This essay is part of “Critical Essay Anthology vol 5: Wealth Inequality in Indonesia”. This anthology is part of a series of essay anthologies, written by the students of our Essay Mentorship program.

Ever since Term 1, Michelle has remained actively inquisitive and critical about global issues. In this term, she was interested in understanding abolition. This story is her way of trying to make sense and explore the possibilities of a world without institutions and systems which confine power to a few individuals and which abuse power for their own gains. That kind of world isn't impossible; it's just hard. But Michelle believes that innovation and progress is powered by imagination and the belief that things can and will change.

Markov was supposed to wake up in the 1400s. Instead, he hit snooze—for about 600 years. Now, the once-feared medieval vampire finds himself in the millennial era, surrounded by things he doesn’t understand: electric lights, moving pictures, social media, and worst of all... high school.

With his castle long gone and his old world turned to dust, Markov is forced to enroll in school, make new friends, and keep his bloodthirsty instincts in check. As he struggles to blend in with modern teens and survive the horrors of group projects, Markov starts to wonder—maybe this strange new era has more to offer than he thought.

In this continuation of Jamie’s brother-hood saga, which revolves around a detective intern younger brother and a mafia grunt older brother; Jamie explores the role of archives as a tool simultaneously entity which records, witnesses, and yet can be complicit in the silence, erasure and manipulation of an entire existence. Crime itself — as many sociologists and anthropologists have studied over decades — is systemic, decided by few people in power and is an instrument to maintain that power. How many people have fallen into its machinations? In this sample of a future novella, Jamie dives into the complex lives of brothers who seem to be on opposing polarities, but actually are victims to the same corrupt moral order.

At first sight, Adena's story may appear like so many other romance-comedy tales. However, she's spun a love story through the perspective of an observer -- a friend gossiping with others -- that, while comedic and heartwarming, is also meaningful, layered with a relevant social issue in Jakarta: the unequal educational and career opportunities that exist between private and public school students. Through extensive first-hand research, she carefully brings the main characters' desires and dreams to light; their differences which become a valuable lesson about privilege and struggle, closing a chapter in their lives without each other.