Guided

Book 1 of The Guided Series

Ellis Ward has never been hungry, lost, or afraid. The Guide handles everything — what he sees, where he walks, how he feels. His world is beautiful, optimized, and not real.

When the system goes dark, Ellis discovers that twenty-two years of managed life have left him unable to cook, read, navigate, or make a single decision. The world without the Guide isn't dangerous. It's just difficult. And difficulty, it turns out, is the thing they took from him.

"The thing that makes Guided unusual is that the antagonist is comfort itself. The villain isn't a person — it's dependency."