Goodhouse

Incarceration in the Goodhouse system is tough enough, but protagonist James is in a worse spot in Marshall's debut novel. Goodhouse facilities are prison/reeducation camps for boys identified as having a genetic tendency toward violent behavior. But are they born criminals, or does the Goodhouse program make them violent? Life there is hard, with class leaders who keep positions through violence, experimental drug regimes, and roommates who report the tiniest infraction rather than risk the chance that they will be one of the few allowed to return to normal society. Now a religious extremist group, the Zeros, wants something even worse for the Goodhouse boys: their fiery eradication. James escaped an Iowa fire bombing, only to find himself moved to a tougher California Goodhouse. An encounter with a strange, brilliant girl with a heart problem on the one day he is allowed to leave campus sends him down a rabbit hole of twisting loyalties, near escapes, and chilling dangers.