Lol okay so I literally only made it 40 pages into this book and had to stop because it was making me so upset. Erin the protagonist is some up and coming documentary film maker and she is making this "groundbreaking" documentary in which she interviews 3 inmates and shows their progress through incarceration. I was already hesitant to continue when I found that out just because I didn't like where this was going (I mean the book literally starts with her burying a body) but I gave Steadman the benefit of the doubt, hoping that she wouldn't play into every dehumanizing crime & prison trope. Clearly I was too generous because the MINUTE Erin steps into the prison the dehumanizing language begins! Defining these incarcerated individuals as their crimes, playing into the media representation of gangs and gang violence, even downplaying the importance of the people who work in the prison facility?? I just?????????????? She even writes the way the incarcerated individuals speak very differently from the "educated" and higher society whatever other characters. This quote in particular set me off:

"More than anything, I want the documentary to overcome the conventional representation of prisoners by trying to show these three people as individuals separate from their convictions. Both Holli and Eddie have sentences between four and seven years for nonfatal crimes. Alexa has a sentence of “life with parole,” so fourteen years. But do those sentences say anything about who they are as people? Does that tell you who is more dangerous? Who is a better person? Who you can trust? We’ll see."

Immediately connecting these individuals with danger, and ranking them based on who is a "better" person is demonstrates a disgusting lack of empathy and ability to see these individuals beyond what they have done. There was too much white savior complex emanating from Steadman and her character for me to even bother giving this book any more of my time.