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A review by gingerellaj
The Growing Season by Helen Sedgwick
3.0
I received this book as an ARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions expressed here are my own.
The Growing Season is the story of a dystopian future where anyone can have a child -- male, female, fertile, infertile -- using a commercially available external pouch. I was intrigued by the idea of this, or more so the ethical conundrums it creates and how the author may present and/or tackle them. The plot focuses on many people who have had interactions with the pouch, whether that be being born as result of it, or being opposed to its introduction. Then things begin to go wrong and the science is called into question. Whilst I continued to find the concept interesting, I struggled a little bit with the story: I often felt distracted and not able to fully latch on (no pun intended) to what was happening to the characters, or to the characters themselves. I'm not sure whether that was because I'm quite science-focused and it was difficult firstly, to picture exactly how the pouch itself looks or feels. I cannot say that is because the author didn't do a good job of trying to explain that, just that I am visual learner and it was difficult to imagine such an unknown quantity. Secondly, my mind kept wondering back to the actual background science. That's not a distraction everyone will have though, admittedly. So in summary: great concept, I just didn't gel with this particular telling of it or the characters so much.
The Growing Season is the story of a dystopian future where anyone can have a child -- male, female, fertile, infertile -- using a commercially available external pouch. I was intrigued by the idea of this, or more so the ethical conundrums it creates and how the author may present and/or tackle them. The plot focuses on many people who have had interactions with the pouch, whether that be being born as result of it, or being opposed to its introduction. Then things begin to go wrong and the science is called into question. Whilst I continued to find the concept interesting, I struggled a little bit with the story: I often felt distracted and not able to fully latch on (no pun intended) to what was happening to the characters, or to the characters themselves. I'm not sure whether that was because I'm quite science-focused and it was difficult firstly, to picture exactly how the pouch itself looks or feels. I cannot say that is because the author didn't do a good job of trying to explain that, just that I am visual learner and it was difficult to imagine such an unknown quantity. Secondly, my mind kept wondering back to the actual background science. That's not a distraction everyone will have though, admittedly. So in summary: great concept, I just didn't gel with this particular telling of it or the characters so much.