Title: Lock Down (Supernatural Prison #1)
Author: Aella Black
Genre: Paranormal, YA Fiction
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Disturbing.

A couple of years ago, I read the series Into the Shadows by Karly Kirkpatrick, and Lock Down kept reminding me of those books. If you like those books, this is for you!

Phoebe is doing her best to remain low-profile because any attention will mean that someone could see she’s fending for herself. While she’s a competent sixteen, Phoebe’s still sixteen, and no one is letting her be her own guardian if they find out she’s alone. But the last of her problems is foster care when she dies and resurrects from the dead, ending up in a Supernatural Prison for juveniles. Suddenly, foster care sounds much better–especially when she’s told supernaturals aren’t considered humans.

The Phoenix can’t begin to imagine the awful that happens outside her cell in prison, and the days get dismally worse, even when unimaginably promising things come to her in Leavenworth. Nothing is worth the price she pays there.

Lock Down is a terrifying look at the violation of dehumanized people. Aella Black does a fantastic job of dragging you further and further down a dismaying rabbit hole. The fact that she is giving you a view from a child/young adult’s eyes is more devastating. I couldn’t turn away from the story; Lock Down is a page-turner.

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