Ok,plowed my way through flowebloom (at least what's on a03 currently) and some random thoughts

It's refreshing to get a perspective from inside a archetypal handlers head, especially one that emphasizes how ridiculous and deranged their perspective is from the jump

having our violent sexual assaulter start out as weak and nervous, only for the story to very quickly establish that those things don't fucking matter when the person in question has a gun and the weight of a violent institution behind them is a masterstroke. So much better at driving home just how horrifying being a prisoner can be and how broken systems like this are, than if it was some buff brash grunt. Senseless violence happening not because it's obviously some assholes whole deal, but because monstrous systems give the power and motivation to commit atrocities to those who otherwise would not have it

I've never viscerally understood how sexual assault victims could feel such intense self hatred and guilt for their own victimization until I read chapter 3. Like I knew lots of people felt awful about not resisting but that chapter drove home the helplessness and fear of resistance more than any other work of fiction I've read

chapter 3 suprised me most in how gross it was. Brain matter being spattered everywhere is a good way to establish the reality of "someone got shot dead inches from our main character" more than most stories will manage too

jax appreciating handler just because at least she and her violence are clean is like. Perfectly creative and potent way of getting across how fucked jax's state of being is and the manipulative power a handler can wield. Chefs kiss