I know this book is satirical, but this Hunger Games version of the American carceral institution has a certain 'uncanny valley' quality to it, because it is so close to true but not quite. It took me a while to finish this book because it is quite bleak, but that is not a knock on this book, it's just a truth of the subject matter.

Adjei-Brenyah's writing style here is brutally direct and representative of said subject matter. You read something horrible and then it's on to the next thing because thats just the way it is when you're trapped in a brutal system. This book mocks any idea of prison being a rehabilitative program, and questions our goals of punishment and how the current system contributes to recidivism.

I really appreciated the way that references are cited throughout the story. It was a great reminder that this isn't just a story, that these horrors are based in fact and very much connected to our reality. This book should be required reading.