Information

Published 2023 by Pantheon Books

Page Numbers: 367

ISBN: 9780593469316

This is a fast paced with the stakes being life and death. There are top gladiators in a prison-owned program where prisoners can fight to the death for a chance at freedom, no matter what they were sent to prison for. The event makes the prison a ton of money, while the gladiators get none of it.

The pacing is relentless. There is a lot of tension due to the inevitability of every matchup ending in death.

The characters are humanized despite the position of being participants in this violent game. The central relation between Loretta Thurwar and Hamara Stacker is a central point to the story. It’s the anchor throughout.

The storyline is a dystopian survival narrative. The prisoners fight for freedom but the reader will question if it is real or attainable. It’s an overt critique of the commodification of incarceration and violence.

Through the interwoven POVs, there is a broad picture of how the program is sustained. The love stories and the personal stakes of each gladiator intensifies the plot.

The frame of the novel echoes the contemporary issue of prison-industrial complex. It explores systems that privatize and make money over harming humanity. There are footnotes and shift POVs that adds to the world-building.