Death by Algebra

Forget passing Algebra II—Archibald Finch just wants to survive it. His problem isn’t that he’s bad at math; it’s that every single homework assignment from the intensely boring Mr. Hemlock seems to trigger a life-threatening "accident." A locker door tries to decapitate him right after a vectors problem; olive oil appears on the kitchen floor after an equation involving an '8'. Archie is convinced the math is trying to assassinate him. Teaming up with his genius neighbor, Renata "Ren" Sharma, they dive into the school's shady history. They quickly realize the conspiracy isn't the teacher; it's a sentient, cursed textbook left behind by a vengeful former instructor. Hemlock is just a desperate caretaker trying to contain the chaos. The chaos escalates into a full-blown war during the semester final exam. The classroom transforms as the textbook goes rogue, bending reality with algebra: a division-by-zero error creates a black hole, and the class descends into a giant, living coordinate plane where logic is the only weapon. In a climactic showdown inside a rotating 3D geometry cube, Archie has to use the one algebraic concept he understands—basic substitution—to defeat the textbook and its evil algorithms. He swaps out the book's power source with a stick of library paste, saves the day by being spectacularly average, and learns that sometimes, breaking the rules is the only way to solve the equation.