It's just a normal day for Mel and Sage. They're walking home from school, when they come upon a battered vending machine of mysterious snacks. While examining it, the sisters are whisked away to another dimension by the seemingly innocuous machine. They encounter advanced memory-enhancing technologies, a strange new government, and an ominous secret behind it all. Follow Mel and Sage as they discover friendships, unravel an unknown family history, and brave a multitude of hazards to save a society in a world that was never theirs.

Judy Liu's debut novel is a passion project motivated by a desire to explore the concept of a "perfect" society. In it, she explores both the fantasies and the frightening possibilities that can exist in a world of any design. The Vending Portal is a lightly distorted, funhouse mirror to reflect the pitfalls of our own society, seen through the innocent eyes of two young protagonists.