There were a lot of interesting things in this book and it definitely didn't go where I expected, which is great, but it felt like the characters changed really abruptly to me and I wish their developing feelings had been given more time to breathe.

I'm not sure how to feel about this. Docile follows a plot which consists of two people, Elisha and Alex. Elisha is in debt and needs to pay it off so his family can live comfortably, so he sells himself to Alex. Dociles normally drug themselves up so they can't remember what they're doing in order to make them better for their employer. But Elisha refuses the drug because of what it turned his mother into (basically a zombie.) Even though Elisha refused the drug, he still enters a state in which he can't provide for himself without being told what to do by Alex. So, Alex, in an attempt to be humane sends him home only for Elisha to try to kill himself and Alex bringing him right back "home." In the end they're separated, a whole lawsuit goes down, and Elisha realizes that Alex treated him terribly and finally starts to heal. HERES WHERE THE GREAT PART STARTS Elisha and Alex then decide to try again insanely quickly after Elisha gets better and while some people may think it's sweet for the abuser to reform and recommit to the relationship, I just think it's insanely creepy. Like "hey Ik I just mentally abused and brainwashed you for 6th months, but you're better now so let's try again!!!" Weird. I would've liked it way better if the book had dumped Alex altogether and followed Elisha in another relationship and further explored the trauma that was thrust upon him. I'm a little torn because I really like the writing and the first 3/4ths of the story. But the message was WAY off.

I really enjoyed this, and it starts off Very Strong, but it simply does not go far Enough. It falls back on tropes - which are fine! - and standards of the genre, but I wish it would examine Even Farther. I paid $15 for this book and would have preferred to pay like, $10. thank you for reading.

After the synopsis I just had to have this novel and needless to say, I was slightly disappointed it wasn't the stand out I thought it would be. Don't get me wrong I loved the whole m/m science fiction concept and I'm not surprised since Tor has been the most watched publisher this year for me but I expected something more to just wow me, you know? Nevertheless the storyline and writing style the author was able to demonstrated was impressive, and I will definitely keep an eye out for any future releases from him.

** spoiler alert ** First off, this book has a lot of content warnings. There’s explicit and graphic abuse of every kind, including sexual. The story centres around loss of agency and consent. Some sex scenes are incredibly deprecating and hard to read. This book tries to make you uncomfortable and it does. Secondly, I think My opinion should be taken with a grain of salt as I’m a straight white guy. I’m not in any position to know if the m-m sex scenes are well written or framed properly for the subject matter. Essentially, the sexual content was just there for me, in service to the story being told or not. I’d check out other reviews to get a clearer picture of the book, as this book attempts to tackle a lot of heavy stuff. This is a hard book to review because of its subject matter and how it’s framed. it’s primarily a character drama between a trillionaire, Alex, who purchases the debt of Elisha, whose family has accrued a whopping 3 million of it due to this near future reformed debt laws which make it so next of kin inherit any debt of family. Essentially no debt is ever forgiven and the living poor have little recourse but to engage in indentured servitude, imbibing a drug that makes them completely compliant and erases all memory of their service. Elisha is purchased by Alex and refuses this drug because he’s seen first hand that the drug has harmful side affects. His mother was a “docile” (the term for this indentured servitude) for 10 years and when she stopped taking the drug it didn’t leave her system problem, leaving her disabled. Alex is a scientist, a member of the super rich, and his family is responsible for creating the drug Dociles take, which is supposed to be 100% safe. To maintain social status he’s pressured into getting a Docile and to develop a new, even better version of the drug. When Elisha refuses to take the drug, Alex proceeds to “train” Elisha using brainwashing techniques and positive reinforcement, all of which is expressly abusive and framed as wrong in the text from the onset. These scenes are vivid and graphic and intensely disturbing. After this brainwashing Alex begins to see Elisha as a person and releases him from his contract, Elisha has to learn how to process his trauma and figure out who he is again and Alex has to deal with his failure to live up to his obligations, with his various privilege being stripped from him as he begins to deprogram his own privilege, which contributed to the way he sees and treats those around him. As a character drama about trauma and abuse, and to a certain extent, privilege in society—it worked pretty well. The relationship dynamic and complex. The book felt well written, in general. And there are some really great human moments I really liked. Where the book faltered for me was in framing this story that wanted to be about systemic oppression, privilege, and consent solely on this one relationship. We are told pretty much what I have outlined here about debt and there’s some neat future tech, and this drug. And that’s about it. We aren’t really told what the system is. Is this the same as present day America, only with these changes? If so, it is incredibly off putting that slavery is never mentioned. The story itself, and the framing of these two white characters—one incredibly privileged and one working poor—doesn’t situate itself at a systemic level. Even as it is attempting to talk about these topics, it does so only through the lens of privileged characters. While Alex is always framed as doing something wrong, and I do like that it introduces a restorative justice angle, the only things it seems he has to make up for is perpetuating this cycle of abuse on ‘debters’ like Elisha, and for the personal abuse inflicted on Elisha himself without addressing the criminal aspect of Alex’s actions. Is it to be believed that the contract legally allows Alex to do these things to Elisha? All that appears to be on the line is the reputation of the company selling the drug and the family name, social status, etc. So the restorative justice feels extremely weak because the repercussions are so weak, they hardly matter. Alex basically has to confront his privilege and lose friends and family or whatever. The stakes are so low and actual privilege never being defined in terms of the world, that it feels quite toothless in the end. The world building feels maddeningly incomplete. Patrons of Dociles have to follow some rules, such as keeping them in good health, but what about this breach with Elisha’s brainwashing and trauma? It’s my feeling that this book could have been incredibly effective and is a missed opportunity. With what it’s preoccupied with discussing within the framing of the story, I did end up feeling it was worth the read, however.

This book isn't for the faint of heart. Aside from the graphic nature of the story, the mental state of two main characters is intense. (Rape, Sexually explicit, PTSD triggers, etc) But with that being said, it is so well written. Getting both points of view is perfection, makes the story so immersive, and I couldn't put it down. The events were life like, at points relatable, and told a complete emotional journey. When I was in the middle of the book I was so sure by the end I was going to be broken over it, but the story doesn't leave me with the level of pain that it had me experience. Personally I loved the ending, it was choice, growth, and really wrapped the overall message up in a pretty red bow. My biggest take aways from the book are, anyone can be conditioned without realizing it, or with it being blatant. Conditioning knows no bounds, it doesn't care of sex, gender, financial situation. Everyone is conditioned just by the environment they are raised in. Conditioning can happen with or without drugs, with or without direct violence, disguised as love or safety. This book speaks to society on so many levels. But that everyone can change, anyone can learn new truths, as long as we are all given a voice, respect and autonomy. People are a work in progress. Also, it is crimes against humanity to past down debt. Debt should always dissolved with death. Everything boils down to economics, and human rights. Where does one end, and one begin, which should rule the life we lead? Can their be a balance? Such a great book.

This book had a lot of potential, but it was a lot in one book so I wasn’t a fan of the pacing. I think it would’ve be better as two or three books.

CW: dubcon/noncon, rape (sometimes written in the first person POV of the rapist), depression, suicide ideation and attempt, torture and punishments Docile has been on my highly anticipated list of 2020 since the first time I saw its tag line “There’s no consent under capitalism”. And all my excitement quadrupled when I got a chance to attend a panel by the author and also have some great interaction with him, during which he gave me a personalized ARC copy. This is my first ever physical ARC and one I know I’ll cherish for a long long time. And when I finally decided to pick it up, i didn’t even wanna put it down to go to sleep because it was such an engaging experience. To be honest, I’m someone who prefers simple straightforward writing style, something I can follow easily and read quickly without having to parse the metaphorical meanings behind it all. And this book was exactly that. It was just so easy to read and I became so engrossed in it that I didn’t even realize that the time was way past midnight. Obviously it helped that the story itself was extremely compelling, making me eager to know what was gonna happen next despite the fact that there were so many uncomfortable scenes to get through. This is also probably the first book I’ve read which takes place entirely in Maryland (where I live), so I just loved that fact. I also remember from the panel discussion I attended that the author is very insistent about creating queer normative worlds and it was lovely to see a gamut of sexualities as well as some great representation of polyamory. It might be a bit of the book’s marketing fault, but I was definitely expecting a much more realized world that what we actually got. This near future dystopia where everyday people literally have to sell themselves because they are being crushed by their enormous debt, while the 0.1% are trillionaires who exploit this debt system felt too close for comfort and was downright terrifying to contemplate. But we never really get a glimpse into how other states of the US or the rest of the world is dealing with the same issues. It almost felt like a local issue which in reality it is not. There were some necessary conversations about privilege and consent and power dynamics, but I think I was expecting so much more of such commentary. I don’t wanna dismiss it as being superficial about the issues but it definitely could have gone a bit more in-depth, but after finishing the book I realized that it does work just the way it is for such a character driven story. My heart goes out for Elisha. He decides to take on the huge debt of his family so that they may have a secure future, and in the process loses his agency and voice completely. Watching him transform from a slightly angry and defiant young man to a brainwashed version of himself who exists just to please Alex was heartbreaking to read. Equally painful was him trying to survive and unlearn and recover. To tell the truth, his journey of trying to find himself again after all the trauma he has been through was some of the most difficult part to read through but I only admired him more for it, and I think the author did a brilliant job with his characterization. In the author’s own words, he really is a cinnamon roll of steel. Alex on the other hand is a product of extreme privilege, who believes in the system created by his family and other wealthy people like them. He really thinks he is doing good and helping Elisha by taking him on as a Docile, and it’s frankly this utter cluelessness of his that made me hate him a little less. The first half of the book, especially from his POV was extremely tough to read a lot of the times, but the author writes his character in such a compelling manner that even when you hate him, you wanna know what is going to happen to him next, and you keep some hope that maybe he will change. It’ll be disingenuous to call their relationship a romance because there is a massive power differential between them, with Alex hanging Elisha’s family’s entire financial future as a sword on his neck. But it’s also undeniable that there’s a connection between them and they deeply care for each other, but is it really love is a question that lingers in the back of our head all the time. The author does a great job examining and deconstructing their dynamic in the latter half of the book, and I really found it very interesting to read. There are a lot of other side characters who play important characters and I appreciate the author for giving all of them such memorable and distinct personalities. I both hated and liked Dutch for his actions, but also understood some of his choices. His and Jess’s friendship with Alex was actually quite fascinating to read about. Mariah on the other hand infuriated me, as well as Alex’s super douchey father. On the other hand, I kinda understood the pain of Elisha’s dad but still hated him for the way he mistreated Elisha. Dylan brought some fun banter to the proceedings even though it was few and far between, and her mom Nora was such a supportive mother figure. There were quite a few others as well but I don’t wanna go on and on. To conclude, I feel uncomfortable using the word enjoy for this book because of its themes but it was completely unputdownable. The author writes an engaging story with amazing characters and I can’t wait to read more of his work. But I genuinely can’t say who will enjoy this book. The only thematic comparison I can make is to the first book in the Captive Prince trilogy, so if you liked reading that book, you might like this one too. And if you do decide to pick it up, I think it’s better going in knowing about the content warnings. It does make you think, especially about privilege and consent and I really appreciate the author for the way he ended the book. It’s a terrifying dystopia but maybe there’s still hope.

I was a bit scared to read this book about the mixed reviews some people are quite virulent about it. But I was really interested in the themes tackled in this dystopian world such as slavery, toxic relationship, control, drugs. The dual perspective was really interesting it conflicts our read to have both sides of the story. I couldn't fully hate Alex for how he behaved with Elisha. The whole trial thing was really interesting and quite close to reality it took me on edge. The ending might be controversial and I understand why but still really enjoyed this book it makes me think a lot.

3.5 stars This is a hard book to review. It will definitely not be for everyone. It's full of questionable morals and many instances of sexual assault. Graphically depicted on page. If that's something that's triggering to you, please steer clear from this book.  Now that I've mentioned that, I'll talk about what I liked about the book. This was so entirely readable. The author does a great job of completely entrancing the reader. I had a hard time ever putting this down. Right from page one we're thrown into this world. K.M. Szpara does not waste time with any sort of character development to get us used to our main character, Elisha, and his family. Immediately, Elisha is leaving his family to become a Docile because they're completely wracked by debt. The world the author has created is so similar to ours, yet so different it's almost eery. The way the upper-class treated their Dociles was abhorrent and yet, I thought it was excellent commentary on how the 1% treat the poorest individuals in our society even today. That's why it's scary to read, because it's not hard to imagine us slipping into a similar society to this one.  While reading, the perspective switches from Elisha to Alex almost every other chapter. I thought that was a great choice by the author because if we had just been seeing how this relationship progress from one POV, it would've been easy to just shrug the relationship off as completely one-sided. Alex completely shapes Elisha into his picture-perfect Docile without the use of the drug Dociline, which is what is supposed to be used to make Docile's completely unaware of all the horrible situations they're put into. When we're in Elisha's POV, the way he thinks is almost childish and he falls so easily into his role that I was constantly reminding myself it wasn't consensual or okay because Elisha had convinced himself it was. Again, the author did such a great job of blurring the lines and it's up to the reader to check themselves throughout the story. I found I had to remind myself multiple times that this relationship was abusive and non-consensual because I completely fell into the trap the author set up for me.  It's not all grim and dark, however. There is a grass-roots group that's trying to save these Docile's and they make frequent contact with Elisha throughout the novel. We do have themes of overcoming and healing from abuse but I won't go into that specifically as to avoid spoilers.  Overall, I landed on a 3.5 rating because the ending was a huge disappointment for me. I literally could not put this book down until I was around the 90% mark but for the last 10% I kept setting it down in hopes it wasn't going in the way I expected. For all of the horrible things that happened to our main character, I just didn't appreciate the way the author chose to wrap this all up. It was just all too easy after the hundreds of pages of emotional and physical abuse we had to sit through.  If you're looking for a book that will make you think and you are in a good place to pick this one up, I'd recommend it. It's definitely not an easy read and it's even harder to review so I'm not sure how well I managed to put my thoughts together in this one. If you've read Docile I'd love to know what you think! I have a feeling this is going to be very polarizing.

DNF at 13% because everything about this makes me uncomfortable. A commentary about capitalism being slavery is five, but actual slavery than just spent a whole chapter as thinly veiled rape is a strong nope and I will not continue. Just can't do it.

5/5 stars I generally try to write my reviews within a day or so of finishing a book. I like doing this for a number of reasons, namely that the story and characters are still fresh. I couldn’t do that with DOCILE, however. No—I knew that this was a story that I would have to sit with, that I would have to let sink in, before I could even attempt to articulate my feelings about this story. DOCILE is one of the strongest debuts I’ve ever read. I actually triple-checked that it was in fact Szpara’s debut because I couldn’t believe it. Actually, saying it’s one of the strongest debuts I’ve ever read sells this story short—it’s one of the strongest books I’ve ever read. DOCILE is unflinchingly and unapologetically dark in its premise but not necessarily in its execution; it doesn’t have the tone and feel of a dark book. NINTH HOUSE, for example, is a book that was and felt incredibly dark and this made it hard to read at times. I don’t know if I’ll be able to explain exactly what I mean, but at no point did I feel weighed down or overwhelmed by what was, objectively, a very dark story. That being said, before reading, please take note of the trigger warnings I’ve included below. The story takes place in a futuristic universe that is terrifyingly not that far off from our reality. In it, next of kin laws have made it so that debt now passes down from generation to generation, crushing families under multiple generations of debt. To help pay off your family’s debt, you can become a docile, kept at the whim and for the uses of your patron. To help with the transition from having little-to-no agency to absolutely no agency, dociles can take Dociline—a drug developed by Bishop Labs that makes you pliable and agreeable and erases all memories of what you had to do while on it. Elisha Wilder knows that it’s only a matter of time before his father will have to sign his younger sister, Abby, up to be a docile to help pay off the Wilders’ three million dollars of debt. Elisha’s mother, who had served for ten years as a docile in exchange for one million dollars of debt repayment, never recovered from the Dociline she took during her term despite Bishop Labs’ assurances that the drug leaves your system after taking it. Determined to keep his sister from becoming a shell like his mother, Elisha sneaks away and signs up to become a docile in her place. Unlike most dociles, Elisha is adamant that he will never take Dociline. It is, after all, his right—one of the few rights afforded to dociles. This is complicated, however, by the fact that his patron is none other than Alexander Bishop III—the grandson of Dociline’s inventor and the head of Bishop Labs. Alex, already under pressure from Bishop Labs’s board members, is determined to prove to the board and his family that he can control his docile, with or without Dociline. In some ways, the experience of reading DOCILE parallels Elisha’s experience in the story—like Elisha, I became wrapped up in the glossy sheen of wealth and opportunity. Szpara writes with such subtle grace that you don’t realize how successful Alex’s efforts have been until it’s much too late. I began to feel fond of Alex, to feel fond of his “good” treatment of Elisha. Alex endeared himself to me by showing Elisha the very baseline of common decency. I didn’t even realize it was happening until more than halfway in. In this sense, I would say that Docile is just as much a creeping, insidious horror story as it is a sci-fi one. DOCILE seems long when you look at it (it’s almost 500 pages) but this is one of the most compulsively readable books I’ve ever read. I’m not even a big sci-fi reader—this book is just that special. TWs: rape, self-harm, sexual assault, attempted suicide, physical and mental abuse, slavery, graphic sexual content. I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for my honest review. This has not impacted or influenced my review or my opinions. For more reviews, check out my Instagram and my Blog!

“Docile” is a book that made me uncomfortable (in the same way the first season of the tv show based on the “The Handmaid’s Tale” made me feel, to give some sort of comparison): it's not some fancy kind of dystopian saga, about a chosen one that is going to save the world and defy a tyrannical government. This book is a story of two people, who heal together and on their own, who learn that you can’t really love anyone (truly and deeply) if you are broken inside. But it also shows that there is a way out even of the worst situations, behaviors and mindset, and, above all, that there is always hope for themselves and for a better world, even without the need of a big rebellion made of battles and death: sometimes a small act, like saying the right thing at the right time and in the right place, can be enough to start a good (r)evolution.