This book has a lot going on, and I'm not sure it juggles all the parts successfully - but the parts are so, so good. The world is different from our own but mirrors ours in many ways, commenting on the prison system as a tool of oppression, the way our pasts and mistakes can haunt us, interpersonal manipulation, what it means to be a self... I didn't get particularly attached to any of the characters for reasons that become clear later, but Fetter works well as a sort of "everyman" main character, doing his best to live a normal life despite the weird and dramatic things that keep happening to/around him. 

I think it would've been five stars for me if the

reveal had been hinted at, at least enough to notice the clues afterward. As it is, it does feel pretty deus ex machina, but as a sucker for narrative surprise I still loved it.

I'm honestly not sure who I'd recommend it to, but I have a feeling I'll be thinking about it for a while. I'll definitely be keeping an eye out for Chandrasekera's next novel, and I may have to read some of his short fiction in the meantime...