My Name Is Zyra

She has spent her life belonging to two worlds—and hiding one of them.

In Jackson Heights, Queens, Zyra Venn helps families navigate school forms, language barriers, and everyday life. What her neighbors don’t know is that her own family lives nine hundred feet below their streets, in Neralis—a hidden city where humans, aliens, and robots share homes, work, and generations of secrets.

Zyra has always followed the rules that keep those worlds apart. Then a childhood friend brings her twelve-year-old daughter to the surface without permission, simply so she can see the sky.

That small act draws Zyra into a struggle over who gets to live openly—and who must remain hidden. As private information reaches the outside world and fear threatens the people she loves, she begins questioning whether the rules meant to protect her community have become another kind of prison.

Warm, thoughtful, and threaded with humor, My Name Is Zyra is a science fiction novel about family, friendship, belonging, and the courage to claim a life under your own name.