Synopsis
A giant monster swims through a Void snatching up souls and swallowing them. This is the afterlife. Those souls belong to the recently deceased and, if they are unfortunate enough to be swallowed by this monster, they will find themselves in The City of Lost Souls in the monster's belly. Joy, dead at sixteen, is there now.
She didn't have to be there. She was selected as worthy for a Utopian afterlife, but she turned it down and sought out this monster. Her parents are in here somewhere and she means to find them. They died shortly before she did, fighting a corrupt mega-corporation called H and H and Joy died trying to continue their fight.
It struck Joy as ridiculous that the powers-that-be might think she could enjoy some Utopian afterlife if her parents were suffering here. More than that, she holds some responsibility for her parents getting caught by H and H; to tell her she is 'worthy' of anything is to invite eye-rolls.
So, Joy searches the City of Lost Souls for her parents. One might hope that being dead has some upsides. For example, not living in the shadow of that evil corporation any longer, not fearing for your life. Unfortunately, it is possible to be 'overkilled' in the afterlife. A second and total death after which there is nothing. What is more, it turns out the company they were fighting in life, H and H, owns and operates this whole City in the afterlife. Somehow, the same company holds influence over the worlds of the living and the dead... and they know Joy is here. They hunt her down relentlessly for sensitive information she gathered on them while alive.
The only ace up Joy's sleeve is a recently discovered ability to levitate. As she starts to get a better handle on her levitation powers, realizing that it is tied to her emotional availability.
Joy is also, to begin with, handcuffed to a H and H employee called Oogle. She died breaking into H and H headquarters and a security intern about her age put her in cuffs before they both fell through a window to their deaths. It takes a lot for these two to start trusting one another, but they eventually become fast friends and Oogle proves invaluable, not only in overcoming certain hurdles, but also in helping Joy keep an even keel as the demands of her encounters, in conjunction with her new abilities, takes a great toll on her emotional well-being.
Joy sacrifices everything and eventually finds her parents but it's not what she expected. She discovers that her father is the secret Leader of a Resistance movement. Her mother is being held prisoner by her father for being a 'traitor'. It turns out Joy's mother was something called a 'Divine Consultant', a supernatural being who worked for H&H. This explains where Joy got her powers, but it also raises a lot of questions.
Joy's mother did not betray her father; she betrayed H&H for her family. But he just sees her as one of the enemy now. With them failing to cooperate, Joy feels forced to deal with the enemy without them. She learns that a deeper awareness of her emotional state gives her access to ever greater powers and abilities. The independent action has a positive and a negative result. The positive result is that she discovers a new suite of powers at her disposal. The negative is that she finds success in an ill-informed mission. As a result of her actions, the giant monster they are all trapped inside starts 'heading for home'. Hell, essentially, taking all on board with it. Her effort to get her parents to a better place is in serious jeopardy.
