For readers of Jeff VanderMeer and Paul Tremblay, Wither is a propulsive, darkly funny literary sci-fi debut about technology, privacy, and humanity in transition.

The algorithm has a will of its own.

We were obsessed with technology.
Now, technology is obsessed with us.

Before he went off the grid, Mick had a plan: get a high-powered job, escape flyover country, and leave his past behind.

Then he met Regression. A black-box technology that builds a person's perfect digital twin. Every piece of data. Every secret. Every mistake. The greatest invention since fire. And Mick gets to test it out in a remote Ozark town.

A year later, Mick is clawing his way out of the woods, haunted by the act of violence that sent him into hiding. But when he gets back to Bloom, Missouri, he finds a ghost town with cars still in the driveways and cans in the cupboards, like everyone just walked away. Mick will leave, too, as soon as he finds his girlfriend, Alison, earns forgiveness, and finds Regression before it finds him first. C 2026 Dan Warner P 2026 Bloomsbury Publishing PLC