Comic thriller set in a world where debt has become criminal, and debt collectors can assault people on the street. Jada Williams decides she is tired of hiding from the debt police and plans a heist to set herself free. This felt like a Boots Riley movie which is a really high compliment for me. I read this book initially six or so months ago, and in a world of masked ICE agents kidnapping mothers in the street, the world it posits is a lot more plausible.

Honestly, the story felt really slow, and I just couldn’t get into it just right. I couldn’t bring myself to care about what was going on. It took until 34% of the book just to get to the first timeskip after she gets fired. Everything before that felt kind of pointless to me, lots of narration that didn’t really add anything.

Weirdly, there were also so many timeskips, even though the pacing was already slow. It just didn’t work for me. I found myself losing interest pretty quickly. I’m giving this 2 stars only because the writing style itself was okay.

Thanks NetGalley for the copy of this book.

The book title reminded me of the James Brown song, and I love when titles are culturally specific.

The plot was chaotic, in a way that worked for the story and its character captures the absurdity of the student loan crisis. Everyone was operating off pure rage (rightfully so), with zero real scheming experience.

This book affirmed my belief that we’re truly one scam away from living the life we deserve.

The Payback by Kashana Cauley
#seventythirdbookof2025
#arc #thepayback #debtpolice

CW: violence and assault, extreme student debt

From NetGalley: Jada Williams is good at judging people by their looks. From across the mall, she can tell not only someone’s inseam and pants size, but exactly what style they need to transform their life. Too bad she’s no longer using this superpower as a wardrobe designer to Hollywood stars, but for minimum wage plus commission at the Glendale mall. When Jada is fired yet again, she is forced to outrun the newly instated Debt Police who are out for blood. But Jada, like any great antihero, is not going to wait for the cops to come kick her around. With the help of two other debt-burdened mall coworkers, she hatches a plan for revenge. Together the three women plan a heist to erase their student loans forever and get back at the system that promised them everything and then tried to take it back.

My thoughts: This book has a very interesting premise and frankly, it doesn’t sound very far fetched from real life of late. Anyone not in good standing with their student debt is subject to arrest or assault from the Debt Police, who will give you a warning in the form of a beating, or will simply steal your stuff and credit your balance with a negligible amount. This is a sort of a heist novel but it’s pretty low key and there’s not much hard action until the end. I expected a touch more suspense but I did enjoy the detail given about Jada’s career and her retail work. It’s a short read and has interesting things to say about race, class, and exploitation. I really enjoyed this book. It’s worth picking up.

Thank you to @atriabooks and @netgalley for the advance copy. (Pub date 7/15/25)

The Payback by Kashana Cauley was a fun and entertaining read that I finished in a few hours.
A well written story that kept me hooked from the very beginning.
The characters draw you in and keeps you flipping the pages.
They are realistic and very well developed.
I really enjoyed the writing style. I found myself hooked, turning the pages.

For anyone who's ever felt burdened by debt and disheartened by the inequities surrounding modern life, Kashana Cauley's "The Payback" is a completely relatable story.

The story follows Jada Williams, who used to be a coveted Hollywood stylist. Nowadays, however, Jada is stuck working in a mall in Glendale. She's broke, frustrated, and being chased by the Debt Police. Then something happens that becomes the catalyst to Jada's breaking point. She soon teams up with two of her coworkers to take down the student loan company that’s ruined all their lives.

"The Payback" is part heist and part satirical social commentary. Cauley nails the tone perfectly, with sharp, funny writing that also includes heartfelt moments. The narrative is fast-paced and clever, but also realistic about what it feels like to continuously feel like you'll never get ahead. The best part of this book is the characters. They are smart, but messy. Even as they plan something wildly illegal, it's still easy to root for them. And for all its comedy, "The Payback" feels like an important read with something serious to say.

Jada Williams knows style. She can take one glance at someone and know their clothing sizes, can see in an instant what’s wrong with their clothes, and come up with a better look for them in an instant. After film school, she was certain her life would be spent on movie sets, styling the stars and helping to create the make-believe that creates magic on theater screens. And she did make her way to that exact job.

And then it fell through her fingers.

That’s how she ended up at Phoenix, a clothing store at the Glendale Mall. She works there with Lanae, who fronts a punk band on the weekends, and Audrey, who used to work for the government as a hacker. Jada likes her job okay. It pays the bills, lets her live alone and splurge once in a while for her favorite pizza. But it can’t make a dent in her student loans, which hold her down like a weight.

When their boss at the store suddenly dies, the three women are devastated. Richard had been a good boss and a good friend. But a new boss changes everything, especially for Jada, who gets fired. She tries to find another job, but she can’t. She earns some money online, but not enough for those loan payments. And that’s when the Debt Police find her.

They don’t arrest her, but they do beat her badly and leave her laying just outside of the grocery store. She is able to make it back home, but she’s not okay. And when the Debt Police also find Lanae and Audrey and leave them bloodied and bruised, Jada knows that they have to do something. Audrey’s time working for the government means that she knows what to look for, to find where all the debt records are kept. And since Jada doesn’t have a job, she has time to stake out the building and learn about their security.

And then they come up with a plan to wipe out their debt. But not just their debt. They want to wipe out all the student loan debt. Will they be able to pull it off, or will the Debt Police take them down once and for all?

The Payback is a scorching social commentary on race, entitlement, and wealth inequalities. It’s smart, funny, and cutting as it skewers the way student loans turned into a crisis and dives into how that effects those who are trying to pay off the loans and also get ahead in the world. Jada and her friends are intelligent and driven but also beaten down by a corrupted system.

I really liked The Payback, but I also found it hard to read at times. I am also someone who has struggled with student loans for many years (and will for many years to come), so this brought up a lot of feels for me. But I loved these characters and wanted them to see all their dreams come true. I was cheering them on throughout their adventures and hoped they could delete all that debt (mine included, obviously).

Egalleys for The Payback were provided by Atria Books through NetGalley, with many thanks, but the opinions are mine.

Thank you, @KashanaCauley and @AtriaBooks for my free book. #AtriaPartner

📚 #BOOKREVIEW 📚
The Payback by Kashana Cauley
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ / Pages: 256
Genre: Women’s Fiction
Release Date: July 15, 2025
🥳#HappyPubWeek!🎉

After being wrongfully fired from her dream job as a costume designer, Jada Williams is trying to claw her way back into fashion working a retail job at the mall while desperately trying to pay off her student loans. But the Debt Police are out of control and have been empowered to hunt down those who are late with their payments and physically beat them. Their favorite targets are black women, and no one seems to care. Sick of this injustice, Jada and her friends make a plan to steal back their freedom.

While the Debt Police are fictional, the feelings they evoke are real. This dark satire shines a light on the ridiculousness of student loans and the hardship they put on this particular segment of the population. I quite enjoyed this thought-proving book and its complex characters.

This book was a very slow taste book. Nothing happened until about the 50% mark. It was definitely not what I expected. I felt it was a bit cheesy and unrealistic at times. I just don’t think it was the book for me.

A timely and topical novel about three young women pushed over the edge by student debt. Narrated by Jada who, now in her thirties, dropped from working on films to working retail, it's very relatable and yet unrealistic. Audrey a former NSA hacker and Lanae who fronts a punk rock bank are also caught in the net of the Debt Police with their abrupt tactics turquoise uniforms. And then they hatch a way out using their skills. They become the Robin Hoods only they didn't factor in the extent to which there is surveillance of everything, It's a turner. I liked the characters especially Jada and her sense of humor. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. A very good read for anyone with loans looming.

In The Payback by Kashana Cauley, Jada Williams loses her dream job, and with it, any hope of paying off her student loans. She takes a retail position that barely covers her bills, let alone her monthly payments. Her coworkers are similarly afflicted. underemployed, scraping by, and drowning in debt.

It’s a stressful but survivable existence… until the Debt Police show up.

This elite (and terrifying) branch of law enforcement is tasked with intimidating or outright beating payments out of debtors. Author Kashana Cauley describes these cash-hunting cops in teal-trimmed spandex as perfectly coiffed, wellness-obsessed and needlessly cruel. Mostly white. Mostly male. And they disproportionately target Black women.

The futility of squeezing minimum-wage workers for tens of thousands of dollars seems completely lost on them. Eventually, Jada grows tired of living in fear and, with nothing left to lose, enlists the help of her coworkers in a plot to exact revenge on the usurious student loan company on behalf of everyone the Debt Police have harmed.

The Payback is sometimes darkly funny, sometimes infuriating. She paints a dystopian but timely picture of a system that punishes the poor while pretending to uphold justice.

Caule could not have known that by her publication date, there would be uncanny parallels between her fiction and the daily reality of people being racially profiled and scooped up by a cruel branch of law enforcement. A group with no apparent oversight or regard for the Constitution. It makes the story hit particularly hard.

I received this Advance Reader Copy of The Payback from Atria and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley, Atria books and the author for this read. This one was not the best for me, but it was not bad either. The book was funny and very chaotic, but I was just wondering where it was going. There is a message in the book as well. I would suggest everyone to read it for themselves and make up their minds how they feel if this is a book they would like to read,

Jada Williams was once a rising Hollywood costume designer, now reduced to folding jeans at Glendale Mall. Her crushing student debt never eases up no matter how hard she grinds away in a system that promises success but very rarely delivers. When impulsively she steals a customer's luxury watch and gets caught, Jada finds herself unemployed and in the sights of the Debt Police, a newly instated force that are out for repayment and blood. Along with two other co-workers, together they hatch a plan to rob the very institutions that have kept them chained.

I don't know guys. I really wanted to try something different so I thought that a dark comedy/heist novel set in the near future might give me what I wanted. I felt like The Payback was bold and genre blending, trying to join social commentary and a high-stakes heist, but the execution wasn't quite there. Jada is very relatable with her frustration with the crushing debt but dead end work ratio. And when she teams up with her co-workers, the one-liners and observations about race and capitalism are spot on and the satirical edge is perfect. My main problem was with the pacing and the cohesion. The first third of the book is a lot of setup and introspection but not a lot of action. Then it picks up but almost feels too rushed. Overall I would definitely still recommend The Payback even though it wasn't my favorite!

Thank you to NetGalley, Kashana Cauley, and Atria Books for this ARC! Publication date is July 15th 2025.

The Payback has a sharp, timely premise—three women taking on student debt and systemic injustice, all while being chased by the satirical “Debt Police.” The commentary on economic inequality, especially as it affects Black women, is compelling, and there are moments of biting humor and nostalgia that shine.

However, the execution feels uneven. The pacing lags in spots, character development is hit-or-miss, and the plot sometimes leans too far into chaos without much payoff. I expected more cohesion and sharper satire based on the premise.

A quick, creative read with bold ideas—but it didn’t fully land for me.

When I first heard the author talk about this book on social media, I knew I had to read it. A story about shutting down the student loan companies was exactly something I wanted.

Jada was a retail clothing store employee whose dreams of being a Hollywood wardrobe stylist were destroyed by an unfortunate incident on set. Then she looses her job because she is caught on camera taking something that a customer left in the dressing room. That is when she falls behind on her student loan payments and the Debt Police come after her.

The Debt Police go after people who are late on their loan payments and use violence to scare people. Jada finds out that they have gone after her two former coworkers as well. Those ladies come together and decide to get revenge. One of them is a hacker who was fired by the federal government.

This was a delightful journey. There were a few twists and turns. It was funny and full of action. The author did a wonderful job with description.

I enjoyed this book a lot. Very glad I read it.

Thanks to Atria for a physical ARC via Goodreads Giveaway along with NetGalley access in exchange for my honest opinion.
The Payback is a short relatively quick speculative fiction read where there is a Debt Police that goes after people to pay back their student loan debts. It starts out very realistic, with a late thirties female main character working in a mall (the description brought that Cinnabon mall smell direct to my brain) because her career trajectory didn't work out as she had hoped. After years of college and film school, a mishap on a film set basically ruined her career, so now Jada is working at a clothing store in the mall and attempting to maintain her lifestyle including the luxury of living in a one-bedroom apartment ALONE!
There were parts where I laughed out loud, and there were many parts where I cringed. The first time the debt police appear and physically assault someone for not paying back their loans was a bit shocking to read. I don't think the blurb for this one does the best job at describing it, because the heist doesn't happen (or even get planned) until the last third of the book. I was expecting more action on that end.
The author includes a lot about race and class and society, and I think if I had read this a year ago I would have cracked up at the satire. However, in 2025 it seems to hit too close to home for me.

This book is bold, funny, and a little wild as three co-workers team up to take down a loan company, and the chaos is cathartic.

A witty and insightful look into the politics and practice of student loan payback set against racism and the greed of capitalism. I enjoyed the characters and the ways three women work to outsmart the “debt police” who of course are men! But the story is also real and I could picture these women and the grind and hassle of having to live on limited incomes and pay a debt that never seems to go away. Short quick enjoyable read. I would like to thank NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity of reading this book.

Jada had a great life, but like so many times, a little misstep (and not even hers) blew it all up. Black, single, female, and under a lot of debt, she works part time in retail and struggles to make the minimum payments on her student loans. In what is another scarily possible future reality, there are now debt police who are authorized to hunt down debtors. It isn't pretty. There is a certain satisfaction in following along and Jada and her friends devise a plan to get revenge. I enjoyed the development of their characters and friendship. I also really enjoyed the social commentary. There is a half-paragraph that sums up a lot of the problems with student loan debt and the minority communities. This book is well written. It makes the reader think, but not realize they are thinking because they are enjoying the story!

I ended up DNFing this book around 25% in. I personally did not care for the writing style and the plot was definitely out of my comfort zone. I appreciate the publisher and author for the opportunity to read the e-ARC!