This is a story about expectations and preconceptions. If you believe you are nothing, that the system around you is wrong and your fellow inmates no better than you then what hope do you have?

Ever since he arrived in Mercy Prison, Merrick has dreamed and schemed about ways to gain his release, which, for him, is death.

He has long ago decided who he is, his attitude to life and the worth of the people around him. He thinks he knows it all. Then he is put under the charge of Thomas, a man younger than himself who he has already summed up and judged.

It is only when he understands the errors he made in doing this, that he can start to appreciate the crime he committed that resulted in his being imprisoned.

Told wholly from Merrick's POV, the reader needs to remember his testimony is not always reliable or accurate, as he sees the world from a very restricted perspective.

Through Thomas, his eyes are opened. This can make the story confusing, so it's worth a re-read when finished to see the points the author is making.

It's also worth thinking about places like Abu Ghraib when reading this. I'm not sure if it was on Dusk's mind as most of the author's research was in historical prison systems, but some elements seem similar.

And while the story is dark, there is still hope and love and the prospect of a better future. This isn't of the "and now they lived happily ever after" variety with everything wrapped up neatly in an unbelievably pretty package style. More a glimmer of light on the horizon.

Definitely worth reading and discussing. The prose is fluid, the pacing good, just don't let your own expectations and preconceptions get in the way of what the author is trying to do.

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Life Prison is a tale on the Mercy's Prisoner series; it's setting in a fantasy world which resembles the Victorian period. In this world, life in prison is regulated as in the Dante's Inferno, every circles (prison's level) hides an atrocity for the prisoners who deserve to be there. Mind this latest point: the prisoners are not innocents hold in captivity for some unbelievable injustice, they are guilty and some of an atrocity maybe even worst of what they now suffer in prison.

Merrick is a murder of the worst type: he consciously killed his three years old nephew. He didn't act on the spur of the moment, he planned the kill; and now he replies it in his memory as the best moment of his life. In prison Merrick is not thinking at freedom, he is thinking at death; he wants to die but the only rule the guards have is to not kill the prisoners, or to not help them to kill himself. Other than, guards can do whatever they want, and they have no problem at follow this rule. Prisoners are no more than free whores for the guard who have them in hold.

To Merrick is assigned a new guard, Thomas. Thomas is young and idealist and the truly thinks that life in prison, even if a forever captivity, could be dignified for the prisoners. The initial incredulity of Merrick turns at first in opportunity: maybe Merrick can manipulate this man, maybe he can reach his purpose. But Thomas, for how young he is, it's not so naivee as it seems. Merrick will learn that a firm hold can be more tight than a strong one.

It's not a romance what happens between Merrick and Thomas, but it's a relationship. They build something together, even if it's not love. Reading the play of minds is almost as good as reading the sexual interaction between the two.

Life Prison is the tale of what the title tells right: the life in prison; it's not a journey toward freedom, or better it's not a journey toward the freedom outside the prison, but it's the journey of a man who learns to 'live' in prison. Till he meets Thomas, Merrick is not living, he is waiting to die. Merrick is not a man who can live outside: he finds in prison, and in the confinement of prison, a suitable environment for him; outside he would be a criminal, a reject of the society; inside he is a man.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001GS7XYG/?tag=elimyrevandra-20