River

A meek and frightened young woman fleeing a violent past buys a whole new personality on the black market. Now she feels compelled to kill for revenge-and knows all the ways and means to do it.

River is a hybrid sci fi romance novel set in the near future in Japan. Orphaned Zara'kath 'Spider' Watanabe is a classic Otaku-she has difficulty even leaving her apartment but is a master hacker and gamer. A victim of unspeakable sexual violence, she meets a mysterious mechashell-a robot-who gives her the opportunity to change her broken heart and abused soul forever by 'boosting' into a new personality.
Meanwhile the legal form of 'boosting' is available to the chosen few through MetaMind Incorporated. A different and more dangerous species of robot-the anthroposhell-controls the destiny of millions, as they systematically catalogue and analyze the human experience in preparation to take over-for profit or even worse.
Can Spider escape from her inner demons, and take revenge on the men who tortured her and left her for dead? Does the mysterious and classically proportioned mechashell named River find a way to save the girl from self-destruction?
Find out in River: A Dark Sci Fi Romance in the Kishotenketsu Style (Third Edition)

What is Kishotenketsu?
A four-part narrative structure that stands in opposition to the Three-Act "Hero's Journey" found in Western Literature.
The structure has an introduction (Ki), a development or complication (Shou), a twist (Ten), and then finally the resolution (Ketsu). It differs from Western story lines mainly in the absence of a need to see the protagonist or hero accomplish something. Sometimes a Kishotenketsu story returns the characters to where they were in the beginning without seemingly accomplishing anything or providing the level of closure that one might expect.
Next is the Ten or plot twist. The twist causes us to re-evaluate all of the information we have about the story up to that point; and this reinterpretation puts things in a different light. The effect can have a "Zen" quality, or can be comedic, or just weird. But it does propel the story forward.
In Kishotenketsu the way the protagonist interacts with her world does not necessarily have to be that of a hero, using individualism and ego to "win." Instead, the world operates on the protagonist, and the story shows how, for better or worse, that plays out.