When She Woke: A Novel

This book is one of the most intriguing dystopian novels that I have ever read. If one enjoyed Margaret Atwood's "The Handmaid's Tale", then this book should be a must read. It will transport one to a not so distant future America, where evangelical Christian fundamentalist beliefs are the law of the land, and separation of church and state is a distant memory. Roe v. Wade has been overturned, and abortion is illegal and constitutes murder.This America has also formulated a new and unique way of punishing those who break the law. They change the color of one's skin to a primary color to match the level of crime for which one has been convicted. This is done through a process called chroming, and the convicted will be made to stay in this state till their sentence is served. This way everyone will know that they have transgressed.Hannah, living in Texas with her evangelical family is a repressed young woman. She is a talented seamstress, who secretly designs and creates beautiful garments that expresses who she is for her own personal enjoyment. It is her secret. She also falls in love when she least expects it. This, too, is her secret. Unfortunately, her lover is married, among other things, and when a seminal event occurs, she makes a unilateral decision that leads her into the abyss. It will be an experience that will change her life.This book is definitely more plot driven, as character development takes a back seat to the plot. It is of little matter, as the plot is a wowser! There is one jarring note towards the end of the book, when the central character, Hannah, engages in behavior that simply does not ring true. Notwithstanding this odd segue, I still loved the book. I was riveted by the plot, which I found to be quite creative. Given the state of things in America today, perhaps this book is not so far fetched. If so, Canada should build a wall and make us pay for it.

This book sounded interesting, as others have said it hugged somewhere between Scarlet Letter and a Margaret Atwood novel. The first bit of the book was good and made sense, it is as the book progresses that it begins to fall apart for me. In effort to avoid spoilers I will just say that there was a lot of things that almost happened, too many ideas introduced and none of which that were ever actually explored. Plot lines that were opened up that you felt sure were important that suddenly fizzled out. Why say something big like "We will kill you if you do this" and then make the main do just that, and then nothing comes of it? Why even include that? Why put people on a deadline for how long they have to live, say they are nearing that deadline, and then cut that plot devise off at the knees and never speak of it again? You wait in anticipation for decisions people are making to have some ripple effect based on what we have learned from the book so far and there never is one. Overall the story was really just lackluster with much left incomplete. By far the worst part of this novel however was the main character. Who is this woman that shows so much bravery and strength in protecting herself and her friends, but finishes the book incredibly selfishly? Without making this my master's thesis and really working hard to avoid spoilers I think I will simply put it that this characters decision making had no consistency or basis, risks she takes have no repercussions, and moral dilemmas she faces with her friends and family are left entirely unresolved and seem to have slipped from her mind. As a reader don't be invested in any other person than the main because you will never know what happened to them. I am not saying I want a nice pretty bow on anything or anyone, that is what is tough about bringing dystopian novels to a conclusion, is there isn't an easy bow to put on a society that is so utterly broken. But some sort of finality for anyone other than the main would be nice. Maybe not even finality, but an update would be good, a where are they now moment. (Also I didn't even like the ending for the main, but I think that would be impossible to talk about without spoilers so I will leave that bit alone).The short of it is that I do not recommend this book. I really disliked it. I slept on this review several days because I felt like a monster only giving it 2 stars. I think the thing that really just gets me so up in a hough about this one is it feels like it is capitalizing on a really profound genre with very little basis for how to successfully do so. Dystopian novels often overlap in the ideas that they are working with because they work from what is prominent in our world. The breeding woman punished for autonomy, it has been done before and it will be done again. It isn't the redundancy of ideas that is really the fault of this book, it is the incapacity to capitalize on some really deep and thought provoking potential because it couldn't seem to help itself from trying to touch on a little unsatisfactory bit of everything.

An excellent read! This is a great dystopian book that gets at a variety of sensitive topics and does not shy away from them. If you enjoy Margaret Atwood, pick this book up! I particularly liked the way in which the future is represented. The story-line is unique in that the strong female figure is equal parts responding to life circumstances and creating her life circumstances. The result is an empowering story-line, which also brings the reader through the process of empowerment and taking control of a tragic and out of control scenario where the boundaries between social acceptance and social justice are heavily blurred. It seems other similar dystopian feminist narratives spend most of the story showing the female heroine reeling from the problems in society and then reacting to them to somehow get by. This story is unique from other similar narratives in that it shows the female heroine awaken to harsh realities, take them in, and then morph into action to not allow her life circumstances to dictate the remainder of her life.

Thank goodness I had a stubborn attitude even as a child and never became indoctrinated by my grandmother. I cheered for Hannah every time she thought and analyzed the unfairness of the laws, the mean spiritedness of the holier than thou people of her own church. She GREW! Even as she clung to the beliefs she'd been brainwashed with all her life, she grew. And I cheered. People I'll tell about this book will like it. A few won't, but at least they'll know the title and the premise and maybe be curious.

Billed as futuristic and dystopian, this novel in fact has a curiously old-fashioned feel. Hannah lives in a near-future America where, as a result of a sexually transmitted plague, the population has been decimated. Religious fundamentalism has taken over, women are back to being used as breeding machines and abortion is not only illegal but abhorred by mainstream society. Having been found guilty of having an abortion, Hannah has been 'chromed' - she has been given a virus that has turned her skin scarlet, echoing Hawthorne's  The Scarlet Letter .Hillary Jordan writes well and on a superficial level this is a very readable book. She elicits our empathy for Hannah and we want to see how she copes in a society that despises her. But there's really not much meat in this novel. The 'future' is not so very different from our recent past and the descriptions of the society could have been written pretty much of present-day bible belt America. Jordan discusses the rights and wrongs of abortion, the role of religion and the place of women in the society but I'm afraid has nothing new or original to say on these subjects. There is an acceptance throughout the book of God as a certainty that jarred with me - the question was not whether God exists but how he should be followed. Jordan unfortunately didn't flinch from raising hoary old feminist clichés such as 'Is God a woman?', while the male characters were at best moral weaklings and at worst evil and tyrannical.Even these criticisms, though, make the book seem more than it is. Ultimately, this is a romance novel disguised as literary fiction. Having enjoyed Jordan's previous novel  Mudbound  I had hoped for more. I still believe she has the potential to write a great novel - however this is not it. The Scarlet LetterMudbound

I love a good dystopian novel and this one really didn't disappoint. I felt it to be so well-written, never overtly criticising the "State society" that Hannah, the narrator, has found herself falling a victim to, never descending into ranting about it or making it too obvious in the telling - instead Hannah lets things slip gradually, so that the reader only discovers the true horror of the society which Hannah and her contemporaries are living within at the same gradual rate. The facts of the State - the diseases, the nuclear bombs, the wars, the terrorists, the bigotry and fear are disclosed matter of factly and subtly so that I as a reader suddenly found myself immersed in a world which was utterly and frighteningly believeable and yet quite recognisable and familiar.The story itself seemed to be a modern retelling of Hawthorne's "The Scarlet Letter" with it being no coincidence that the character's crime is melachromed to the colour red, both linking it to this historical story (but with a modern twist - but then, let's face it,tales of bigotry, racism and women suffering at the hands of men are as old as time itself) and to the character's ultimate REDemption.I loved this story - the characters were beautifully developed and believeable, as was the story itself. It was stylishly told and I couldn't put it down for long. Like Hannah, I felt myself to be on a journey - and like Hannah, I had no idea where it was going to take me or what the end result would be. Too many stories are predictable in the end - but I was damned if I knew what Hannah's fate was going to be - even with only 11 pages left I had no idea if she would make it or not.I cannot recommend this book enough - I have found a new favourite author and I expect myself to be "Mudbound" and getting to grips with the author's first novel, very soon.

"When she woke, she was red..." Thus begins this novel, which promises so much in an exciting and well written opening section. Hannah Payne is a young woman, from a religious and strict family, who strays by first having an affair with a married man and then having an abortion. Her punishment in this draconian society, is to be 'Chromed' red - her shame for everyone to see. Much of the strong themes in this book comes from Hannah finding herself an outcast in a society in which she has once been strongly a part of, a believer in, and in questioning the faith she has always followed.Unfortunately, after a strong start, the plot becomes quite confused. Hannah, after a series of events in which she seems to behave out of character (and then slip back into her 'good girl' persona, almost as though the author is not sure where she wants to take her) finds herself on the run and aided by those she would have called terrorists before her chroming. As another reviewer has pointed out, much of the action is not in Hannah's control and so the story often sees to drag. She also spends much of the book obsessing about her married lover who, frankly, just doesn't seem worth so much trouble and worry. The storyline is a good idea (if somewhat reminicent of "The Scarlet Letter") and I imagine it would have more impact in America, where issues such as abortion cause highly divided and emotive opinions. Overall, the novel was enjoyable but did not live up to its promise.

Interesting and thought provoking book, a modern day interpretation of The Scarlett Letter. The Main Character Hannah lives is a future version of our world, but crimes, and their punishments have 'progressed' - the criminals being chromed - the colour of their skin being altered - the color of the chrome depends of the crime, and then they are put back into society for the duration of their sentence. The novel poses many questions throught, is abortion wrong,or murder, or adultery - who is to blame, and what I particularly liked about this novel was that it didn't try to answer these questions for you or for Hannah for that matter - it just showed you Hannahs story in the dystopian future in which she lives allowing you to just enjoy the story and come to your own conclusions.

With 2 young children, it's rare that I finish a book in 2 days but this story gripped me and I felt compelled to get to the end. It's a bit wishy washy in places but I enjoyed the story and could realistically see the author's vision of the future. Great read.