A review by hernamewaslily
The Mars Room by Rachel Kushner

5.0

Prior to reading The Mars Room, I had mixed feelings about the topic of this book. It didn’t seem like the kind of thing I’d be into, but I was already a fan of Kushner having read The Flamethrowers earlier this year, so I felt compelled to pick it up and give it a go. And I’m so glad I did. It is an incredible, harrowing tale that takes the reader inside a women’s prison where the texts protagonist, Romy Hall, is serving two life sentences murdering her stalker. It is, I suppose, a modern abolitionist text; I can’t imagine someone reading this and not walking away from it with the opinion that prisons are - and the prison industrial complex at large is - cruel and inhumane, and, quite frankly, doesn’t actually deter people from committing crimes. Although the content is incredibly sad and hard to read at times, Kushner has great control of her prose, which is so precise, and is an adept storyteller which makes you want to keep reading. I think she is one of the greatest living writers today and I am very much a fan.