Horn Book

In the near future, executioners pride themselves on killing their subjects in increasingly creative ways and live-streaming the deaths on social media. Dee Guerrera is surprised to wake up imprisoned at Alcatraz 2.0 and tapped as the next to die. Framed for her stepsister's murder, Dee has to take down the system and prove her own innocence in this gory story surprisingly infused with witty satire.

Kirkus Reviews

After a wrongful conviction, a terrified teen must fight for survival on a lethal reality show in McNeil's (I'm Not Your Manic Pixie Dream Girl, 2016, etc.) latest thriller.In a distressingly familiar world where a reality star has been elected president and the penal system has been outsourced to a twisted producer called The Postman, "justice" is now meted out via a Survivor-esque app. Criminals are sent to Alcatraz 2.0, an island near San Francisco, where they are executed in the most entertaining ways possible by professional killers. When Latina teen Dee Guerrera is convicted of her stepsister's murder after a bogus trial, she refuses to be executed for a crime she didn't commit just to boost ratings. She soon discovers that she is not the only innocent person on the island, but as the teens begin to build alliances, The Postman's rules seem to change—and not in their favor. This laudable and campy attempt at YA's answer to Black Mirror throws a few too many things into the mix. Critiques of capital punishment, privatized prisons, and a populace voluntarily subjugated by social media—it's so much, so fast that the narrative relies on breakneck pacing and scenes of gruesome and innovative violence to move the plot forward. With inconsistent and incohesive character development, this is one for action and annihilation fans.Cringes on every page—many of them good. (Thriller. 14-18)

Publishers Weekly (Fri Oct 06 00:00:00 CDT 2023)

In this biting satire of reality shows and today-s U.S. political atmosphere, 17-year-old Dee Guerrera, framed for the murder of her stepsister, is dropped onto a nightmarish island in San Francisco Bay where she must fight for her life against state-sponsored killers. Dee is sentenced to Alcatraz 2.0, a show and attendant app created by an anonymous television mogul that offer -televised capital punishment.- After accidentally killing her would-be executioner in self-defense, she becomes an instant sensation. Now branded the #CinderellaSurvivor and forced to portray a Disney princess for audience appeal, she forms a tenuous alliance with fellow inmates in a desperate attempt to unravel the island-s secrets and expose the injustice of their situation, all while suspecting she was brought there for a specific reason. McNeil (I-m Not Your Manic Pixie Dream Girl) offers a tense, fast-paced tale that balances gore (numerous people die in creative, occasionally graphic ways), pop culture, and dark comedy. Ages 14-up. Agent: Ginger Clark, Curtis Brown Ltd. (Aug.)

School Library Journal

Gr 9 Up-This dystopian horror novel imagines a world where the height of entertainment is watching a livestream of convicted felons getting hunted down and murdered by professional executioners in the most macabre prison imaginable. The facility, set on a remote island, is managed by a man known only as The Postman, and he makes money by streaming the prison feed over an app and selling related merchandise. His innumerable young fans are rabid for watching violent justice being served to death row criminals. In fact, they "ship" them, lust after them, and follow their movesjust like any other reality television stars. The latest addition to the island is Dee Guerrera, a 16-year-old who has been framed for the murder of her stepsister. Now Dee and the other innocent inmates must band together and fight for their lives if they are to find a way out. The fast-paced action will appeal to fans of The Hunger Games , though character development is often sacrificed to keep up the frantic pace. There are many graphic descriptions of blood, guts, and gore relating to the murders and lots of colorful language. Embedded in the novel are chat transcripts from the app, which have the potential to spark discussion and raise moral and ethical questions that relate to contemporary social psychology and use of social media. VERDICT A gory thriller that moves at breakneck speed, this book will be hard to put down for older teens with a penchant for horror. Shannon O'Connor, Unami Middle School, Chalfont, PA