The Panopticon, by Jenni Fagan
Anais Hendricks has been sent to the Panopticon, a last resort foster care facility. Her crime? Surviving 38 social workers, uncountable foster families, and police harassment. Anais has been sent to the Panopticon for brutally beating a female police officer, an assault Anais unequivocally denies.
Told in Anais' voice, complete with Scots dialect, The Panopticon unflinchingly reveals the ugliness of her life. Drugs she uses to numb herself of any feeling. Rapes she has endured. Inappropriate personal searches conducted by the police. Yet, Anais desires beauty in her life, and strives to be picture-perfect with her fashion choices and make-up.
Even with the threat of being sent to maximum security, Anais is able to settle into a good life at the Panopticon. In spite of her best efforts to avoid them, she builds healthy relationships with the other teens. The care workers don't even have complaints about her. Perhaps Anais is not the monster everyone thinks she is. Maybe if she can endure her stay there, she could go on to a normal, healthy life.
The Experiment won't let her, though. Throughout her life, Anais has viewed herself a result of some vast conspiracy. Probably everyone has gone through a period in their lives when they felt alien, that their family didn't belong to them. Anais never had a family, and each experience she had, she chalked up to being a part of the Experiment. Anais finally makes a stand against the Experiment. Whether or not it really exists, Anais will probably be ok. She has made her choice, and she is prepared to live that life.
I wasn't completely satisfied with the ending, I'll admit. I really wanted to know if Anais is ever vindicated. I guess I should be happy that Anais, finally allowing herself to feel, has decided her own destiny.
