A little bit 'out there', but definitely a page turner. I has no clue where it was going for the majority of it, but had to keep reading!

3.5* I enjoyed it
A new author to me thanks to Netgalley for a chance to read the arc.
Fern Hall a futuristic high tech prison, a secret experiment.
You need to be able to set aside preconceived ideas and go with the flow.
It flicks between the past showing why Cara is in prison and the present.
Fast paced and creepy at one point.
The part where it spun off to talk about Caras parents felt a bit disjointed.
I liked the ending.
It’s entertaining escapism. If you want realistic plausible scenarios this might not be for you.

Thank you to the author, publisher and NetGalley for providing an ARC of this book.

I was intrigued by this but found it difficult to persevere with at times. Interesting concept. Liked how it ended and that you were kept guessing about whether Cara was guilty or not.

Absolutely fantastic read. Completely unable to put this one down and it has constantly kept me guessing!
A great read which I highly recommend.

In the Acknowledgements section at the end of the book, the author describes the development of Inside Out as 'an incredibly odd experience throughout', and I have to admit, that's pretty much exactly how I felt when reading it.

For a start, the initial feel of the book is very sci-fi, which I wasn't at all expecting from the description. And that feeling continued throughout the first portion of the book, with Cuffs and Illumination and mental torture and weird hints that not everything was as it seemed. Already I found it hard to suspend my disbelief, since the setting didn't feel at all authentic and I couldn't believe a prison like this would ever exist.

Then the plot started to unfold, and while some of the more unlikely aspects of the setting began to be explained, it was only by introducing an even more implausible and frankly ridiculous background to the entire thing.

I did like Cara and her search for the truth. Some of the details around NoFace were pleasantly creepy. But I remain bemused by the detailed invention of 'Rain on Elmore Street' and the inclusion of various other things that didn't seem necessary for the plot in that level of detail. I also remain hazy on the secondary motivation (the Cara aspect I understand, but the criminals for hire thing?).

Essentially, none of this book could ever happen. It's utterly unbelievable and full of holes that don't stand up to retrospective examination. Yet despite that, I did enjoy reading it. Just don't expect anything the faintest bit realistic.

I love a locked room mystery and Chris’s last book was exactly that – and this is just as great a read. Cara Lockhart is serving a life sentence for a crime she swears she didn’t commit. But when brought to a new women’s prison – full of the bells and whistles that you’d expect in a theme park, so oddly places – she’s ready to ignore everyone else and just get on with it. But when she’s woken one morning to discover her cellmate – and only friend – has been murdered, and there was no possibility of anyone accessing the cell, Cara’s in for fresh torture. She needs to clear her name in an institution quite unlike any prison we’d be used to. There’s cruel punishments, tricks to make you doubt yourself and staff who do their best to intimidate those less strong. Can Cara find out the truth? I enjoyed this and thought I had it worked out, but only for it to twist in another way – which is great for a reader.

I spent a lot of this book wondering what was going on... there was no way I could make any scenario work out in my head as to who and why.

Turns out that's because the plot is completely OTT and nuts... But in a good way.
Not at all believable,but fun.
So I put my "hang on a minute " on hold and just went with the flow .
Proper page turner.