FIVE STARS
“Vengeance is where you get retribution on the one who has wronged you. You were not the one wronged, so you made sure this guy messed himself up, because only he could miss those shots, no matter what you did. He was causing damage to other players, and he ultimately caused damage to himself. That’s justice, not vengeance.”…
Only in a game do you get something as pure and satisfying as justice. In life, the best you can hope for is vengeance. Tanto to Quidlee during a basketball game
I don’t think I’ve ever seen a better explanation of the difference between justice and vengeance and is the premise of the entire story.
Tanto is computer hacker and is in a prison with some other hackers. This isn’t a normal prison by a long shot. Yes, the prisoners are restricted with what they can do, they’re fed crappy food, and the guards are jerks. But what they do while they’re incarcerated is far different from other prisons. They hack into the dark web and catch bad guys, usually child porn perverts, but other offenses, as well. They gather enough information to have them arrested. It’s termed as kills and when you reach a certain number of them, you get released from prison.
The problem is the warden can give them or take them away at will and he does. Other prisoners like Barca, who is the bully of the bunch, can be gifted some of your kills and can ultimately be released earlier than you. It’s a twisted system, but not surprisingly so. The warden is a bad dude; a hacker himself, so it’s very hard for the other peasant inmates or “dogs” as he calls them (and treats them worse) to pull anything over on him. Cyfib wears spurs that jingle and lets the prisoners know he is in the area before they actually see him. That pays off. Tanto had some close calls with him that had me biting my nails.
Quidlee is new to the prison and is in desperate need to get out. Everybody is, right? Well, Tanto sees the need and has another issue that concerns Quidlee and devises a plan to get him out. Only nothing ever goes as planned. Ever. Especially in this place.
My favorite character was Aldensong. He’s a big Samoan guy with a big heart, an innate sense of right and wrong, and is Tanto’s best friend. But the cast of characters is diverse and impressive. All of the characters were well-thought out and had a particular part to play that may have been secondary but still critical to the story. As for Aldy, I hated that Barca called him “fatso”. I wanted to reach through my screen and punch him in the mouth every time he said it. I don’t care that he’s six foot eight and a total jackass, complete with a big mouth he never shut, and expected special privileges which he got. I despised him, as was intended, and I loved Aldy’s gentle spirit, his sense of humor, and the way he thought. His loyalty knew no boundaries.
This was a white-knuckled ride with tension that was tangible, fantastic characters that flew off the page, and a tight plot that kept me turning the pages. I enjoyed it very much.
With that being said, I do want to mention a couple of things. The Disclaimer and Trigger Warning was unnecessarily dramatic. Get counseling? Really? I’ve read worse than this in other books and nobody had to hold my hand and whisper in my ear that everything is okay. I’ve never needed to go to a professional after reading any book and I’ve read some grisly stuff in my day. Stuff far worse than this by the author’s favorite author, Stephen King, no less. I was so put off the disclaimer that I nearly declared the book a DNF before I even started. But being the voracious reader that I am, I wanted to see what was so bad about it that it needed such a dire disclaimer and trigger warning. Some bad things did happen. It is a prison, after all. But I didn’t think it was so over the top that it deserved a warning like this.
I also saw that it was touted as dystopia and was compared to The Shawshank Redemption. I see the connection between both of those, although I wouldn’t be surprised if a prison like this actually exists and is running at full steam. I guess Tanto would be our Andy DuFresne. He’s got something the warden wants and will go to extremes to get.
It might also be beneficial for the reader to have some knowledge of computer lingo. This is a story of computer hackers and there are a lot of computer terms in it. There is a glossary at the end of the book that helps with that and it, too, is well done. I have some computer background myself, so I was familiar with the terms without having to look them up, but I can see where it would be helpful to someone who doesn’t have that. I can’t find my way out of a wet paper bag when it comes to computers now, but I do know the jargon.
I did enjoy this book and may continue with the series. It does have some moments of humor and I got a kick out of the play on the names of characters. MottenCather (Cotton Mather, a Puritan writer and minister) and Jim Hetfield (James Hetfield, front man for the band Metallica). Even Tanto’s name is word play. I thought the hacker names were clever.
*I received a complimentary copy of this book from NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own
**The expected release date is September 27, 2022
Hanging out with Kristi 