SPOILERS AHEAD!!
What is it about
The story follows Sara, who has arrived at the LAX airport after attending a conference abroad. She is stopped by the Risk Assessment Administration (RAA) agents and is taken to the retention centre where she is to be observed for twenty-one days for a crime she hasn’t committed yet. According to the dream data they have collected from Sara, they believe she is at a greater risk of harming her husband, and for his safety, she is placed in the facility until they feel she is no longer a threat.
At the very start, we are introduced to Sara, who is a scientist and a mother of twins. As any mothers would attest, sleep deprivation and exhaustion is a natural part of motherhood. When she decides to use a technological implant designed to improve her sleep, she is not aware that her dream data is being mined and will be used against her. However, as she comes to realise, she is being criminalised for her dreams.
It is at this so-called retention facility, Sara meets other women who are being held, with some being there for a long time. Sara witnesses cruel and inhumane treatments from the guards, who insist this is not a prison, and yet treat the women like inmates. The retention centre, as Sara learns, is a profits making business. The longer the detainees stay, the more money they make.
What I like about it
Even though it is set in the future, it feels all the more relevant today, as if the technological system of today is alluding to the future where our data mined by third party companies who alongside government will keep a tighter big brother surveillance system around us. It is not a far-fetched idea when you come to think of it, and the idea of detention centres is not something new. This novel takes the idea of detention centres to create a Minority Report like story here.
I liked that the author didn’t give us readers a lot of information dump about the big brother system, but rather, allow us to shadow Sara. I finished the book, feeling slightly terrified about the future.