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I read a book few years back, in which a woman was sent to a world of tally, a prison.

The female protagonist had taken a large loan, which she could not return to the agency, and as a result the agency sent her to a secret prison, where so many people like her were working like slaves. They called the world of prison a "Tally", it was some secret area on Earth. In order to get out of the Tally you are supposed to earn 1000 points, but the twist was they had made the food price, rent, everything expensive and you have to pay using the points you earned, so that the slaves will not be able to leave.

In the end, the girl escapes the land, as her boss in the Tally world falls in love with her, and they both escape.

The book name was titled something like UPDOWN. I read the book around 4 5 years back (so 2014), don't know if it was new at that time, I found it in some sites with free PDF book downloads. I thought I might have read it from Smashwords but I am unable to find the book there.


More detailed summary:

The story started with a woman, who was in her mid-twenties, she was cheated by her boyfriend, he had pretended that he got kidnapped, and asked her a big amount of money (it was in dollars). She thought that in order to save him, she had to give that money to kidnappers, so she went to this agency (she saw its advertisement on a billboard) and took a loan from the agency,

The boyfriend conned her, he ran away with that money and never came back.

Now the agency asked her to payback the money, which she didn't have, then after knowing that she was unable to payback, they asked her to do a task for them.

They picked her up in a van which was having all windows blacked out, and then gave her an address to go to a particular place, they took away her ID cards, cards, cash everything. When she reached that place only with a bag of clothes. She got to know its a secret prison. The secret prison was called Tally (I think so, something starting with T).

In that prison, there are all sorts of criminals who live there, serving the odd jobs like cleaners, waiters and stuff, everyone was given an electronic hand band, like a Fitbit band, on which their balance money Points (like the currency in that prison) was shown. The slaves, or the prisoners are supposed to earn 1000 points in order to get out of the prison, and there they have to pay a ridiculous amount of points for food and flats. If the prisoner does something wrong while working, misbehaves with the bosses, they will reduce the points from the band in order to punish them.

So the heroine (let's call her Anna) meets a guy B and a girl C (who were also prisoners) in the first few days, they offer her accomodation in their appartment building, the guy was trying to crack the software of the hand band, and trying to get 1000 points and get out of the prison, the girl and the heroine were along with him, when the so-called police barged in for trying to break rules, and arrested all three.

They killed the guy B, and put the girl C in some other form or something as a punishment where she has to serve as a slave, same thing is done to the heroine Anna and she was put under a boss (he is the hero let's call him D).

So D gets really fascinated by Anna, and gives her odd jobs like cooking in the farm for the workers and stuff like that, something happens in the story and Anna looses her eyesight, D takes care of her as by then he started falling in love with her, he assures her that she will get her vision back by a few days, during this time they will have sex and all.

Eventually he reveals why he was in the prison: he was some sort of undercover cop for a private company before, and had broken some law. He desires to get out of the prison and live a normal life with her in the future.

He contacts his 3 other partners from his past, and plans an escape with them. Anna, along with D and his friends, gets out of the world of Tally in the end.

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  • 1
    isfdb.org/cgi-bin/… - I can't see anything starting "up-" that might be it...
    – Valorum
    Commented Aug 17, 2018 at 6:25
  • Off to a good start with some good details, but if you haven't already, could I recommend you take a look at this guide and see if you can edit in any more details. Such as how long ago a few years was, anything about the characters, maybe what the cover of the book looked like?
    – Edlothiad
    Commented Aug 17, 2018 at 6:26
  • @Edlothiad thanks for the link of guide, i remember the plot perfectly, and the character details too, i will edit the post in a while...
    – Pragati
    Commented Aug 17, 2018 at 6:45

1 Answer 1

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Dreams Ltd by Veronica Melan looks like possibility.

Description from Smaswords:

One April morning, Shereen Moor – an owner of a lady’s boutique, receives a ransom note, informing her that her loved one Alex Viver had been kidnapped and in order to see him again, his nearest and dearest must pay out half a million dollars. Alex’s business partner at a weapon developing plant refuses to help, and desperate Shereen decides to go to a mysterious organisation with a strange name - “Dreams LTD”. Shereen takes a difficult step – she borrows half a million dollars and, in return, she agrees to comply with any future request for the Corporation. The contract is signed. The sum demanded by the kidnappers is paid but there is still no sign of Alex. But one evening, Shereen receives a phone call, and “Dreams LTD” makes it clear that now is the time when they need her to return the favour. The Corporation sends a car for Shereen; they blindfold her and take to her to a building in a secret location, where she is asked to pass a parcel to a man called Christopher Laroche who is currently in “Area 33”. The contents of the parcel remains classified. Shereen has no right to refuse and the following morning she finds herself on the way to a mountain range and to Tally.

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