Thank you to the author and publisher for the opportunity to read this book before it’s publication in exchange for my honest thoughts and review.

This was a deeply heartbreaking, enrapturing read. This could have easily been a read in one sitting book if my schedule had allowed for it. I’ve read many nonfiction books about solitary confinement, the death penalty, and incarceration and this has to be one of the most rich texts breaking down all the ways that society failed two of the most influential individuals who find themselves at the center of this story. There is no forced forgiveness of the two at the center of this book but we find ourselves reminded over and over and over again that they are human. They are deeply flawed; have been completely failed by the education system, their families, and the justice system; and many might declare that they are simply evil incarnate. In future courses I hope to teach regarding incarceration, I will definitely center readings from this book. This is one I definitely intend to purchase a physical copy of because I intend to return to it time and time again.

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challenging dark informative sad medium-paced

5.0

Certainly I believe there Justice been a lot of politics, hate, fear, and assumptions that led to Thomas Silverstein and Clay Fountain having lived the bulk of their lives in complete isolation under the most draconian conditions. The author doesn’t downplay the gruesome crimes these men committed or the damage that the affected families suffered. Nonetheless, he was able to humanize these men and invites his readers to look at them with compassion. And the shocking lives these men were living from the time they were little and very innocent children to and through the times of their imprisonment helps us understand how they became why they became. He avoids all the politics and systemic failures of the prison and “justice” systems (my quotes only) and tells several stories throughout the book to sell a compelling necessity for prison reform. Prison seems to animalize both the jailed and the jailers.

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