Cover of Shadows and Bytes: Chronicles of the #CleverGirl Crew by Tristan McGowan

Book 1 · Shadows and Bytes series

Shadows and Bytes

Chronicles of the #CleverGirl Crew

by Tristan McGowan

“Access is not trust.”

An adult near-future technological thriller about an intern, a digital-rights crew, and a privacy system that remembers consent while putting real agency out of reach.

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Primary genre
Technological thriller
Paperback ISBN
9798186779353
Language
English
Publisher
Independently published

The story

What Shadows and Bytes is about

Devin arrives at SearchGlass hungry to prove he belongs. Then a legendary mentor pulls him into the #CleverGirl crew and the mystery of Echelon Reset: a polished privacy initiative that may preserve consent on paper while making real choice harder to find, understand, reverse, or challenge.

With hidden channels vanishing, evidence changing hands, and the 15th approaching, Devin must choose accountable proof over spectacular shortcuts—and decide what kind of operator he wants to become.

It is a near-future cyber thriller about privacy, proof, found family, and the cost of doing the boring correct thing when spectacle would be easier.

Reader fit

Who this book is for

Adult readers of character-driven technological thrillers and near-future fiction—especially readers drawn to corporate technology, ethical tension, complicated mentorship, workplace belonging, and found family.

Style: Wry, intimate, fast-moving, ethically tense, technically literate, and non-operational.

Inside the novel

The questions behind the thriller

Privacy and practical agency

A consent record means little if a person cannot find, understand, challenge, or reverse the choice attached to it.

Proof and accountability

The crew has to decide whether a righteous goal can justify hidden authority—and what evidence remains defensible under pressure.

Mentorship and found family

Being chosen can feel like belonging. It can also make it harder to see when protection becomes control.

Behind the book

How the author's career relates to the story

Tristan McGowan's career across software, cybersecurity, consulting, product engineering, and digital operations supplied the story's professional texture: ambiguous requirements, fragile systems, late deploys, pressure, technical humor, and teams that become family.

The book turns those familiar conditions into a fictional question: how do builders protect people without quietly taking their choices away?

Read about Tristan McGowan

Fiction statement

Not a true story or technical manual

Shadows and Bytes is fiction. Its characters are fictionalized composites, and its companies, systems, events, and conflicts are invented. Any real-life influence is texture—not a claim that these events occurred or that SearchGlass represents a real company.

The cybersecurity and privacy elements are dramatized for character and ethical context. They are technically literate but intentionally non-operational.

Continue with the fictional #CleverGirl crew

After meeting the crew in Book 1, visit the private #CleverGirl reader chat for a clearly labeled fictional AI experience. Generated conversations are non-canon and are not part of the novel.

Open the #CleverGirl reader chat

Questions about Shadows and Bytes

What genre is Shadows and Bytes?

It is an adult near-future technological thriller with cyberpunk-adjacent, workplace, and coming-of-age elements.

Is the book based on a true story?

No. Real technical work and friendships inform its texture, but the people, companies, systems, events, and conflicts are fictionalized.

Does the book teach hacking?

No. Its cybersecurity and privacy material supports the story's ethical stakes and remains non-operational.

Where should I start the series?

Start here. Shadows and Bytes is Book 1 in the Shadows and Bytes series.

Ready to read?

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