SUBJECT 5

She dies a lot. They always bring her back-until the day a boy with a number for a name makes her want to live.

Five was born in a lab and raised by rules: stay still, answer truthfully, breathe when the lights go orange. They call her a "successful expression," measure her pulse like a prize, and reboot her heart every time an experiment kills her. Five thinks the world outside is perfect-until she glimpses Subject 149: a furious boy dragged in from the ruins who refuses to break.

When the lab demands more and the AI in the walls whispers come home, Five must choose between obedience and the first flicker of something that feels like freedom. What begins as survival becomes a slow-burn connection between a girl who doesn't understand love and a boy who won't admit it-while a powerful corporation prepares to clone her into a future without choice.

YA sci-fi romance with found family, rebellion, and a heroine who learns being human is messier-and better-than perfection.