This was kind of interesting - I came to this with interest from comics, and maybe I was wrong to anticipate more of that feel.

I very much hoped that my love of Straczynski's writing would carry from the screen to the page, but much to my disappointment, it did not.

I have long been a fan of JMS and I found this an absorbing story of the individual against the state, which reflects recent political developments and extrapolates a future dystopian situation where only those brave enough to protest will preserve the human rights of everyone.
I really liked the main character Riley, who opts to stay in a mental correctional facility rather than going to jail. It seems a reasonable deal, only it turns out far more sinister, with emotional manipulation and coercive techniques being used to persuade her and her fellow ‘political inmates’ that they were led astray, and all they need to do is to report on those who have influenced them to behave in such an anti-social behaviour (that is, taking to the streets to protest). But it was Riley’s parents who taught her to stand up for herself, and she takes on the system at her own personal risk, finding help in unexpected places she manages to block a subversion of democracy.
Well written and thought-provoking, a modern One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest with a twist, it has sad bits but an overall hopeful message that making a stand for true ethics, and belief systems, can make a difference. I think it is an interesting story for young students trying to navigate current politics and deciding how to use their democratic rights.. Thank you to the publishers for an advance digital copy of this book to read.

The Glass Box portraits a dystopian future where the American government starts to control its citizens to a greater extent.

Riley Diaz is arrested for protesting. She is given the choice for prison or admittance in a psychiatric facility. Riley chooses to be admitted into the psychiatric facility.

The facility runs a new program for the Department of Homeland Security American Renewal Centers (ARCs). The government lets people believe this program is focused on the rehabilitation of the people that are being admitted.

Riley meets a lot of different patients during her stay.
She soon learns that being admitted into this psychiatric facility comes with challenges. She is confronted with forced therapy sessions, forced medication treatments and solitary confinement. She has to deal with manipulative doctors and staff that has their own agenda. During her stay in the facility Riley endures these punishments, and refuses to submit to the manipulation. Riley starts to realise that there is more to the ARC program, then the people have led to believe.


Will she be able to survive this facility re-gain her freedom?


The author created a believable story, with realistic characters and had a great plot. However, I missed some deeper layer to Riley's personality and the overall story. The patient known as Frankenstein was an interesting addition to the story. The book was engaging and enjoyable read.

Riley is arrested after being present at a protest, something which is sweeping the nation after the American government starts to try and control its citizens more and more. She can choose between a prison sentence or being committed to a psychiatric facility for treatment by the government in hopes of”rehabilitation”. She meets many different patients and an archnemesis in the man who is her doctor.

This is my first book from this author and I just wanted a little bit more! I wanted more of a full picture of the dystopian world the author created as I didn’t feel like it was fully described. I liked Riley and the cast of characters, I thought “Frankenstein” was quite interesting. However, I just found it a bit anticlimatic. Still entertaining in parts, just didn’t totally hit home for me.

The Glass Box
The Glass Box by J. Michael Straczynski
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The Glass Box is a timely dystopian SF look at authoritarianism and its modern abuses. Namely, American political prisoners who get locked away in legal but thoroughly icky mental health hospitals.

In this case, it's the way for certain government agencies to put away dissenters and protesters on the streets, by giving the ones locked up an option to have the "lesser" punishment in a voluntary intake center, but after they're there, as the MC Riley soon learns, just about any kind of abuse can follow.

The darkness of this tale is very much in line with One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest or the movie Girl, Interrupted. But it's serious to point out that this is a fully modern take on the same subject and it's not hard to see that it could easily be taken this far with us, right now. When certain people need to get rid of protesters, then it all becomes an opportunity to follow N. Korea or China with re-education programs -- be it under other names.

It feels like a surprising twist of a tale to come from J. Michael Straczynski, but upon a little reflection, it's just about perfect.

Great tale, fun and harrowing to read.

Less Sci-fi, more Dystopian. Or I suppose Poli-Sci-Fi. Could also be considered a horror novel, as it terrified me.

After the past few years in the US where people have been arguing if protesting is really peaceful and what constitutes unjust brutality, I can say that I didn't need this new nagging worst-case scenario in my brain. While Riley's inner monologue is argumentative but ultimately can-do (I pictured her as a grown-up Louise Belcher), mine is anxious. And now I won't be able to sleep without worrying if we're descending into chaos. Thanks!
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Written in a screenplay kind of way, which makes sense considering the author's credentials listed at the beginning. Could be a little messy when reading, but not too bad. Some of the dialogue also felt long, which again may have been appropriate for the screen where people have to explain themselves, but it felt like a lot for a book where more nuance could've taken place.

Note: Some formatting issues and typos that I hope are being fixed in final edits and review. For example, the part where Kaminski is talking and simultaneously Riley is "hearing" the explanation C texted her. I didn't realize what was happening at first bc it was formatted like regular text. Maybe italicize? IDK. It was definitely a scene written for the screen, not so much the page.

This is a harrowing look into our near future if we do not value our protesting voices in this polarized climate with seriousness and empathy. It is as well as a humane look at the wounds we carry psychologically. There were moments when I thought these two plot threads didn't give each other room to be fully realized but I found this to be overall an important book with true emotion.

I am delighted to start my reviews for 2024 with the work of someone whose creative skills I have long admired: I have often mentioned Babylon 5 as my favorite SF series, one I have watched and re-watched many times, always finding something new and deep in its multi-faceted story and wonderfully drawn characters. So it comes as a given that I’m also a huge fan of the works of B5’s creator, J. Michael Stracksynski (a.k.a. JMS). His name can be found on many TV and movie scripts and his books also showcase his brilliant writing - I already reviewed both his autobiography Becoming Superman and the mainstream novel Together We Will Go, so when I learned of his new book, The Glass Box, I just knew that I would read and enjoy it. The discovery that the story was a dystopian SF one only added to my curiosity about it.

The background for The Glass Box is a near-future America, one where many of the most basic civil liberties have been abolished: Riley Diaz is only one of the many activists protesting against this constant curtailing of freedoms, the latest being the prohibition of gatherings of more than ten people. Caught and detained in the course of one such protest rally, she is given a choice: a prison sentence or six months of mandatory counseling in one of the newfangled American Renewal Centers - or ARCs - where she is expected to correct her rebellious tendencies. Convinced that she has better chances of escaping the Center than she would a prison, Riley accepts and is sent to ARC nr. 14, a psychiatric hospital where one of the wings is being converted to the uses of the Homeland Security-sponsored ARC program.

Once there Riley is soon faced with the harsh reality of actual brainwashing effected through psychological tampering and forced drug therapy, enhanced by effective torture measures like sleep- and food deprivation. Her constant defiance is met by the supervising physician’s blend of zeal and innate cruelty on one side and by the other ARC inmates’ initial distrust, since Riley’s behavior threatens their attempts at the conformity that will get them out of there - that is, until something happens that opens their eyes and their minds…

The Glass Box is a fairly short book, and I literally inhaled it in a couple of days because of my pressing need to see how the story would pan out, since there was no certainty about any of the possible outcomes. It presented both a frightening possibility and the compelling exploration of a legitimate and concrete concern, running with it through the lens of the question “what if…?”, which is exactly the role of Science Fiction in modern literature. At some point in the story there is a mention of the 1950 Emergency Detention Act as the inspiring decree from which the whole concept of the ARCs is developed: of course I went online to learn more and discovered that it’s a very real legislation that authorized the federal government to summarily detain any person suspected of espionage or sabotage or "whom there is reasonable ground to believe [will]... probably engage in... acts of espionage or sabotage" (I took the quote from HERE). Anyone familiar with Orwell’s 1984 or Dick’s Minority Report would be able to see the horrifying possibilities of abuse of such latitude of interpretation in the absence of a controlling mechanism, and that’s exactly what happens in this novel.

Riley is a wonderful character indeed: brash and reckless at times, she is gifted with an unwavering determination not to be molded into the acceptable shape required by the program and she pays a heavy personal price for her constant refusal to bend, or to break - at some point she claims that saying “no” is the only weapon at her disposal, the only way she has to maintain whatever control the situation allows her. And she needs all that stubbornness to resist, because the process is a subtle and insidious one: at first, the inmates are required to admit to something apparently trivial, which is in reality the way to lead them to wider and deeper revelations whose avalanche effect can then proceed inexorably. I was often reminded of a particular episode of Babylon5 (Intersections in Real Time) in which the character is being psychologically manipulated into admitting that he acted under alien influence: in the same way, the ARC inmates are encouraged to acknowledge that their rebellious acts are the result of outside manipulation and that only in disavowing it will they be “cured” of their “disease”.

The Glass Box was at the same time a thrilling read and a frightening one, given that the borders between fiction and reality are quite thin when one stops to think about it. As I expected, given my familiarity with the author, the story is carried by a set of believable, diverse and complex characters that make it easy for the reader to connect with them - or to passionately hate them, as was the case for a very particular one. Highly recommended.

Thanks to NetGalley and Blackstone Publishing for an advanced audio book in exchange for an honest review.

4 stars

In the future the government puts dissidents in American Renewal Centers (ARC) under the authority of a new defense act. Riley was arrested for protesting and put in the ARC, which is basically a psychiatric facility led by a manipulative doctor with an agenda.

I loved Together We Will Go a whole bunch so I jumped at the chance to read an ARC of this book (thanks, NetGalley!). Boy was I right. What a read! Tinges of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest mixed with hints of Edward Abbey's The Monkey Wrench Gang, laid against the backdrop of our contemporaneous clomp towards fascism. Wow. Just wow.

All the stars for this one!

"Once you open the book on these people, you don't stop, you don't turn back, you keep going until you win. Doesn't matter how long it takes. That's what united our family across the years back in Ireland. You stood on the same corner as your father and mother, which was the same corner where their parents and their parents' parents stood, demonstrating for the same things: decency and fair dealing and humanity. It took four hundred years of families, united in hope, to push the English out of Ireland. That's twice the life of this country, spent in a single struggle. A lot of us fell in the process, but in the end we won.

You stay and you wear them down until the job is done, until there's peace, until the bully boys learn that using force against people doesn't work anymore, because it requires fear on the other side. The fear is always bigger than the actual threat. Once you stop being afraid, the threat falls apart."

The Glass Box by J. Michael Straczynski is a very highly recommended science fiction dystopian that feels closer to the future than you'd like to believe is possible in America.

Riley Diaz is arrested for protesting a new law that encroaches on our rights and is subsequently incarcerated under that same new defense act which limits the freedom of assembly. She is given the choice of prison or admittance in one of the new Department of Homeland Security American Renewal Centers (ARCs) for mandatory reeducation. The program is located in a psychiatric facility and Riley soon learns that it is not going to be as easy as she thought to escape from the facility. It also becomes clear that the ARC program is more insidious than people were led to believe and includes forced therapy, involuntary medication, solitary confinement, restricted rations, and more punishments. Riley takes a stand, endures the punishments, and refuses to submit to the manipulation.

The writing is outstanding in this fast-paced, compelling science fiction novel which is riveting from beginning to end. It is ultimately about the choices you make and the courage and determination required to stand firm on your principles while refusing to back down even when under duress. It also skirts close to reality and could portend a near future dystopian world.

Riley is wonderfully realized and realistic character. Her ability to think for herself and stand up for herself in an unjust system, even to her own detriment, is an admirable quality in a protagonist. It also makes her character likeable and trustworthy. She doesn't buckle under peer pressure or administrative sanctions. The relationship she forges with the patient known only as Frankenstein is a touching and important element in the novel.

The Glass Box is an excellent choice for readers who enjoy dystopian science fiction with a timely narrative and memorable characters.

Disclosure: My complimentary review copy was courtesy of Blackstone Publishing via NetGalley.
The review will be published on Edelweiss, X, Barnes & Noble and Amazon.

I really wanted to love this book. The premise was great. It had to be great. It had to. But unfortunately, it felt like something was lacking. As I kept reading, it felt like the writing was stiff, the characters flat, and the story – which could have been one of the best out there, given the way it was going and unfolding – felt forced. Unfortunately, me and this book, we just didn’t click.

Been reading a #NetGalley ARC of #TheGlassBox by @straczynski. I wasn't able to finish it (it was hitting a bit too close to home; take care of your mental health needs!) but what I read was full of interesting and compelling characters, as viewed from a newcomer's POV.

Spare you the spoilers, but it expands on some themes that will be familiar to fans of #Babylon5, regarding abuse of power, the stigma of mental health struggles, and how you can resist when you're just one single person boxed in by the system.

The Glass Box by J. Michael Straczynski is dystopian fiction that closely mirrors the systematic oppression imposed on the public by ruling authorities and how society can pay heed to a lonely voice, get inspired, and protest against these attempts. The book is an engaging read that is difficult to put down and has a great plot and a powerful protagonist, though I would wish it to be something more deeper in its storytelling.

I will read/watch anything J. Michael Straczynski writes. Together We Will Go was good, so I was happy to see he had another novel coming out, and I had to snag it on Netgalley.

As a warning: things are going to get political in this review. But things got political in the book that the review is about. Things never went explicitly in line with one party or another, and Riley herself says that she’d protest either side if what they were doing was wrong, but let’s be real – we all know who the authoritarian government in this book is standing in for. If you don’t like the politics in this review, take it as a sign that this book will not be for you and move on.

The basic premise – protesters being jailed and sent to “American Renewal Centers” for re-education to make them fall in line – seems terrifyingly plausible in the immediate context of the 2020 protests and the Trump administration’s response. This book would have felt more relevant then - here and now, in 2023, it seems less possible, but I think it’s important to cast our minds back to that time period and remember that at that time, things once considered "too far” were happening with frightening regularity – and to realize just how easily those fractious times could return.

As usual, the author’s greatest strength is in creating vivid, relatable, interesting characters. I loved Riley and her unbreakable spirit, and the fascinating cast of side characters who populated the mental hospital. The book was fast-paced, for all that it takes place mostly in a mental institution, and it kept my interest all the way through. Solid four stars.

Representation: POC characters (including main character)

CW: suicide, sexual harassment and assault, abuse of power, gaslighting, psychological torture, food restriction as torture

Be afraid. Be very afraid. And then take action! The Glass Box from J. Michael Straczynski feels more like a docudrama in book form than simple fiction. This story came to life for me in the early moments as Riley Diaz strapped on her kneepads, slid a helmet over her head, pulled up her neck mask, and slapped the faceplate into place to leave for a protest in Seattle.

Still a teenager, she is keenly aware of who she is and what she wants. We are whiplashed into her world, where the normal is at once reminiscent of 1930s Europe with Hitler and Mussolini spewing hateful rhetoric and inciting violence, and today's economic uncertainty, ethnic nationalism, and leanings toward authoritarianism in the United States.

Riley is ready to take on the bad actors with confidence and is always thinking at least two steps ahead of those who are hell-bent on furthering an agenda that will diminish democracy and take the country back at least a century. She shows compassion and empathy for those she is housed with during this experience, who are facing the wrath of people who have bought into behavior and actions that will certainly have dire outcomes for those least likely to be able to protect their rights. Oh, to have the courage and self-direction of Riley Diaz; doing so can mean saving the world from reliving a period in time that is best left buried in history.

Straczynski has proven that he has an uncanny sense of the world. In this parallel universe as he drops us inside The Glass Box, we have only a nanosecond to get on board and hang on for dear life, or be smushed like an insect on the windshield. We have the power to make a difference, if only we are willing to make this a priority.

The Wikipedia entry for J. Michael Straczynski says that he is a film maker and a comic book writer. While he is certainly a film maker, and a good one at that, I feel that comic book writer is too limiting a term. He has written for a significant amount of television series and movies, as well as the aforementioned comic books. In fact, I would say that he is an "writer", with many credits to his name. JMS, as he is known (and I will refer to him here as that since it's a lot easier than typing out Straczynski), is probably best known for writing *92* of the 110 episodes of the science fiction television show "Babylon 5". But I would suggest that even though he is mainly known for writing genre works, he has a talent for writing books that are not genre, such as the novel TOGETHER WE WILL GO and the autobiography BECOMING SUPERMAN. His latest novel is THE GLASS BOX, and while it may be marketed as science fiction, I don't think it's sf at all. In fact, I'm not convinced that it's completely fiction.

Riley Diaz is a resistance fighter, raised by her parents to question authority and not be quiet about it. You might almost call her a professional protester. She works with an organized group of protesters who know what they're getting into every time they step out on the front line. If they are not careful, they will be arrested even if their protests are lawful. She views the government as something that is not to be trusted, and the government has pretty much earned that lack of trust. The powers that be are cracking down on the freedoms that all citizens have become accustomed to, but especially the freedom to gather peacefully in public. And this rankles Diaz and her colleagues to no end.

At the latest protest, Diaz is arrested and taken to one of the many American Renewal Centers (ARCs) for what amounts to mandatory reeducation. And getting into an ARC was part of the plan, as the idea was to get inside and find out exactly what is going on at the shadowy ARCs. What she didn't count on was not being able to get out once she was in there. The "patients", if you will, are incarcerated for six months, and, based on a points system that no one but the people who run the ARCs knows, could be let out early or detained for a longer period of time. Diaz, the freedom fighter that she is, doesn't give in to the system. She resists the authorities there, and her fellow patients don't trust her very much. In fact, with all of them wishing to get out and at the same time facing a "if one of you does something bad, you're all going to suffer" situation, they shun Diaz at first. Slowly but surely, by her actions, her fellow inmates (lets call them what they really are) begin to trust her and work with her to fight the system and hopefully eventually find a way out. Diaz also finds an unlikely ally in the form of a character nicknamed Frankenstein. She is the only person there able to break through to him, and they form a bond that is touching and heartfelt. As you might expect, Frankenstein becomes important to the plan for breaking out of the ARC Diaz is in.

What's frightening about THE GLASS BOX is that it's easy to see that this sort of thing could happen today. A government that is interested in staying in power, invoking a decades old law, and doing everything it can to put down and silence protesters, is something that should terrify everyone, whether here in the U.S. or anywhere around the world. THE GLASS BOX portrays a very real and scary scenario, where it takes courage, persistence, and valor to fight back and beat the system. I found myself rooting for Diaz as the novel went on, as it became clear that there were very sinister things going on all the way up to the top.

THE GLASS BOX is a thriller, a great read, and a frightening and thought provoking look at what a government could become if it is not held in check. I feel as if JMS was writing with some insider's knowledge, and he does a terrific job from beginning to end in the novel. While he may have made his name in other areas of entertainment, such as television, movies, and comic books, I believe that he is growing stronger as a novel writer. I eagerly look forward to his next novel.

J. Michael Straczynski is an incredible writer who has worked on established comic book characters (Spider-Man, Thor) penned his own original works (Midnight Nation, Rising Stars) and, of course, toiled on multiple TV shows including arguably the greatest sci-fi yarn of all time, Babylon 5.

He's also written a handful of novels but it's a much rarer thing for the bloke. Consequently it's always a bit exciting when he does release an old fashioned book. Enter: The Glass Box.

The Glass Box is low-fi sci-fi drama set in the (very near) future where government overreach has allowed protestors to be classified as insane and popped inside the booby hatch. Our protagonist Riley Diaz has fallen afoul of this sinister power grab and finds herself in a situation very reminiscent of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, although with zappier dialogue.

It's a brisk, engaging read with plenty of likable characters and oodles of twists and turns along the way. I did find myself occasionally rolling my eyes at Riley who seems intent on getting herself into more trouble at every turn, but the relationship she forges with the aptly named patient Frankenstein was very moving and well observed.

Ultimately this is pacey, engaging stuff from a writer whose grasp of and love for humanity sings with every word. And after you finish, maybe check out Babylon 5 as well. Because it's great and you deserve something nice, hey.

I've been warned.

J. Michael Straczynski, the creator of Babylon 5, has now warned me and soon he'll warn all of you. The Glass Box, his newest novel, feels like a warning of something very frightening that could happen. In fact, its likely to happen if we don't listen and pay attention.

The Glass Box is set in the near future where protestors are out doing their thing and the American government has had it up to here with them. And so they start arresting peaceful protestors and giving them the option of going into mental health institutions. The book focuses on Riley Diaz, a young woman who's grown up protesting the government. She chooses to go to a mental institution instead of prison. She is not going to go quietly though. She continues to protest even in the institution. Against all odds, she keeps fighting.

You may think: there's no way this could happen in America. But we've seen that the U.S. government can and often does act against protestors and it has imprisoned innocent people in the past as this book points out. Its frightening to think something like what happens in the Glass Box could happen. It could and it might. Its a shame that the people in the US government who should read this book will either never hear of it or if they did they might take it the wrong way. This is a book that as many people as possible should read. It has an important message.

That said, The Glass Box is also well written and the main character Riley is interesting and complex. She is not without faults. She feels like a real person. The book also has some shocking twists and turns that I won't spoil. Just when you think you know where this book is going, it'll pull the rug out from under you.

The Glass Box is Straczynski's best novel yet. Everyone should read and learn from this book. Also enjoy the ride. It has a lesson but its also just a really good book too.

Boots on the ground and bodies reading The Glass Box! Check this book out on January 9th, Thank you to Blackstone Publishing and Netgalley for providing a digital review copy of this book.