A young boy, by the name of Perry Cook, was born in Nebraska in a Co-ed Correctional Facility. Perry Cook is able to live in the prison with his mother, Jessica Cook, who was apprehended by the police due to murder at a young age. The novel's main conflict is shown by a direct contrast between Perry and his mother. When Perry, the wistful child, is taken away from his mother, a seemingly dangerous individual, Perry faces the conflicts of the outside world. His mother’s incarceration now feels like his own, and Perry tries to go through his own sentence. Both points of view are shown in this story, which shows the readers two different ethics of two people. Perry tries to fight for his mother’s parole while being exposed to the people of the outside world, alongside his best friend Zoey. This book was very heartwarming. Looking at Perry’s point of view, made me feel positive. Perry was never disheartened by his mother. This book taught me that although some people commit crimes, they still have their own thoughts, feelings, and humanity, no matter how severe the crime is. This book really made me see seemingly “bad” people in a new light. We are all people who want the best for ourselves. Doing unwelcome things doesn’t necessarily make someone a terrible person. Perry also stays optimistic throughout the whole novel, even though he goes through very extreme hardships at a young age. The theme of innocence is heartwarming, and not very frequent in many crime-related novels. But, this book was extremely long and a little tedious. This book felt like it had no salient climax. The diction in the novel was dull and there wasn’t anything extremely worthwhile in the book. The lessons were important, but they could have been conveyed in a more exciting way.
Amani E.
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