Review by Booklist Review
This debut novel imagines a world in which a system has developed to provide a "solution" to generational debt, where debtors sign up to become Dociles, completely submissive servants to the rich and powerful. Elisha Wilder attempts to sell off his parents' debts by becoming a Docile, but plans on avoiding the seeming cognitive decline his mother suffered from being a Docile by refusing Dociline, the drug that insulates those entering the program from its effects. Elisha's new patron, Alex Bishop, is not only a rich doctor who Elisha feels confusingly attracted to, but is also a member of the prominent family that invented Dociline. Alex and Elisha's growing affection for each other is complicated by the inequities of power, and may have consequences for the Docile program as a whole. Exploring issues of consent, debt, and the power dynamics between the rich and poor, Szpara's debut examines how structures of power can deform and manipulate human relationships. Recommended for those interested in sf that explores power and sexuality, with content warnings for issues of consent.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Szpara's disquieting and riveting debut raises pressing questions about power and consent amid plentiful kinky gay sex scenes. Set in a near-future America where pharmaceuticals are used to induce sexual submission, 21-year-old Elisha Wilder sells himself into sexual slavery as a Docile to erase his parents' crushing debt. Alexander Bishop, 30-year-old heir to the fortune behind the memory-erasing, compliance-ensuring drug Dociline, buys Elisha for a life-term to prove to his family that he shares their values and is ruthless enough to head the company. But angry, defiant Elisha refuses to take Dociline, having witnessed the drug's effects on his mother, and Alex resorts to harsh conditioning, sexual punishment, and force to make Elisha his submissive. As Elisha begins to cave under Alex's training, their relationship evolves into something resembling a romance, baffling both Elisha's family and Alex's elite social circle. But when a former lover's jealousy pushes Alex to take extreme action, the novel veers into a layered courtroom drama with plenty of surprises. Elisha's rapid conversion to docile and Alex's limited self-awareness, however, cloud this sharply written examination of consent. This queer dystopia is an arresting, disturbing, and ultimately satisfying challenge. (Mar.)
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Review by Library Journal Review
In Maryland, Next of Kin laws mean that all debt accumulated in life passes down to your children, with debtors' prisons a harsh reality. To become a Docile means getting your generations of debt paid off. It also means becoming an indentured servant for whatever services your contract owner desires. The drug Dociline helps users hide from the emotional and physical trauma, but everything has a price. To protect his family, Elisha becomes a Docile to Alexander Bishop, one of the family that created and oversees the drug. Elisha has chosen to refuse Dociline--but not his owner. Explicit sex, mental and physical dominance, and control are strong beats within a story of two young men discovering the truth about their own lives and those of others around them. VERDICT This powerful debut is filled with achingly tender and brutally raw prose. Szpara strikes out at capitalism as well as the pharmaceutical trade and its effects, while dancing on the emotional knife's edge between love and obedience.--Kristi Chadwick, Massachusetts Lib. Syst., Northampton
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
The relationship between a young debtor and the trillionaire who owns him serves as a parable for the ills of capitalism.Debut novelist Szpara imagines an only slightly more dystopian United States than the one that exists today, in which the wealth gap has grown so large that the country is more or less split into trillionaires and debtors. Debtors inherit their family's debt, increasing it exponentially over time. To pay it off, many sign up to become slaves for a predetermined amount of time, with the "choice" to inject a drug called Dociline that turns them into a kind of blissful zombie who has no memory, pain, or agency for the duration of their term. The drug is supposed to wear off within two weeks, but when Elisha Wilder's mother returned from her debt-paying term, it never did, leaving her docile indefinitely. To resolve the rest of his family's debt, Elisha becomes a Docile to none other than Alex Bishop, the CEO of the company that manufactures Dociline. He invokes his right to refuse the drug, one of the only Dociles ever to do so. Alex enacts a horrifying period of brainwashing in order to modify Elisha's behavior to mimic that of an "on-med." The resulting relationship between them is disturbing. As Alex wakes up to his complicity in a broken system"I am Dr. Frankenstein and I've fallen in love with my own monster"he becomes more sympathetic, for better or worse. As Elisha suffers not only brainwashing, rape, and abuse, but the recovery that must come after, his love forfixation with, dependence onAlex poses interesting questions about consent: "Being my own person hurts too much.Why should an opportunity hurt so much?" However, despite excellent pacing and a gripping narrative, Szpara fails to address the history of slavery in Americaa history that is race-based and continues to shape the nation. This is a story with fully realized queer characters that is unafraid to ask complicated questions; as a parable, it functions well. But without addressing this important aspect of the nation and economic structures within which it takes place, it cannot succeed in its takedown of oppressive systems.An engrossing and fast-paced read that doesn't hit the mark it aims for. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
