A dying world. A city sealed behind an impenetrable shield. And a farm boy who may be far more dangerous than either.

Seventeen-year-old Wayne Johnson has spent his life scraping survival from a withering farm beyond the protected city of Nirvana. When the last of his family collapses around him, Wayne and his younger brother are forced into a world their parents taught them to fear.

Inside Nirvana, life could not be more different. Its citizens live beneath an artificial sky, surrounded by technology, comfort, and carefully manufactured truths. The Council controls what people know, while rebels prepare for war and an enemy waits beyond humanity's sight.

Then Wayne meets Sadie Green, the rebellious daughter of Nirvana's newly elected president.

She thinks he's an arrogant, uncivilized farm boy. He thinks she's a spoiled city girl who wouldn't survive a day outside the shield. Neither expects the attraction between them?or how quickly their worlds will collide.

Because something inside Wayne is changing.

He has always known he is different. The hunger. The strength. The rage he struggles to control. But as buried memories begin to surface and the threat against Nirvana draws closer, Wayne must confront a terrifying possibility: the greatest danger to humanity may not be waiting outside the shield.

It may already be inside him.

The Monster Within is a dark, fast-moving dystopian science-fiction adventure blending post-apocalyptic survival, forbidden romance, political manipulation, alien conflict, and a young man's battle to decide whether blood determines destiny.