The Hollow Clock

What they don't tell you is that you'll still be conscious. Every light in Hollowmere is someone's last breath.

The lights of Hollowmere never go out. The great clocktower never stops ticking. But what powers the perfect city is far more sinister than anyone dares to admit.

In the steampunk metropolis of Hollowmere, progress demands sacrifice. The poor are offered a deal: sign their names, surrender their bodies to the Sovereign's Cradle, and be "transcended" into pure energy. The Church of the Mechanismus promises eternal purpose. The doctors promise it's painless. Your family receives wealth beyond imagining.
What they don't tell you is that you'll still be conscious.

Callum Vane was supposed to be one of them. Born into the aristocratic family that built the city's infrastructure, Cal possesses a terrible gift: he can hear the voices of the bound souls trapped in the mechanism. After two years imprisoned in Ravencrest Institute-where the Church tried to "cure" him of his dangerous ability, Cal has documented what no one else knows.
Three hundred and forty-two names. Three hundred and forty-two people still aware, still suffering, powering the city's lights and trams with their stolen lives.
When Fen, a cynical retrieval specialist, breaks Cal out of Ravencrest, it sets off a chain of events that will shake Hollowmere to its foundations. Hunted by the Aetheric Police and the Church's enforcers, Cal must navigate the city's shadowed districts with only his forbidden Record and a stranger whose motives remain unclear.
But the deeper Cal digs into the conspiracy, the more he realizes the horror isn't just what the city has done, it's what the city is still planning to do.

A dark steampunk tale of body horror, corporate theocracy, and one man's fight to give voice to the silenced, The Hollow Clock asks: How far would you go to save people the world has already forgotten?

Perfect for fans of China Miéville, V.E. Schwab, and dark Victorian gothic fiction with teeth.