The Glass Box
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- 8,99 €
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- 8,99 €
Publisher Description
“Echoes of One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest reverberate through this cinematic tale…readers looking for an adrenaline-inducing resistance plot will find this worth their time.” —Publishers Weekly
From award-winning author J. Michael Straczynski, The Glass Box is a hard-hitting, fast paced sci-fi novel about the choices we make and the ramifications we face.
Riley Diaz was born to fight back.
When she’s incarcerated under the authority of a shadowy new defense act, Riley is sent to one of a growing number of American Renewal Centers (ARCs)—institutions modeled after psychiatric facilities—for mandatory reeducation.
Forced therapy, involuntary medication, solitary confinement, restricted rations, and more are all in the ARC program’s bag of dirty tricks designed to break down dissidents. Give in, and you go free. Resist, and …
Riley declares a one-woman war against the gaslighting and manipulation in a struggle to take down the ARC program and its white-coated collaborators. Despite being isolated and resented by her fellow inmates, Riley eventually wins their trust, and forms a heartfelt, life-and-death bond with a mysterious patient known only as Frankenstein, who is as enigmatic as his namesake.
Sometimes breaking an unjust system starts with one person willing to stand up—when standing is the hardest thing in the world—and saying “no.” Riley Diaz is willing to stand behind that word, regardless of the cost, in order to put her fist through the Glass Box once and for all.
Acclaimed creator J. Michael Straczynski takes the reader on a mesmerizing journey inspired by pressing contemporary issues, including our right to protest and the threats designed to undermine that right. Told with drama and heart, The Glass Box is a moving story that features a colorful and often eccentric cast of characters readers will fall in love with.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Echoes of One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest reverberate through this cinematic tale from Straczynski (Together We Will Go), which transports readers to a near-future American dystopia. After second-generation activist Riley Diaz is picked up protesting a new law limiting public gatherings to 10 people, she's transported to an "American Renewal Center," a Department of Homeland Security–sponsored jail alternative in a converted wing of a psychiatric hospital, to be counseled out of her radicalism. From there, Straczynski hits the expected beats of psychological and pharmaceutical abuse and excruciating decisions about whom to trust; in these sections, the writing feels heavier on agenda than story. Fortunately, a subplot involving Riley's secret friendship with a nonspeaking and sometimes violently dangerous patient, who finds comfort in hearing Riley's sympathetic reading of Frankenstein and whose trust becomes critical to her survival, adds emotional realism and yields the least predictable pieces of the story. Though there are few surprises here, readers looking for an adrenaline-inducing resistance plot will find this worth their time. Correction: An earlier version of this review mischaracterized a plot detail.
