“I thought about how the world can be anything and how sad it is that it's this.”

You know when someone recommends a book for fans of the Hunger Games but then you read it and the only similarities to THG are a trial setting (usually poorly formed) and a love triangle (usually also poorly formed) and you realize that the person that recommended you the book apparently ignored all of the themes of the Hunger Games?

This is like the opposite of that experience.

This book is hauntingly brutal, with moments that make this dystopian society feel as though it is not that far away. Drawing parallels between what has happened, what is happening, and what will happen if we don't make radical changes. Parts of this novel can read as an almost satirical look at society's acceptance of violence, through the eyes of spectators of these events.

There were also times when this book felt a bit too... on the nose, I guess, with how it was handling certain topics. As if it didn't trust the reader to come to the correct conclusions on their own. That's a personal critique and to be fair... maybe that was a necessary inclusion for some people.

It's a criticism of the prison system. It's a look at the fascination with and dehumanization of anyone that society deems 'other'. It's an accusation of complacency and all of the forms that it can take. It's also about love and sacrifice and what it means to be human.

Also, I was struggling a bit to read this until I switched to the audiobook. The audiobook is fantastic. I especially loved the fact that one of the narrators actually sang the songs his character was singing.

Overall, this definitely deserves the hype. It may not bring anything new to the conversation around these topics, but it repackages them in a way that is incredibly impactful. I highly recommend to anyone that can handle such a bleak story.