In the not-distant future, prison inmates are given the option to fight to the death, gladiator-style, for the slim chance of winning their freedom, while their lives and battles are broadcast to a bloodthirsty fan base.

This is a powerfully told story - dark, challenging, maddening - because it's so damn close to the reality of the American prison-for-profit system now, and the dehumanization of both convicts and of "action sports" athletes (blood sports, whether the NFL or MMA or UFC or even the legions of young men who think that Fight Club was an invitation into tests of manhood. 

The story is multiple-POV, multiple-voice, and you hear from athletes, their family members, "corrections" officers, abolitionists, pain researchers, board members of the sports broadcast company, etc.  And these stories interweave, in sometimes surprising ways.

The pace is fast, the characters are multidimensional.

The print and audio books are also littered with footnotes referencing the current American penal system, both prison and legal, and those footnotes support the narrative as well as the education of the reader.

I've been describing the book this way:  Powerful speculative fiction, incredibly well told story, and pairs well with [author:Michelle Alexander|3051490]'s masterpiece [book:The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness|6792458], with a broader target audience because it's just a great story.. that will move and educate you. 

EVERYBODY should read this, whether fans of fiction, nonfiction, storytelling, excellent audio narration, everybody. 

I read it as an audiobook. It's very well voiced by multiple voice actors, with energy and character dripping throughout.