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.
A novel that takes on our absurd, predatory student loan system with a zany sense of humor ... The Payback is Cauley’s second book, a twisted, cathartic romp that imagines a world so extraordinary—with systems so evil, punishment so extreme, people so apathetic—it could almost be real life ... Cauley offsets the terror with silliness ... Jada has an acidic sense of humor that softens the story’s sharp edges, like a squeeze of lime in a shot of Kirkland tequila ... Cauley especially nails the fragrant notes that bring the mall alive...but other descriptions in the book are weighed down with one simile too many ... There’s an undercurrent of Luigi Mangione-like disquiet in this story: We’re rooting for the brave antihero, the political martyr, the rebel with a rightful cause. One gunshot and the story would have gone too dark, too murky. Mercifully, Cauley keeps us in the light.
