'Riley Diaz was born to fight back. When she's incarcerated under the authority of a shadowy new defence act, Riley is sent to one of a growing number of American Renewal Centres (ARCs)--institutions modelled after psychiatric facilities--for mandatory re-education. 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.'
Dystopian fiction is one of those genres that felt a lot different a decade or more ago. The worlds where an openly cruel and corrupt government were standing upon the backs of the oppressed, where bold-faced lies were being used to keep them in power, where the marginalised were treated as less than human, all felt a bit too fake. There was a sense that the real world would never get that way. But in 2024 I doubt there are many that would argue that we're not close to being in a dystopia ourselves, and those that do are probably the ones benefitting from it. As such, The Glass Box can sometimes be an unpleasant read thanks to how real it can feel.
The Glass Box takes readers to a dark world where the government is an oppressive force, and we see this through the eyes of Riley Diaz, a young woman who has been raised by her parents to question authority, and to hold the government to account when they do something wrong. The main problem is that this is a world where even legal, peaceful protest can be incredibly dangerous, where simply speaking out can land you with an arrest. It's at one of these protests that Riley is arrested, and taken to one of the moany American Renewal Centres, where people that the government considers either undesirable or agitators are put through a forced re-education.
However, Riley wasn't just arrested by chance. She wanted to be taken to one of the Centres so that she could find out what happens inside in order to try and reveal the truth to the world. The biggest flaw in her plan, she has no idea how she's going to get back out. Thus begins Riley's life in the Centre, where the powers that be set out to turn her from an agitator into a peaceful, productive member of society who will never again question her government.
The Glass Box is a book that's a hard read at times. It's frighteningly real and eerily reflective of where things are in our modern day to the point where it makes larger parts of the book get under your skin. A lot of the things that Riley believes in the book are very reasonable things, yet her government is against them in the worst possible way, where violence is a tool they'll be more than happy to deploy. I don't know if Straczynski was looking to current events for ideas when he was writing the book, or if things just lines up by chance, but some of the events felt so relevant and familiar that a quick Google search could find similar that has happened in real life.
The book is gripping because of this, and I started to really connect with Riley and wanted things to go well for her. Because of that it ended up being a book that I struggled to put down, and I was pushed on to read more, to find out what horrors were coming next and if it would break her spirit and resolve. It's a book that not everyone is going to have an easy time reading because of this, and I couldn't blame some people for wanting to put it down at points, but I think it's also an important read that has a lot of relevant and needed messages within it.
The Glass Box is a thought-provoking read, one that will have you considering your own views, and how strongly you yourself might stick to your own convictions and morals when faced with frightening, almost dangerous choices.
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