The Payback by Kashana Cauley
What if debt collectors didn’t take your money? What if they took a piece of you instead?
Nobody wants to admit this but debt is the only thing America truly makes anymore. Student loans, car payments, mortgages, the lists go on forever. I sat under a student loan and credit card debt for decades. What if the money you owed didn’t just come out of your paycheck, but they took a piece of your ass every time they tracked you down? This is the premise for The Payback by Kashana Cauley. Jada works at the mall to pay rent and pay off her debt after being fired from a Hollywood costuming job she had worked and took out so many loans to achieve. It’s not quite enough. When the Debt Police find her and beat her up for not keeping up with her payments she isn’t going to take it lightly. Her co-workers get on board because it’s obvious who the real targets for these too fabulous cops really are. It becomes a heist book but you are rooting for the underdog.
If you enjoy speculative fiction that takes today’s problems and pushes them just far enough to reveal uncomfortable truths, you’ll want to read our review of Chain Gang All-Stars. Both novels imagine futures that feel exaggerated at first, then alarmingly plausible the longer you think about them. Read the review →
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