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A review by nzlisam
The Captive by Deborah O'Connor
5.0
Imagine a society where the victim of a crime (or their family) is expected to accommodate the convicted person responsible in a prison cell in their own home?
In the near future UK prisons are a thing of the past. In their place, a focus on restorative justice and an emphasis on rehabilitation instead of mass incarceration for those who break the law.
Jem murdered Hannah's husband.
Now he's locked in a cage situated in Hannah's kitchen.
His sentence is twenty years.
Hannah is responsible for all his needs for the next two decades.
Then she uncovers several red flags regarding her husband's past.
And the more she gets to know Jem the less convinced she is that he is a killer.
But if Jem didn't murder her husband, then who did?
And how much danger is Hannah placing herself to get to the truth.
Holy cow! This unique, expertly-crafted futuristic thriller sure knocked me for six. The terrifying reality these characters inhabited makes me grateful for our current prison system. Okay so it may be lacking in some respects but this is not in any way an acceptable or healthy alternative. I was utterly impressed and shell-shocked by how everything came together in the end. The last 20% was nail-biting non-stop action suspense.
The Captive is mainly crime, mystery, and domestic noir, but sci-fi as well since the technology used doesn't currently exist in mainstream society. I’m also classing it as dystopian, which may seem a bit odd since life in general pretty much mirrored ours, however the justice system did not, and as a result it was definitely a country governed by a rigid set of rules, not to mention control, fear, loss of freedoms, and powerlessness that affected the majority of the population. And there was even time for romance, but there's nothing I can share about that subplot without spoiling it.
I love that the author took her time explaining the rules of the home prison system rather than bombarding me with an overload of information, yet it was always abundantly clear how the scheme worked. She even included personal accounts of situations where the current system had failed prisoners and victims, horror stories of all the ways things had gone disturbingly wrong, which made the whole thing even more scarily real.
Hannah and Jem were the main narrators, and Jem's chapters also included flashbacks to his childhood. I bonded with both characters and felt for their plight. The writing was straightforward, immediately drew me in, held my attention, and kept me invested emotionally.
Last year I added Deborah O’Connor's, The Dangerous Kind to my tbr, but never got around to reading it. After this phenomenal read I'll definitely be bumping it up my list.
I'd like to thank Netgalley, Bonnier Books/Zaffre and Deborah O'Connor for the e-ARC.
Publication Date: 7th January, 2021.
In the near future UK prisons are a thing of the past. In their place, a focus on restorative justice and an emphasis on rehabilitation instead of mass incarceration for those who break the law.
Jem murdered Hannah's husband.
Now he's locked in a cage situated in Hannah's kitchen.
His sentence is twenty years.
Hannah is responsible for all his needs for the next two decades.
Then she uncovers several red flags regarding her husband's past.
And the more she gets to know Jem the less convinced she is that he is a killer.
But if Jem didn't murder her husband, then who did?
And how much danger is Hannah placing herself to get to the truth.
Holy cow! This unique, expertly-crafted futuristic thriller sure knocked me for six. The terrifying reality these characters inhabited makes me grateful for our current prison system. Okay so it may be lacking in some respects but this is not in any way an acceptable or healthy alternative. I was utterly impressed and shell-shocked by how everything came together in the end. The last 20% was nail-biting non-stop action suspense.
The Captive is mainly crime, mystery, and domestic noir, but sci-fi as well since the technology used doesn't currently exist in mainstream society. I’m also classing it as dystopian, which may seem a bit odd since life in general pretty much mirrored ours, however the justice system did not, and as a result it was definitely a country governed by a rigid set of rules, not to mention control, fear, loss of freedoms, and powerlessness that affected the majority of the population. And there was even time for romance, but there's nothing I can share about that subplot without spoiling it.
I love that the author took her time explaining the rules of the home prison system rather than bombarding me with an overload of information, yet it was always abundantly clear how the scheme worked. She even included personal accounts of situations where the current system had failed prisoners and victims, horror stories of all the ways things had gone disturbingly wrong, which made the whole thing even more scarily real.
Hannah and Jem were the main narrators, and Jem's chapters also included flashbacks to his childhood. I bonded with both characters and felt for their plight. The writing was straightforward, immediately drew me in, held my attention, and kept me invested emotionally.
Last year I added Deborah O’Connor's, The Dangerous Kind to my tbr, but never got around to reading it. After this phenomenal read I'll definitely be bumping it up my list.
I'd like to thank Netgalley, Bonnier Books/Zaffre and Deborah O'Connor for the e-ARC.
Publication Date: 7th January, 2021.