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“The data doesn’t lie.�
“It doesn’t tell the truth, either.�

You know those dreams, the ones where you have to get somewhere, desperately need to get somewhere or pursue something, but things keep happening, keep getting in your way and holding you back? The panic that keeps increasing as time� or whatever you’re chasing —slips away from you?

That's what this book is like.

It's set in a future that feels just around the corner-- one where companies mine data from all our devices, social media and, in this case, dreams, and allow the government to profile us. In an effort to combat crime before it's even occurred, those considered 'high risk' by the algorithm can be legally detained.

It starts with a period of 21 days, but every tiny infraction recorded can extend the detention period without question or trial, no matter how unfair. This is the situation Sara finds herself in when an algorithm deems she is a threat to her husband, trapped in an institution as her baby twins grow up without her. I felt every bit of her frustration and suffocation.

Entire generations have never known life without surveillance. Watched from the womb to the grave, they take corporate ownership of their personal data to be a fact of life, as natural as leaves growing on trees.

Sara grows increasingly disillusioned with the system that would put an innocent woman in what is essentially a prison. Along with the other women in the centre, she tries to reclaim some freedom in any way she can.

The more I thought about it, the easier it was to suspend disbelief for this premise. Obviously the data mining is not difficult to believe at all, but I at first questioned whether people would really consider it a good idea to detain innocent people... but then, profiling is already occurring, and has been for a long time. And, from a strictly utilitarian perspective, one could argue that the technology in the book has done more good than harm. A minority suffer so that the majority can live in safe communities, free from crime. Scarily, I don't even think it'd be a tough sell.

I loved the concept and enjoyed Sara as a protagonist. I thought some of the secondary characters could have been better developed. I also thought it went on a bit too long. These reasons are why it's a 4-star instead of a 5. But I would still highly recommend it.

She wants to be free, and what is freedom if not the wresting of the self from the gaze of others, including her own?

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