Docile

by K M Szpara

There is no consent under capitalism.

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 childrens' 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.

• ISBN10: 125021615X
• ISBN13: 9781250216151
• Publish Date: 3 March 2020
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Out of Print: 12 July 2023
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: St Martin's Press
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 496
• Language: English

Reviews

[moraa]

"I didn't bare my feelings so you could explain why they were wrong. I wanted your support."

5 GOLD STARS

It's been a while since a book has made me feel this way. I yelled, I cried, I laughed, I cringed. I raged. I felt every single thing. And most of all, the ending had me holding my breath. Had me begging the author to spare me, spare me more pain. Please.

Content warnings: attempted suicide, suicidal ideation, self-harm, rape, sexual assault, slight BDSM

[jamiereadthis]

So many thoughts. So many ways this could have fulfilled its potential. So many questions where I go, “Wait, but… WHY?”

The worldbuilding is a half-baked thing after the feast of Ada Palmer. It’s your standard-issue made-to-order near-future dystopia with no sense of history or larger context, or even logic within its own world. It’s like our world… but it’s not. Cool tech is just there to be cool or fill plot holes.* Elisha is all enlightened about BDSM and polyamory but doesn’t know what “giving head” is at 21 years old. His IQ (or experience?) changes, I can only presume, based on what a scene needs because there’s no consistent indication of what’s changed in this world. He doesn’t know what a plaintiff is— why? This actually has bearing on the story. Because he’s brainwashed? Because he’s undereducated? Because he’s dirt poor, even as he’s supposed to be exceptionally smart? Is he actually exceptionally dumb? How far in the future is this world? Is that word unheard of for the lowest classes because of generations of oppression— which is a stretch to erase the concept itself. Yet there’s still your standard bureaucracy in place and news radio and billboards on the highway and EDM and preppy clothes are the hot trends? How? Why? WTF?

It doesn’t even discuss slavery in regards to slavery. In Maryland, of all places. (Why Maryland? Why Baltimore? To say Preakness a lot? How is the city so white?)** It mentions Rome once, but only to donate the word “nexus” to the concept of indentured servitude. What makes debtor’s prison the worse option? What are the laws in other states? How enforced are state lines? If this is all enacted at the state level, what keeps people from moving elsewhere? What happens at the federal level? What happens in other countries? Would there be a mass exodus, or would there be an influx to Maryland for those who want Dociline? (It is a drug, after all. Is there a black market? How do you not ask this in Baltimore?) If there’s perfect racial and gender equality— there’s no mention of race except for descriptions of (minor) characters; ditto gender, and sex is all very inclusive— then how did this society achieve unprecedented social progress yet remain complacent with persecuting extreme economic inequality? How is one group, funded in secret by one guy— employed by the “bad guys,” no less— the only form of opposition? How do they— Bishop Labs, or Alex himself— not even think to look for other potential victims like Elisha’s mother, if only to cover the scandal up? The list goes on, and on and on. For a short story, or for fanfic, you could paint in broad strokes. For a 500-page novel, it begs for solid worldbuilding so the actions add up.

I think that’s the thing; Szpara doesn’t have to have those answers. It could be fluffy fic or do one dynamic well. But either Szpara or the marketing team have positioned Docile to take these big issues seriously. Okay then. Capitalism. Slavery. Debt crisis. Class warfare. It NEEDS the context. There should be major waves rocking this world, and instead it’s a very self-centered story that wants Alex,*** the ‘trillionaire,’ to wake up to the fact there’s a larger world out there, but then defeats its own purpose by ignoring the world beyond his and Elisha’s small circle. And what is within that circle is often nonsensical.

The potential is there. I wanted to see it unlocked. Characters to invest in, concepts to tackle, boundaries to push. Instead, it’s a pretty stock parable with predictable politics and a few sex scenes that forfeit most of their power because the characters are blank slates.

More dialogue about exploitation, agency, consumerism, power— that’s always a good thing. But this book doesn’t push nearly as hard at the system as it thinks it does. Tiffany Reisz, C.S. Pacat, Ada Palmer;**** the examples are plenty of what can be done with sex, power, and politics. Tochi Onyebuchi or P. Djeli Clark for the battle cry a well-built dystopia can be. I hate to say it, because I wanted another smart, complex book to rock my worldview, but the real questions here are the ones the book ducks.

- - -

*Physical objects can materialize out of a glass “smart table” but you still need a doorman or laundromat to call a car or wash clothes? Why is the doorman a job, not a drone, if businesses can own Dociles? If smart phones are stuck to the roof of your mouth (!!), how does that not affect everything, not just the fact that Elisha accidentally calls Alex when he’s going to kill himself?

**I lived in Baltimore briefly; it’s unrecognizable.

***I kept picturing Alex as Pete on Mad Men, so yeah, not great, Bob, but I’m sticking with it because not enough evidence to confirm or disprove.

****I did the unwise thing of switching last night to my re-read of Too Like The Lightning, the scene at Ganymede’s party where Sniper gets introduced. The worldbuilding packed into those few pages was not the contrast I needed. Cry-laugh emoji. Distraught face emoji. Heart-heart.

[Quirky Cat]

I received a copy of Docile through NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Docile is a novel that has been getting an insane amount of attention online. At least, my twitter feed has been dominated by it for months now. Written by K.M. Szpara, the leading quote and focus has created a groundswell of attention.

This is a tale about Elisha Wilder. His family was overburdened by debt. So much debt that it felt like they could never get free of it. Probably because they never could. Not without taking drastic measures.

That is why Elisha sold himself. In exchange for clearing all of his family's debt, Elisha would go into a world of servitude. Here he would be expected to live on Dociline, a drug designed to keep people like Elisha calm and controlled.

Naturally, it's only the rich and powerful that benefit from this practice. But this is the world that Elisha was born into. Now let's see if he can break it.

“There is no consent under capitalism.”

Warnings: There are a lot of strong and concerning themes in this novel. Mainly they focus on the lack of consent. There's abuse, sexual assault, non-consensual sex (both for lack of ability to consent and from lack of caring), slavery, control, as well as themes of dominance and servitude.

I am honestly conflicted about how to write this review. To put it simply: Docile is not the novel I thought it would be. When I saw it described, or even talked about online, I got the impression that it was going to be a powerfully moving tale.

That might have been my mistake there. My misunderstanding. Docile does have a powerful undercurrent, in Elisha's ability to retain his sense of self through some truly heinous experiences. But there are times where that almost seems to lose focus.

The truth of the matter is, while Docile had some important points to make, as well as a few great things going for it. It also was very uncomfortable to read. The whole lack of consent in sex was a major sticking for me. As was the harsh representation of BDSM.

I guess what I'm trying to say is this: this is not the book I had expected. Nor is it really the book I had been looking forward to reading. That is a complete shame because I went into this will full intention of falling in love with it. Something that did not happen. I actually struggled to finish this book, if I'm being completely honest.

On that note, there is a bit of an upturn towards the end. But to get to that point you're going to have to go through several uncomfortable scenes and situations. Perhaps I am in the minority for feeling that way though (looking at all of the other reviews out there, I feel like I am).

Also, I just want to be clear: this is not a preference based on sexuality. I actually love that part. It's everything else that made me uncomfortable here.

Check out more reviews over at Quirky Cat's Fat Stacks

[Stephanie]

I went in expecting one thing and received something completely unexpected. That is not a bad thing. HMM.

[maggiefan]

It fucked me up.
Ok, I know it's kind of a slave fic, and everybody should know it, going into this book. But me and this book just... clicked. Yes, it's problematic in a way. At the same time, it makes you think, it makes you sympathize with the characters you don't want to sympathize with. To put it simply, it made me really emotional.