Proxy

Proxy is the first book in the pair of books by Alex London, released in 2013. Proxy is set in a dystopian tech future where the gap between the very wealthy and the very poor is extremely large. Technology is so embedded into everyday life, it is integrated into the people themselves. Proxy is a fast-paced, gripping LGBTQIA novel that does not focus on the protagonist's sexuality, but instead examines the structure of a society where the wealthy and the poor are so vastly separated that the poor are born owing their very lives to those who are only different because they are rich.

Summary
Knox was born into a wealthy family. He has anything he could possibly need and little regard for his Proxy, Syd, the boy who takes punishment for Knox's misdeeds. Syd, one of the poor citizens of the city, has acquired debt merely by going to school, and by being a Proxy works to pay off this debt to his Patron. Anytime Knox breaks rules, Syd has to pay for it. When Knox crashes a car, killing someone, Syd is branded and sentenced to death. Like that, his life is forfeit.

Yet he and Knox have in common a disregard for the warped system in which both of them are trapped. Together, they embark from the city, fleeing across empty desert. They discover that they aren't so different as it would seem, that they aren't the only ones wanting to rebel against the system they were forced into, and that they are no ordinary pair of Patron and Proxy.

Other Books in Series
Guardian (sequel), published in 2014