lisabreads 's review for:

Red Clocks by Leni Zumas

4.0

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The story of women in a time when abortion is outlawed and adoption is for two parent families only, the book follows four women in the same town in different stages of fertility journeys. Susan, a stay at home mother of two, who gave up on her law degree to have children and who is now unhappy with her husband. She loves her children and agonizes forcing them to grow up in a split home when so much emphasis is being placed on two parent families being the best. Mattie, a 16 year old who becomes pregnant just as the opportunity for her to go to an elite math program becomes available. Ro, a 40+ math teacher who wants to have a baby but is not married. IVF is also illegal and she is single so is not highly sought after for an adoption candidate. And a mender named Gin who gave her baby up for adoption years ago and is now a herbalist living alone in the forest, helping anybody who asks and is put on trial for providing herbs which are suspected of causing abortions. Such complex stories that each of them are suffering in different ways, jealous of each other for different reasons. This book was a little hard to follow in the beginning but was worth it as they started to intertwine a bit more.