23

23
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### **Rating**

Rated PG-13 for mature thematic issues, disturbing behavior, sexual content, drug material, and brief strong language.

### **Followed by**

*The Ultimate Cosmic Countdown*

"*The basis of it is that it's a love story but it's not a love story. It's about almost young adult crushes – when you're not in love yet but you really like a girl – which I'm really excited about because I don't think there are too many out like that. It's a very psychological novel.*"
―D. Isaac Thomas
***23*** is a psychological thriller novel scheduled to be written by D. Isaac Thomas and released in 2024. This book is the forty-sixth installment of the D.I.T. Literary Universe and the second installment of Part Six: The Fate of the Multiverse.

## Summary

Twenty-three-year-old Brian is eager to take on some fresh experiences with his new independence. But no matter how happy he is to be surrounded by the alumni of California University, Brian finds himself strangely unsettled. After remembering an experience in Farmington that had forever changed his childhood, he and his new friends embark on an adventure that soon turns into a journey of self-discovery when an imbalance as inexplicable as it is enigmatic imperils the Eight Worlds, with an extremely dangerous and sinister conspirator at the center of what transcends known and unknown reality.

## Plot

Beginning his Freshman year at Utah University, intending to study literature and performing arts, Brian dreams of a better life than his dysfunctional family's bleak existence. His recent endeavors have been spurred on by his mother's cruel and manipulative claims that he would never last in the outside world. As he begins his academic studies and aspires to learn German, he bonds with various students, including Tyson Newman, who takes Brian under his wing. He also befriends Leslie Levine and forms an instant rivalry with Emilio Gage, who claims to have entered from an alternate reality within the multiverse. Snowy, a malevolent woman seemingly leading a sinister project with her crew to exploit a super-website known to all as "the Contingency" to gain ultimate power for herself, arrives at the university and rechristens Emilio as "Nemesis". A catastrophe unexpectedly envelops the university, catching everyone in its gyre before Brian stops it, prompting him to phone his mother, who has empty nest syndrome and sternly explains how any decision Mormons make would be the correct one by default. A bitter argument promptly ensues between mother and son, with Brian angrily denouncing Katie's lack of belief in right and wrong. Raymond of the espionage agency I.D.E.A.L. tries to warn Brian of what is coming, but Snowy captures and murders him, telling an unknown mastermind that everything is going as planned.

Snowy tries to defame Brian in a series of skirmishes. Leslie discovers a booklet, exposing Snowy's deception. Tyson travels to a hearing at the Venus Cultural Center; Snowy subsequently disappears, but Nemesis vows to finish what they started. Brian tearfully reveals that when his scooter was stolen and he correctly blamed and confronted one of his neighbors, his mother tried to kill him until his little brother shoved her out of the way.

Brian and Tyson are almost done with their fourth and final years of college. Venturing into the Forbidden Archives, Brian learns that the Contingency was built as a ruse to exploit "non-believers", because of Katie's contempt for spiritual entities and non-heterosexuals and her intention to pervert The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints into a seat of absolute power, and that she and Snowy began a riot at the cultural center by murdering the unarmed delegate Lucille Modine in cold blood, resulting in Snowy's death and Katie's exposure as the mastermind behind the Contingency, which had led to her life sentence in prison, explaining the disappearances. He sends this information to Tyson before he passes out when he ventures into the most dangerous part of the university.

Upon discovering the truth, Tyson concludes that the Contingency must be destroyed for peace to be restored. He recruits I.D.E.A.L. and Brian returns in time to help annihilate the Contingency's codebase and save the day. He bonds with De Oliveira and writes her a poem framed around his own experience. He finishes college in 2028, anticipating life as an actor and author. In a Postscript scene, he is enlightened about the Vault Squad and their ongoing initiative, which has multiversal ramifications.

## Thematic analysis

*23* has been interpreted as a critique of religious extremism and as advocating reparation. Katie's plot to pervert her own religion fails after she murders the governmental headman and chaos erupts. This is modeled after religion interfering with science and politics in insidiously harmful ways, as a balance is needed between everything listed.

## Development

This novel, unlike others in the DLU, is taken hugely from D. Isaac Thomas, the author's, real experiences in college from 2024 to 2028. For instance, the protagonist, Brian, is based on Thomas himself. An untitled DLU book was slated for a release on September 21, 2019. It was scheduled to be written by D. Isaac Thomas and released in 2023. For a while, next to nothing was said of the project, but on November 8, 2021, its title was confirmed and it was pushed forward to 2024. On May 1, 2022, Thomas confirmed that the novel is so named because it takes place in the year 2023. On October 31, he confirmed the genre of the novel will be a psychological thriller. Much later, he confirmed California would be the novel's primary setting, with other scenes taking place in Utah.

## Rating

Unsurprisingly, *23* is rated PG-13 (parents strongly cautioned). The book is rated for mature thematic issues, for disturbing behavior, for sexual content, for drug material, and for brief strong language.

## Appearances

### Locations

* Multiverse
	+ Astral Plane
	+ Black Arch Universe (mentioned)
* United States of America
	+ California
		- California University
	+ Utah
		- Utah University
		- Weber State University (mentioned)
* Venus
	+ Venera City
		- Venus Cultural Center (Skype camera and flashback)

### Events

* Contingency
	+ Massacre in Japan (mentioned)
	+ Massacre on Neptune (flashback)
	+ Assassination of Modine (flashback)
	+ Trial of Katie (Skype camera and flashback)
	+ Riot at the Venus Cultural Center (flashback)
	+ Fall of the Contingency
* Brian's twenty-second birthday

### Objects

* Electric chair
* Laptop
* Pistol

### Organizations

* Arby's
* Council of the Sun (Skype camera and flashback)
* Deseret Industries (flashbacks)
* Global Syndicate
* Katie's crew
* Papa Murphy's (flashbacks)
* U.S. Government

### New characters

* Unnamed pilot
* Atara
* Brian
* Emilio Gage
* Jackie
* Jeremy Doyle
* Katie
* Leslie Levine
* Lucille Modine
* Mariah Waldroup
* Olivia
* Petra
* Snowy
* Tyson Newman
* Violet Adelpha
* Zadie

### Mentioned

* Aaron's father
* Black Arch Universe
* Brian's father
* Jackie Chan
* Katie's siblings
* Massacre in Japan
* Scott
* Snowy's father
* Weber State University