Docile by K.M. Szpara

I read Docile by K.M. Szpara yesterday. This post is about the problems with the book because I've been thinking about them and writing about them is how I work them out in my head; however, I also need to say that I could not put it down and skipped doing some other things I would normally have done yesterday in favor of continuing on with the book.

Content notes straight from the book itself: Docile contains forthright depictions and discussions of rape, abuse, and other consent violations, as well as attempted suicide and suicidal ideation.

Book description from the publisher:

There is no consent under capitalism

K. M. Szpara's Docile is a science fiction parable about love and sex, wealth and debt, abuse and power, a challenging tour de force that at turns seduces and startles.

To be a Docile is to be kept, body and soul, for the uses of the owner of your contract. To be a Docile is to forget, to disappear, to hide inside your body from the horrors of your service. To be a Docile is to sell yourself to pay your parents' debts and buy your children's future.

Elisha Wilder's family has been ruined by debt, handed down to them from previous generations. His mother never recovered from the Dociline she took during her term as a Docile, so when Elisha decides to try and erase the family's debt himself, he swears he will never take the drug that took his mother from him. Too bad his contract has been purchased by Alexander Bishop III, whose ultra-rich family is the brains (and money) behind Dociline and the entire Office of Debt Resolution. When Elisha refuses Dociline, Alex refuses to believe that his family's crowning achievement could have any negative side effects—and is determined to turn Elisha into the perfect Docile without it.

( Spoilers )