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A review by oliviapengle
Red Clocks by Leni Zumas
2.0
2.5 stars. When I first heard about this book in June of 2017, it immediately went onto my TBR. The premise is scary in its possibility, and the yonic cover is fantastic... perhaps seven months of waiting made my expectations too high but I have to say I was pretty disappointed with this book.
It is written in a very detached style with generic word choice (e.g. "The Daughter", "The Mother") and disjointed paragraph structure. With this stylistic choice, I didn't feel a genuine connection with any character. I especially found the Faroese polar explorer sections repetitive and distracting. There are a few reasons why the book might be written in this style: to emphasize the superficiality of imposing roles on women, to highlight how all women would be affected by a ban on abortion, etc. I'm not sure which of these reasons motivated Zumas but it just wasn't for me.
I just felt like the speculative aspect fell flat, and the story itself lacked narrative. I wanted more about the Personhood Amendment and the patriarchal state, more comparisons with witch hunts, or even more about Yasmine, whose story I found the most interesting despite her not being present in the book's events. Yes, there are many important subjects and themes in the book - medicalization of birth, decline of midwifery, safe access to abortion - but I think the book would have been much stronger if it had focused on just one of them within the context of the Personhood Amendment. I honestly feel as though the hype has largely been carried by recent political events more than the story itself.
It is written in a very detached style with generic word choice (e.g. "The Daughter", "The Mother") and disjointed paragraph structure. With this stylistic choice, I didn't feel a genuine connection with any character. I especially found the Faroese polar explorer sections repetitive and distracting. There are a few reasons why the book might be written in this style: to emphasize the superficiality of imposing roles on women, to highlight how all women would be affected by a ban on abortion, etc. I'm not sure which of these reasons motivated Zumas but it just wasn't for me.
I just felt like the speculative aspect fell flat, and the story itself lacked narrative. I wanted more about the Personhood Amendment and the patriarchal state, more comparisons with witch hunts, or even more about Yasmine, whose story I found the most interesting despite her not being present in the book's events. Yes, there are many important subjects and themes in the book - medicalization of birth, decline of midwifery, safe access to abortion - but I think the book would have been much stronger if it had focused on just one of them within the context of the Personhood Amendment. I honestly feel as though the hype has largely been carried by recent political events more than the story itself.