Mixed feelings on this one overall tbh! To begin with, I read this book with the understanding that its goal is to be a dystopian examination of class and like... sickeningly sexy? In terms of its examination of consent/sex work/autonomy under the brutality of capitalism. I feel like those responding to this book as though it is a romance and that the central relationship is meant to be unilaterally romantic/compelling/hot are doing it a bit of a disservice, because that central relationship is a way of exploring those complex, gray themes. That's not to say that it necessarily succeeds at all of these goals--I'll get into that later--but that's what I think it's trying to do at least. Also, this is definitely very soft sci-fi, so there's not a ton of exploration on the worldbuilding itself.

To start with what I did like, Elijah as a protagonist just really worked for me. From the first chapter I was just rooting for him and sympathizing with his situation, and the various sections where he interacts with his family literally had me tearing up or sometimes even having to set the book down for a bit because I was too emotionally invested. I think this foundation for his character is super necessary for the direction the book takes and helped keep me emotionally invested all throughout, just because I needed to know what would happen to him. Loving Elijah also made me really really really hate Alex the whole way through, which... may or may not be the goal, but I was really hoping he would explode or get eaten by a shark randomly or something. On the whole, I found the style of this book very readable and engaging, and I felt like it did a good job of really digging into the scenes I wanted to see as a reader with the whole process of Elijah signing up to be a docile and everything, specifically during the beginning, though the pacing definitely picked up a lot towards the end. Even as the book becomes more law-focused during the second half, I still felt pretty engaged overall, and I read this one pretty quickly for a lengthier book.

Still, while I admire Docile's ambitious premise and attempts to tackle the evils of capitalism and questions of consent under an inherently unjust system, it doesn't necessarily dig as deep into these questions as I feel like it could have. As many others have pointed out, setting this book in a real, future-America and then largely ignoring race is a frankly bananas writing choice, especially when the Docile system is a form of legal slavery. Like??? Even speaking more broadly about class in general can't be done without taking race into consideration because of the way that people of color, especially black people, have been barred at every turn from the same work and wealth opportunities as white people, with tenant farming, being historically barred from union efforts, mass incarceration, and the list goes on. Trying to talk about class without a careful examination of race (and gender, disability, etc!) doesn't lead to a good, fleshed-out discussion of wealth stratification, which is a shame because in my opinion that's a key part of the questions this book is trying to raise. More generally, while I feel like Docile really set up all of these questions well in the beginning, I wasn't entirely satisfied with its exploration of them by the end and didn't feel like it got as deep into it as I wanted. Instead, I felt like the romance became more and more of a focus, and like halfway through the book I could feel it encroaching and was trying to just pretend maybe this wouldn't be the case. It felt a little like the central relationship, rather than being a tool through which to explore the themes and dynamics of this dystopian world, took central stage in and of itself.

I was telling a friend about this book as I read it because there were so many parts of it I found compelling, and when I told her I finished it, she was like "I hope [Alex] died" and I had to be like :) nope! Like. On one hand I sort of think his arc was necessary for the book, but I just found him so insufferable, unforgivable, and frankly so much less interesting than the other characters and parts of this world. I can't say if it would've been a better narrative conclusion or anything for him to die, but it's what I personally wanted. I also just never like the whole trope of "horrible guy realizes the error of his ways through the power of love, so I guess all those other people he hurt before this don't matter because he wasn't in love with them" if that makes sense. I know Alex apologizes to his friends but like... it's still crazy to me that Jess and Dutch weren't enough for Alex to change his ways, it specifically had to be a romance. Still, I did really enjoy the whole process Elijah had to go through with unlearning Alex's training, that on its own was powerful, but I wish it was without his open-ended conclusion with Alex which I could see coming a mile away.

Over all, there were a lot of parts of this book that I enjoyed, and I tore through it because I found it so interesting and compelling. But I don't feel like it lived up to its full potential in exploring the very dark themes it is trying to explore, and sometimes didn't feel quite serious enough for the topics it handles. In some aspects it did feel a little bit like fanfiction, and while that made it extremely readable, I would've liked it to deliver on the in-depth dystopian exploration that the tagline and cover promise.