jayuu 's review for:

Red Clocks by Leni Zumas

3.0

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What can I say…? It felt too safe, too white to me. As someone who works in the reproductive health, rights, and justice field, I turned to this book to seek creative escapism and resilience. But instead I feel like I got a traditional retelling of the same tired tropes about women, just set in the distant future. Some may think that the author was excused of covering the stories of people of color or people who work for low wages with any real depth because the setting was Oregon, but this just didn’t feel right or real to me. The author did cover the stories of a teenager, a recluse, a mother, a teacher, an explorer, etc, but it never really answered the question I wanted answered: how would a low-income woman of color with existing children have dealt with the realities of the setting? Instead, we got a black and white tale with little nuance. It seemed too easy.