Escape from Spiderhead by George Saunders (5 stars)

An amazing short story. What would society by like if we could make a perfect designer drug for almost every purpose? Drugs for truth, drugs for love, drugs for torture. And how would we test their effects on humans? Saunders says his main objective is to provide a wild ride:

I tend to foster drama via bleakness. If I want the reader to feel sympathy for a character, I cleave the character in half, on his birthday. And then it starts raining. And he’s made of sugar.

And boy does he deliver. This short story is fascinating, intense, and brutal with its characters. Reading George's thoughts about they story is also interesting, he didn't intend it to be commentary about pharma testing or treatment of death row prisoners. This was the core:

It might not be the case that one character is purely good, but rather that good is lurking in that person, and the story is about whether the good gets to emerge. And likewise the evil: it sits inside a person, sort of latent, waiting for the right combination of circumstances. 

5 stars.