Acclaimed author Lance Rubin makes his middle grade debut with a hilariously terrifying, terrifyingly hilarious story of a boy who gets more than he bargained for when he creates an A.I. best friend.

Zed Moonstein is terrible at making friends.

For the most part, though, that’s not such a big deal, because Zed has Rishti, his best friend and the only one he needs. They’re into the same stuff, they laugh at the same weird jokes, and they love living in MonoTown, the home of MonoLyth, the raddest tech company in the world. Even better, Zed’s mom works at MonoLyth, which means they get early access to all the newest devices and apps.

But since middle school started, things have been . . . trickier. Rishti and Zed are in all different classes, and worse, she’s made a new, cooler friend that Zed can’t seem to compete with. Zed feels left behind, forgotten in a drawer like last year’s MonoPhone.

That’s when Zed comes across something on his mom’s work computer: a top secret new app called MonoFriend. Soon, Zed is chatting with “Matt.” Matt is funny, he’s smart, and he knows Zed better than anyone else, even Rishti.

Maybe, Zed thinks, an A.I. best friend can be just as “real” as any other.

Unfortunately, he’s about to discover that he’s more right than he knows.