, ambitious YA dystopian novel with an old-school cyberpunk soul. Set in a future Seattle where the privileged live their lives online while their bodies float in corporate tank towers, the story follows Ayven, a blind girl raised in an anti-technology/terrorist mountain commune, and Bache, a damaged former hacker permanently exiled from that world, knows exactly how corrupt it is — and still grieves the loss of it. When Ayven’s hidden past pulls her into the orbit of NeuroGen, the big tech corporation that controls the Inside, both characters are forced to confront the systems that effectively made them who they are.
It's a subtle, timely premise. Not just “government bad” or “technology bad.” Technology can be beautiful and dehumanizing; nature can be healing and oppressive; rebellion can be righteous and cruel; the body can be both a prison and the thing that makes us human. The book asks: is it really terrorism if it's both existentially and morally right? What is freedom, really?
The worldbuilding is one of the book’s strongest assets. It's grimy, atmospheric, and full of memorable details, from “meat minders” tending warehoused bodies to the Bootjacks who police the boundary between online and offline life. The romance is on a slow-burn and works, especially because both leads are wounded in ways that mirror and complicate each other.
Ayven is a compelling heroine. She's capable but sometimes overwhelmed, and perceptive in ways the world around her seems to underestimate. Bache is equally appealing. He's bitter, guilty, funny, wounded. They are both exiles from the lives they thought they understood, and each locked out of the world the other is being pulled toward, which sets up interesting tension.
The novel occasionally carries the weight of its own mythology, and some of the cyberpunk terminology has a retro feel. But the story is strong and the central premise feels very relevant in an age of virtual escape, corporate platforms, algorithmic power, and bodies increasingly treated as inconvenient hardware.
Overall, I'd call it this a smart, romantic, political and surprisingly human dystopian sci-fi for readers who like sci-fi that goes down smooth with a little moral wrestling as a chaser.
May 26, 2026
I loved Extropia! It didn't take long before I felt completely immersed in the futuristic world Jae Darcy created. The "Inside" virtual world premise was both alluring and unsettling, and felt eerily close to a future we could actually be heading toward. I felt very connected to the two main characters, Ayven and Bache, but I also fell in love with the supporting characters. The pacing kept me completely hooked, and the ending was surprising, exciting, and emotional. I also really enjoyed the romantic tension and how it built throughout the book. Smart, compelling, and hard to put down. Five stars!
May 22, 2026
Clear your schedule! I received this book this morning. Absolutely amazing. I couldn't put it down and finished it in one day! I really hope the author writes more! I was fully expecting to hear others raving about it in public. It played out like a movie in my head, great characters and development. The crossover between reality and what could be reality is phenomenal. I can't wait for more! Everything comes together seamlessly with twists and turns along the way. Could be a stand alone book, but I'd *love* to see more. Total page-turner! Highly recommend!
May 11, 2026
This is a perfect book for the moment ! Relevant to our times - but not pessimistic or pedantic. The world - building is intriguing and the young characters are well- drawn — sympathetic, smart and complex. I loved that the plot was unpredictable. The writing is top notch for this type of YA genre book. I hope there will be a sequel!
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews