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An extremely in depth look at the impact of the War on Drugs on black and brown minorities in the USA. Some of the facts laid bare here are absolutely shocking (rates of incarceration for black males vs white males for the same drug crimes especially when looked at in terms of usage percentages vs population size of each group - none of it makes any sense except in baked in racist terms).

The only thing I'll say against the book is many of the points are repeated over and over. It definitely felt like it could have been edited down without losing impact.

This has been on my to-read list for some time.

It was difficult to not find myself comparing this to The Expanse, given just how much I enjoyed that staggering 9 book series. Sadly I didn't find this lived up to my expectations. I appreciated the imagination that clearly went into it, but I didn't find myself connecting with any of the characters in the same way that I did in The Expanse.

In theory this book starts out with a much much bigger scope than The Expanse but strangely feels much narrower and small. You don't really get the same sense of space or the worlds involved or the technologies.

I'm hopeful that it turns around and proves me very wrong in the subsequent books, and I think if I had read this without ever reading The Expanse I probably wouldn't be so critical. I did enjoy it, just not in the way I'd hoped to.

The meandering perspective at first annoyed me, then I settled into it. Once I fell into that rhythm, it felt like a solid read, and interesting to get a glimpse of South African life. Although I felt a bit irked to not get perspectives from Black characters a bit more.