The creator refers to the speech pattern of the main character as klang association. That could easily describe the entire book. Oozing with a gothic vibe. Riding the rails of a simple revenge narrative. Little substance but a ton of flash.

You can see what inspired the movie. There are plenty of pages that you could stare at for hours. They're dense with details. All in all an intense experience.

This is the odd Doctor Who story that takes place wholly inside the TARDIS. The symbiotic relationship between the Doctor and his ship means that we get a lot more of their internal thought process than usual. Even the alternating point of view provides unique insight.

It's clear that the author is a deep fan of Doctor Who and books. The solution to the mystery is hidden in plain sight in the first few pages. Nonetheless, a quick romp through multiple time periods of a quaint village manage to explore core aspects of the 10th doctor's series. Implications of the time war and extrapolations of sonic and psychic technology.

Has the manic feel of a modern Doctor Who TV episode with some flourishes that work well in text but would be complicated to film.  This part of a series of eBook originals produced by the BBC. On the strength of this story I ordered a copy of the Time Trips anthology.

Love the random callout to Ian Banks.

That's from the last page of the book. Part 3 is titled: "Dismantling the System and Building Anew." It compares and contrasts the reformist and abolitionist views. The above quote makes it clear where the authors stand.

Part one uses history and statistics to paint a picture of the current state of the prison industrial complex. Part 2 personalizes the experience of incarceration. Together they provide a clear view of the cycle of harm that desperately needs to be broken.

Another framework from the final section is 3 types of justice:
- Retributive - punishes those who commit a crime
- Restorative - provides healing for those harmed by a crime
- Transformative - works to change the underlying systems that led to the crime

Here's hoping we can find pathways for more transformative justice.

Amusing and I love the narrative voice. Equal parts silly and on the nose.

I like the energy of this story. It pokes fun at both those who crave order and those thrive in chaos from the viewpoint of a nihilist. It's mundane absurdity.

I ate peanuts while reading this.

Loved the mix of found footage and multiple PoV. The penultimate week of filming on a 3rd rate bachelor rip-off makes the perfect setting for a slasher. That there are still some unexpected genre twists before the end of this short book is just icing on the cake.

The left can suffer from utopian abstractions. 

This book provides a practical framework for an alternative to both capitalism and central planned economies. It's refreshing to have a text focused on how instead of why - a text that provides a path to a possible future.

It covers how to fairly divide labor and resources. It argues for intimate direct democracy with a federation system that avoids a permanent political class. It deals with producers and consumers and has a specific carve out for the environment. There is a lot here to build on.

Still, it suffers from hand waving abstraction. There's an assumption that all the mid level logistics and community planning can be easily handled by untrained workers/consumers. There's an assumption that workers WANT responsibilities outside of their core expertise.

It shines internalizing effects that current economic systems ignore. However, it also feels like it has gaping holes with regard to health care, homelessness, national defense, insurance, art, entertainment etc. which are all entangled with current economic systems. 

All together, this is a great starting point for thinking about alternatives to current economic systems. We need to try many such solutions as we move beyond the flaws of current systems.

I picked _When the Devil_ off the shelf because it was short. I needed the momentum of finishing a book. This book was short enough to feel like a song. A murder ballad.

This is a feminist romance. A sapphic HEA blow to the patriarchy. The first person narrator was gaslit by the worst of fundamentalist "christianity" and her violent escape is viewed through that lens. Thus the title.

I wouldn't want every woman trapped in an abusive relationship to settle on this solution, but this story definitely argues that they should find *a* solution.

Provides a reminder that whoever wins the elections in November, there will be important work to strive for true freedom and direct democracy.