Julie • bujo.books's Reviews > I Keep My Exoskeletons to Myself

Prison has been abolished in America - but it has been replaced with giving people a literal second shadow, which allows one to be legally discriminated against and put under 24/7 government surveillance. Kris, a Shadester, is drowning under the weight of raising the child her wife died giving birth to, and who now has a second shadow for that "crime".

I ate this audiobook up. Firstly, I loved the narrator and how she embodied Kris. Secondly, Kris is such a fascinating character and the highlight of the book. She's strange and put down and doesn't always make the right decisions, sometimes allowing herself to sink into her grief so far it hurts others (if you liked Milk Fed, you'll like this protagonist). Watching her struggle to raise the kid was such a great arc; I loved their interactions with each other more than anything. This is a great exploration of grief as it changes from an ever-present twisting knife to something sad but manageable to always carry with you. This book is also founded around ideas about the way we treat people who are considered lesser and how the cycle of systematic discrimination makes life so much harder for those people, how the state can get away with treating them differently, but how they are still PEOPLE who deserve rights and happiness. Specifically in this book, we see criminals of any status - from murder to speaking against the fascist government - be given the same punishment and put into a lower class of society.

Overall, this is a FANTASTIC book that I won't forget soon, and will be recommending very widely!