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outsmartyourshelf's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
Sixteen-year-old Gaia has been training to become a midwife like her mother & today she attends her first solo birth. Everything goes to plan except Gaia knows she has to hand over or 'advance' the first three babies she delivers each month, starting with this one, to the Enclave. The Enclave is a walled community that those living outside, like Gaia, only get to see through propaganda films, but the babies who are 'advanced' are adopted into wealthy families & have the best chance at life - or so those outside have been told. Gaia's two older brothers were both 'advanced' but Gaia was left with her parents due to an unfortunate accident which left her with facial scarring.
When her parents are suddenly arrested & taken away, Gaia breaks into the Enclave to see them but finds that things are not as rosy as the films made out. There are public executions of those who go against the Enclave's rules, & due to interbreeding, the community have been suffering from genetic abnormalities & defects for generations, alongside growing infertility, & even adopting healthy, physically perfect babies from outside is no longer a solution & another plan has been formed. Gaia receives help from unexpected quarters, including a Captain in the Guard named Leon, but Leon has his own reasons for helping Gaia. Can she really trust him?
Reading this after what has happened recently in the US was a sobering experience with its references to childbirth & controlling of women's fertility. Gaia's world is set after the present, but due to climate change, things have regressed almost to medieval times. Gaia is fairly typical of the usual main characters for a YA dystopian, & she can be a little annoying at times, especially her penchant for arguing & shouting at Leon when they are trying to make their escape. Stealthy she is definitely not. Leon again is a fairly typical character but thankfully it's not really insta-love & there isn't a love triangle (in this book at least) so it avoids those tropes. It's a decent example of the genre but it doesn't really add anything new to what we've read a hundred times before.
When her parents are suddenly arrested & taken away, Gaia breaks into the Enclave to see them but finds that things are not as rosy as the films made out. There are public executions of those who go against the Enclave's rules, & due to interbreeding, the community have been suffering from genetic abnormalities & defects for generations, alongside growing infertility, & even adopting healthy, physically perfect babies from outside is no longer a solution & another plan has been formed. Gaia receives help from unexpected quarters, including a Captain in the Guard named Leon, but Leon has his own reasons for helping Gaia. Can she really trust him?
Reading this after what has happened recently in the US was a sobering experience with its references to childbirth & controlling of women's fertility. Gaia's world is set after the present, but due to climate change, things have regressed almost to medieval times. Gaia is fairly typical of the usual main characters for a YA dystopian, & she can be a little annoying at times, especially her penchant for arguing & shouting at Leon when they are trying to make their escape. Stealthy she is definitely not. Leon again is a fairly typical character but thankfully it's not really insta-love & there isn't a love triangle (in this book at least) so it avoids those tropes. It's a decent example of the genre but it doesn't really add anything new to what we've read a hundred times before.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death of parent and Pregnancy
Moderate: Child death
queer_bookwyrm's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
3.5 ⭐ CW: women in labor and in depth descriptions of labor, public execution by hanging, whipping, death of a pregnant woman, babies being taken from mothers, descriptions of blood and corpses, incest, abortion mention, infanticide, climate change, parental death, suicide
"You always have a choice, Gaia. You can always say no. They might kill you for it, but you can always say no."
Birthmarked by Caragh O'Brien is a speculative fiction dystopian not unlike The Handmaid's Tale.
We follow Gaia, a midwife living in one of the sectors outside of the Enclave wall. Each midwife must deliver a quota of babies to the Enclave, taking them from their parents. The babies are then adopted by families living inside the wall with all the privileges and amenities they could hope for.
When Gaia's parents are arrested, she takes it upon herself to break into the Enclave, and find out what is going on. She finds the Enclave needs a more diverse gene pool thanks to years of inbreeding in a small community. Somehow the Enclave believes the answer to their problem lies with babies outside the wall.
This was fast paced and an interesting concept, but it needed more world building and I didn't feel like the romance was properly earned. There was some interesting commentary about blindly following orders to keep the status quo and about fascism. There was a lot of birth scenes that were pretty graphic.
Gaia was a strong character, but I didn't feel particularly much for her. If there is a second book, I will probably pass on it.
"You always have a choice, Gaia. You can always say no. They might kill you for it, but you can always say no."
Birthmarked by Caragh O'Brien is a speculative fiction dystopian not unlike The Handmaid's Tale.
We follow Gaia, a midwife living in one of the sectors outside of the Enclave wall. Each midwife must deliver a quota of babies to the Enclave, taking them from their parents. The babies are then adopted by families living inside the wall with all the privileges and amenities they could hope for.
When Gaia's parents are arrested, she takes it upon herself to break into the Enclave, and find out what is going on. She finds the Enclave needs a more diverse gene pool thanks to years of inbreeding in a small community. Somehow the Enclave believes the answer to their problem lies with babies outside the wall.
This was fast paced and an interesting concept, but it needed more world building and I didn't feel like the romance was properly earned. There was some interesting commentary about blindly following orders to keep the status quo and about fascism. There was a lot of birth scenes that were pretty graphic.
Gaia was a strong character, but I didn't feel particularly much for her. If there is a second book, I will probably pass on it.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Pregnancy, Medical trauma, Medical content, Violence, Death, and Suicide
Moderate: Blood, Incest, Child death, and Death of parent
Minor: Abortion
women in labor, babies being taken from mothers, public executions, whipping
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