Monday, April 13, 2020

SciFI/Fantasy Book Review: Docile by K.M. Szpara




Docile is the debut novel from Hugo and Nebula nominated author K.M. Szpara (nominated for his novelette "Small Changes Over Long Periods of Time" in 2018) and it's one that has gotten some heavy push and reviews in some circles.  With a tagline of "There is no consent under capitalism", it's also not a book that's trying to hide anything from the reader.  This is a serious book about the idea of consent in a world with massive power discrepancies, a future world that looks very possible based upon the trajectory of the United States, with its inequality and economic discrepancies only getting worse by the day.

And more particularly, Docile is a book about the lack of consent in such circumstances, and is incredibly devastating and powerful in showing the effects of that.  Half the book is written from the view of a privileged abuser, who is too naive and privileged to realize what he's doing, and half from the abused underprivileged, who goes from believing he can be defiant to......not.  It is an absolutely uncomfortable book to read and it pulls practically no punches - offering no easy answers to what it showcases of our possible future.  It's not perfect in how it tells its story, with a third act that kind of falls apart if you think about it, but it's pretty damn powerful throughout to the point where it doesn't really matter.  A brutal compelling story about a really serious theme.

TRIGGER WARNING: Rape, Sexual Abuse and other Physical and Mental Abuse. Explicitly.  To say it's not gratuitous might be pushing it, this book does not hide any of the sex acts the main character performs and is forced to perform, and it is incredibly hard to read as a result even with foreknowledge of what you're getting into.  That said, while perhaps as much explicitness isn't as needed, the story makes use of this content in powerful ways to tell the heart of its story, a story about consent and power, in such a way that it's hard to imagine without it. 

---------------------------------------------Plot Summary--------------------------------------------------
In the near future, there are only two classes really in the United States, the trillionaires who have everything and the Debtors who have nothing.  To be a debtor means to be weighed down by that debt forever, with it passing along family lines, with nearly no escape other than losing everything and debtor's prison....or selling yourself to the Office of Debt Resolution and becoming a "Docile."

To be a Docile is to be a trillionaire's property, with limited rights - the right to medical attention, the right to food, the right to vote (for whatever good that does you), the right to keep private your last name, the right to one personal item and the right to sexual health and protection from pregnancy.  Other than that, Dociles have basically no rights and can be used as their owners want - as Pets, as Sex Objects, as Servants, whatever.  They have no choice but to obey their owners' wishes.

Most Dociles take Dociline, a drug that puts them in an obedient state of bliss which they should forget when it wears off, to get through with their term.  But the last right a Docile has is to refuse to take Dociline if they so choose and remain conscious the whole time.

Elisha Wilder's mother was a Docile for ten years, and the Dociline's side effects have left her an obedient shell ever since.  With his family deep in debt, he decides to sell himself as a Docile to sav them, dumping all their debt onto him, but that he will NOT take Dociline, so he will never become like her.

But what Elisha did not consider was that he would be bought for a life term by Alex, the heir to the company behind Dociline.  And when Elisha declines to take the drug, Alex decides the only way he can survive the embarrassment is to turn Elisha into the perfect obedient sex object for him to use without it, through whatever measures necessary - Rules Or Punishments.

And when Alex is done with Elisha, Elisha may never be the same again....
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Docile is told from two points of view: Alex and Elisha.  Elisha is the character you expect from such a book, the poor soul who is sold into the horrible system, but Alex is not because Alex is what you'd expect instead of the antagonist: Alex is a rich trillionaire whose money comes from inherited wealth, who is incredibly privileged and callous in his worldview, and this is absolutely not a book bout Alex learning to change his ways from his first interaction with someone from a lower class.  You will absolutely hate Alex, because he is a rapist, a torturer, and a slaver all in one with his treatment of Elisha, and while, obvious spoiler, Alex does eventually learn from his actions how much of it was wrong, it does not come until it's far far too late, not that any time after the initial rape by Alex could ever be considered not too late.  Alex's arc is incredibly uncomfortable to read from beginning to conclusion, as while he changes and tries to make amends (again, this should not be a surprise), nothing Alex does can make up for his actions, which are utterly unforgivable.

Because Elisha's chapters are just incredibly painful to read.  You expect Elisha to be a defiant person in the face of what he's going to encounter - he's going to keep his mind through the incredible pain, he's going to act as the spy for the anti-Docile non profit, Empower Maryland, that's repeatedly trying to recruit him, and he's going to use his ability to remain aware during his experiences to bring Alex and the Docile system down.  That does NOT happen.

Instead, as Elisha finds himself raped by Alex, and finds himself liking being praised and hating the punishment, over days and months, all of which he is aware, Elisha changes.  No, Elisha breaks.  There is no other way to say it, because that's what rape and ultimate power and control over someone does - it breaks them.  The 2nd act of the book is as a result incredibly brutal and hard to read, because while the sex acts described explicitly are horrifying to contemplate on their own, the effects on Elisha's personality are even more horrifying in and of themselves, especially as Elisha finally encounters people who knew him before he became a Docile.  And there's a sequence where another trillionaire comes over to their apartment and treats Elisha as that person thinks of Dociles, and Elisha's perspective in the resultant chapters are completely heartbreakingly brutal.  And the next act, which deals with trying to get Elisha help at coming back from his broken self, is just as powerfully heartbreaking, because the damage of rape and control over Elisha's mind is not so easily broken.  I've read a few books about the terrifyingly permanent impact of rape and trying to get through it, and none of them have made the brutal impacts of such as clear as this (admittedly none have gone as far in the rape as this book).  And the scary thing is is that all of this is completely believable, which makes it all the more powerful even as it is completely haunting to read.

I should also point out incidentally an underratedly terrifying thing about this book is how unquestioned some aspects of the setting are by the characters.  The Docile system and the use of Dociline, and the horrors caused by giving people full control over others without consent (and the life altering effects of rape, to say the least) are, as noted above, fully discussed and by the end questioned, with characters taking steps to try and see if there is any way forward for their society without the system.  But not only is the system still fully intact at the end of the book, the circumstances that lead to it are NEVER questioned - the idea that the rich should have all this money and everyone else be in serious debt, the idea that if people can't pay off this debt they should go to debtors' prisons*, the idea that debt should follow families through generations.....this is just treated as given by the characters even through it all.  Given how such circumstances seem like only a short extension of our present world, that's incredibly scary, and makes Docile showing how an evil like the Docile/Dociline system can emerge from such circumstances only more relevant.

*Debtors' Prisons are technically not allowed in the US as present, but might as well for how Debt ruins and destroys peoples' livelihoods, and people can go to jail for certain types of unpaid debt that result.*

If there is a flaw with Docile, it's that the final act structure doesn't really make any sense.  Essentially, without spoiling, it takes the form of a Jury Trial for a Civil Suit brought by Trillionaire antagonists ostensibly to try and ruin Elisha's family.  But the book already demonstrated that the Trillionaires are able to buy Judges and the Law, making it weird that the book portrays the trial as being a fair trial (and has one weird legal complication that makes no sense to this lawyer, but whatever); moreover, it's not really clear what the Trillionaires think the trial is ever going to accomplish - in real life you see these suits filed and quickly settled for the poor defendants to save legal costs, but if the defendants manage to get pro bono representation - as is the case here - the suits fizzle to avoid embarrassing PR, which doesn't happen here.  Essentially the Trial serves to allow for characters to force the characters to have certain character developments, and some of that, especially Elisha's climatic revelation, feel a little ham handed.

Mind you, this doesn't stop it all from staying on theme and working towards a conclusion, so this is not a big flaw at all, but as a lawyer who otherwise couldn't help think about this powerful book, it stuck out a little.  Otherwise this is a haunting powerful book, that if you can stand to read, is WELL worth your time, and it will haunt you for possibly forever.

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