Reviews

Man, this one hurt my heart. A masterful reckoning with the American carceral system that you can’t look away from because it’s interwoven with the voraciously consumable celebrity of reality television and professional sports. Devastating at every turn, but deeply funny. So much humor in the light the characters must make of their situation in order to survive - and in the bitterly accurate satire scenes of spectators such as the driver, Jerry, who imagines the prisoners’ celebrity brushing off on him, and the stereotypical gender-dynamic-conforming spectator couple, Wil and Emily, whose relationship is shaped by their responses to the “show”. This book reveals our collective complicity in the very real abuse of today’s prison system, which disproportionately incarcerates Black Americans, dehumanizes and damns those whom it imprisons, forces labor, and breeds a cycle of perpetual violence. I found myself facing, for the first time in too long, my complicated feelings about abolition, alongside the characters themselves. This is why I love dystopia! The book acts as a meditation on prisons and abolition in novel form. It’s inclusion of real-world statistics and legislation about incarceration rates, domestic violence, police weaponry, and so on drive the point home further— “you are here.” Paired with the thinly-veiled brand names that plaster everything, sponsoring the violence, and the “futuristic” technology that either exists or is frighteningly close to existing, the book condemns not just corporate greed but corporate gluttony, and the price society pays when morals cannot stop the wheels of “progress.” I cried at seeing our present reflected, at knowing what it feels like to be a part of the hopeful, outraged protest fighting in the street, and knowing what it feels like to stay home and tell myself it wouldn’t make a difference. I hope this book and its acclaim forces us to do better.

monaluffy's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.75

Incredible, cruel and so f scary because it could be possible and that is HORRIBLE.

megan_c23's review against another edition

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5.0

feeling sick to my stomach I can't lie

nemurin's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional reflective tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

colleentie's review against another edition

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2.5

Unfortunately this is stuck between a non-fiction treatise on the incredible evils of mass incarceration and a story. There is nothing wrong with the passionate politics here, but it’s in sacrifice to telling a story and developing 3D characters. The people and the world feel flat and as props, and it was hard to feel any of the emotional punches were earned. Especially in comparison to the very real and very horrifying facts added throughout.

I’m also not sure about the positioning of the books politics in trying to implicate the reader as just as bad as the audiences of the death matches. While I get the point, I wasn’t really sure it was achieved, especially since the matches weren’t entertaining, they felt very horrifying. It’s hard to critique using black death and violence as entertainment when the author is doing exactly that to sell books. It’s a fine line to work and I’m not sure it was achieved here.

Maybe if someone has truly zero knowledge of mass incarceration in america this could feel different, but I think a non-fiction book would have worked much better.

rollickingradness's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional informative inspiring tense

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

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