The problem of criminal incarceration remains a big one, at least in the United States. Ours is a country singularly devoted to lethal violence. Whether it’s from cops beating on people of a different skin color or mass shooters unleashing their guns into schools, we seem to suffer from a high death count from human-on-human viciousness. The denizens in other countries wonder what is wrong with us and can you blame them?
But this story deals specifically with crimes committed by juveniles. Once they get a criminal record, their chances of getting decent jobs and rising out of the lower class becomes slim. The people who concocted the Trials thought they would serve multiple purposes: warnings to other juveniles, incentives for over-aged criminals to become model citizens, reduction of people in crammed prisons, et al.
It sounds fine on the surface. But Violetta’s reactions and an inmate’s ominously scarred forearms make it clear that the Trials are no joke. They are dangerous. Are they fatally so? We don’t know. The opening chapters give us only a hint. But the anxiety they cause makes the threat seem very real.
Violetta is a very sensitive individual. She takes notes in a seminar designed to explain the altered justice system. She suffers at the thought of her little sister, whose death she caused. She pleads frantically with her parents for forgiveness and we suspect that her tears and terror are real not acts put on to garner sympathy. She wonders at the fate of Vaughn, who was the cause of the revised law and the first to suffer its effects.
We also get insight from Violetta’s brother, her parents and her best friend. They have the option of forgiving Violetta for the drunk driving that killed her little sister. They choose not to but you have to wonder about those that do. These chapters rouse our interest because they dig into a controversial subject and make you cogitate about the situation. If someone was inadvertently responsible for killing one of your loved ones, would you forgive them or want them to undergo corporeal and potentially life-threatening ordeals? If they survived the tribulations, would that soothe your sense of justice?
This is the kind of book that would spawn fierce discussion…and that’s just from the opening chapters. It’s enough to whet my appetite about Violetta’s ultimate fate.
But this story deals specifically with crimes committed by juveniles. Once they get a criminal record, their chances of getting decent jobs and rising out of the lower class becomes slim. The people who concocted the Trials thought they would serve multiple purposes: warnings to other juveniles, incentives for over-aged criminals to become model citizens, reduction of people in crammed prisons, et al.
It sounds fine on the surface. But Violetta’s reactions and an inmate’s ominously scarred forearms make it clear that the Trials are no joke. They are dangerous. Are they fatally so? We don’t know. The opening chapters give us only a hint. But the anxiety they cause makes the threat seem very real.
Violetta is a very sensitive individual. She takes notes in a seminar designed to explain the altered justice system. She suffers at the thought of her little sister, whose death she caused. She pleads frantically with her parents for forgiveness and we suspect that her tears and terror are real not acts put on to garner sympathy. She wonders at the fate of Vaughn, who was the cause of the revised law and the first to suffer its effects.
We also get insight from Violetta’s brother, her parents and her best friend. They have the option of forgiving Violetta for the drunk driving that killed her little sister. They choose not to but you have to wonder about those that do. These chapters rouse our interest because they dig into a controversial subject and make you cogitate about the situation. If someone was inadvertently responsible for killing one of your loved ones, would you forgive them or want them to undergo corporeal and potentially life-threatening ordeals? If they survived the tribulations, would that soothe your sense of justice?
This is the kind of book that would spawn fierce discussion…and that’s just from the opening chapters. It’s enough to whet my appetite about Violetta’s ultimate fate.