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Content snapshot
Flag an inaccuracy →What's in this book, at a glance — five things readers want to know before they start.
Violence
Some
Some violence and danger in the thriller plot; corporate-state coercion throughout
Language
Some
Moderate language
Sexual Content
A lot
Explicit sexual content including an unusual romance plot and some coercive scenarios
Substance Use
Barely any
Social drinking; nothing significant
Emotional Intensity
A lot
Capitalist surveillance and its seductions, desire manufactured and weaponized, how far people will go to feel safe
What this book is about
Stan and Charmaine are broke and living in their car after the economic collapse. When they discover the Positron Project — alternating months in a model suburban community with months serving as prisoners in its adjacent facility — they sign up. The town is perfect. The prison is efficient. And something is very wrong with both. Margaret Atwood's dark satirical novel is pulpier and stranger than her Handmaid's Tale-adjacent work, a sex-comedy-thriller about capitalism, conformity, and what desire costs in a monitored society.
Notes for sensitive readers
Reader-flagged moments and themes that may affect your experience.
explicit sexual content and coercive scenarios
corporate authoritarianism themes
satirical dark comedy throughout
Reader Verification
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