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suso121's review
reflective
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.75
windupboy's review
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
azi's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.5
I was elated to dig into this as Terra Nullius was one of my favourite reads from the last few years but this was not particularly enjoyable.
The world building and plot was not very original and the ending was predictable.
Also, Christine lived a sheltered, privileged life, howwww did she do so well outside? It just didn't seem plausible.
Utopic Melbourne was nice to imagine myself in
The world building and plot was not very original and the ending was predictable.
Also, Christine lived a sheltered, privileged life, howwww did she do so well outside? It just didn't seem plausible.
Utopic Melbourne was nice to imagine myself in
rachhenderson's review
dark
slow-paced
3.0
Christine has been brought up believing that her walled city is the only safe place, and that the outside world is dangerous. But when she is banished for fraternising with the help, she discovers that everything she's been led to believe is not necessarily true...
This was meh for me - didn't love it, didn't hate it. I've read better dystopian fiction.
This was meh for me - didn't love it, didn't hate it. I've read better dystopian fiction.
chl0reads's review
challenging
dark
hopeful
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
sophiesmallhands's review
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Police brutality, Confinement, Alcoholism, Alcohol, and Classism
Moderate: Lesbophobia, Torture, Racism, Violence, Sexual violence, Racial slurs, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Homophobia, Sexual assault, Colonisation, Gun violence, and Emotional abuse
Minor: Rape, Transphobia, Vomit, and Suicidal thoughts
jager123's review
5.0
Enclave by Claire G. Coleman is breathtaking. One of the most intense and uniquely Australian dystopian novels I have ever read. The courage and strength of the main character Christine as her journey unfolds just ripped my heart out. The landscape is familiar yet not. The sky and shore line altered. But it cried out to my soul. I have seen Australian dystopian novels get a lot of press over the last few years and they have been seriously disappointing. This, this novel, deserves to be read, to be shared, to hold a place on bookshelves. My copy wont be taking a trip to the second hand shop, it’s staying.
nina_reads_books's review
3.0
Claire G. Coleman has written several books and I even own two of them but I this was the first one of hers I have read. Coleman writes and speaks extensively about the impacts of colonisation and her novels veer into dystopian and speculative fiction with a focus on Australian colonialism. In Enclave we are introduced to a dystopian vision of Australia where segregation and monitoring are the norm.
Twenty one year old Christine is unhappy but doesn’t know how to change her life. Her world is completely regimented but she has everything she could possibly need - a powerful family, unlimited money, black servants to provide everything they need at home. The staff are brought in on buses daily because Christine lives in Safetytown, safe within the walls of the enclave. And the all powerful Agency keeps them all safe. But safe from what?
I liked the initial world building as it took a while to slowly find out what Christine's world was really like. This gave the first half of the book an unsettling feeling as you know that things are off but you don’t really know what is going on. I also thought the queer representation was excellent and introduced trans and non-binary characters in ways that I would not have expected.
Towards the end the different characters and their relationships felt a little over simplified for me and almost felt more YA in delivery. The pacing was also a bit uneven for my taste. The set up and Christine's long journey to safety felt slow in comparison to the ending which moved a lot faster.
But the enclave was such an interesting concept especially as it was set in Australia. Themes of racism, homophobia and big brother surveillance were threaded through. This was an allegory for the evil of our modern world with a nod towards the experiences of First Nations people in Australia.
Overall I really enjoyed reading this. Dystopian novels are definitely my jam! Looking forward to reading both Terra Nullius and The Old Lie which are on my TBR shelf.
Thank you to @hachetteaus for my #gifted copy.
Twenty one year old Christine is unhappy but doesn’t know how to change her life. Her world is completely regimented but she has everything she could possibly need - a powerful family, unlimited money, black servants to provide everything they need at home. The staff are brought in on buses daily because Christine lives in Safetytown, safe within the walls of the enclave. And the all powerful Agency keeps them all safe. But safe from what?
I liked the initial world building as it took a while to slowly find out what Christine's world was really like. This gave the first half of the book an unsettling feeling as you know that things are off but you don’t really know what is going on. I also thought the queer representation was excellent and introduced trans and non-binary characters in ways that I would not have expected.
Towards the end the different characters and their relationships felt a little over simplified for me and almost felt more YA in delivery. The pacing was also a bit uneven for my taste. The set up and Christine's long journey to safety felt slow in comparison to the ending which moved a lot faster.
But the enclave was such an interesting concept especially as it was set in Australia. Themes of racism, homophobia and big brother surveillance were threaded through. This was an allegory for the evil of our modern world with a nod towards the experiences of First Nations people in Australia.
Overall I really enjoyed reading this. Dystopian novels are definitely my jam! Looking forward to reading both Terra Nullius and The Old Lie which are on my TBR shelf.
Thank you to @hachetteaus for my #gifted copy.
incrediblemelk's review
adventurous
challenging
hopeful
inspiring
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
This is the third of Coleman's novels I’ve read and I enjoyed it a lot, but it’s the softest and most hopeful of Coleman’s three novels, which meant that I enjoyed it as escapism but its political critique doesn’t have the same bite as her previous work and doesn’t challenge the reader’s genre expectations as much.
I really enjoy her style of writing – at times gripping, direct and propulsive, at times vividly lyrical, full of run-on sentences – which harnesses the genre styles and tropes of science fiction to commentate on contemporary Australian political issues.
This was compared to The Handmaid's Tale a lot, which is a pretty lazy comparison. To be honest I think that story has become so well known as to blunt its political critique. There are so many similar stories, from John Wyndham's Chrysalids on, riffed on so many times – especially in dystopian young adult fiction, which genre Coleman is specifically tapping here. Obviously when we're introduced to Christine's oppressive life we understand immediately, long before she does, that she's being imprisoned in her walled city rather than protected from the horrors outside, and that she will escape and thrive once she leaves it. (I don't really think that's a spoiler.)
Conversely, Coleman's descriptions of a still-possible utopian future Melbourne surprised me with how tender they made me feel. They had me yearning for what my home city could be, even as I fatalistically accept that it won't ever come to pass: the world of the enclave is our real world and we can't escape it as Christine does, because our world has no containing wall, no boundary outside which something better can grow. Am I in the grip of Mark Fisher's "capitalist realism" – the feeling that no alternative to capitalism is even possible, even if it's conceivable?
I really enjoy her style of writing – at times gripping, direct and propulsive, at times vividly lyrical, full of run-on sentences – which harnesses the genre styles and tropes of science fiction to commentate on contemporary Australian political issues.
This was compared to The Handmaid's Tale a lot, which is a pretty lazy comparison. To be honest I think that story has become so well known as to blunt its political critique. There are so many similar stories, from John Wyndham's Chrysalids on, riffed on so many times – especially in dystopian young adult fiction, which genre Coleman is specifically tapping here. Obviously when we're introduced to Christine's oppressive life we understand immediately, long before she does, that she's being imprisoned in her walled city rather than protected from the horrors outside, and that she will escape and thrive once she leaves it. (I don't really think that's a spoiler.)
Conversely, Coleman's descriptions of a still-possible utopian future Melbourne surprised me with how tender they made me feel. They had me yearning for what my home city could be, even as I fatalistically accept that it won't ever come to pass: the world of the enclave is our real world and we can't escape it as Christine does, because our world has no containing wall, no boundary outside which something better can grow. Am I in the grip of Mark Fisher's "capitalist realism" – the feeling that no alternative to capitalism is even possible, even if it's conceivable?
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Homophobia, Vomit, Abandonment, Lesbophobia, Racial slurs, Sexual violence, Alcoholism, and Gaslighting