Be Disarming by Daniel Waters

Be Disarming by Daniel Waters

In Cold City, where Citizens have guns and npcs have mops, a rebellious teenage parkour and graffiti artist sparks a revolution.

From the author of the Generation Dead series, Break My Heart 1000 Times, and I Still See You comes an anti-gun graffiti artist activist adventure with a strong female protagonist. For YA dystopian readers of The Hunger Games, Divergent, and Shatter Me, lovers of Banksy, and rebels with a cause, this is a story about the power of art in the face of violent oppression.

Maudlin Angeles is just another teenage npc in Cold City, where only Citizens have rights, and gun ownership is the law. Between her shifts mopping blood off the streets and "classes" where questions are discouraged, Maudlin sneaks away to jump rooftops and practice parkour, leaving colorful graffiti on the grey walls of the Urban Ruins.

With stolen spray paint cans, Maudlin risks her life to tag a message of resistance against gun violence just in time for Restructuring Day, but the head of Cold Armaments and his heirs are watching.

As her message catches fire, a crew of fellow npc activists recruit her, but their methods are at odds. While graffiti is the only weapon she believes in, her peers and the infamous Cold Security assassin, First Person Shooter, take up arms. At the same time, Elvis, a sympathizer from the most dangerous family in Cold City, approaches her, but can he be trusted when his family is hunting her? Maudlin's mission is to change hearts and minds, and this is either the most important alliance she'll ever make or her death sentence.

Either way, Restructuring Day won't wait. Liberty Square will fill with Citizens, ringing in the biggest holiday of the year with drinks, candy, and live gunfire from every direction. Maudlin built a revolution with a spray can, but can she survive it?