The Lockdown Artist

By Jay Wamsted

Federal Educational Site #231 isn't just Ben Walker's school. It is also his home.

All Ben wants is to graduate and get out. That is, until a routine Code Red draws him close to a mysterious girl named Jazz Lewis.

She is the Lockdown Artist.

Long ago, public schools merged with juvenile detention. Classes meet behind locked doors and under armed guard, monitored by an AI known only as the Algorithm. Every move is captured by cameras and microphones, even as the Algorithm controls what they are permitted to learn.

Ben is focused on the scholarship that could take him away from 231. Bit by bit, however, Jazz brings him into a plan to expose the school. What is the Algorithm? And why do decency and fairness evaporate under its unblinking eye? Soon enough, Ben is desperate to understand what Jazz seems to know.

She is the star of the junior class. She is also a state prisoner.

The Lockdown Artist is a young adult dystopian thriller for fans of the suspense of The Hunger Games, the mystery of The Maze Runner, and the romance of Divergent.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B0GGJHJJ4L
• ISBN13: 9798993197302
• Release Date: January 2026
• Publisher: Station16, LLC
• Length: 306 Pages
• Weight: 0.78 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.5" x 8.5"