I enjoyed the story for the most part, and I adored the growth we got to see in Larry Newton. It was engaging and his analysis of Shakespeare was fascinating to me. That said, this memoir had a significant struggle with the "white professor/savior" trope. I get that it's real life, but even so, it was frustrating. Especially when the professor in question went out of her way to state she wasn't a reformer and seemed to think prisoners should "earn" basic rights, like not being in solitary, rather than being granted them as human beings. Topping it off, as engaging as Mr. Newton's story was, it was frustrating that the book, already about a white professor, focused on the life-changing impact primarily of a white incarcerated person when the vast majority of incarcerated people are people of color. So overall, it was good,but it definitely could've been better.