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A review by selenajournal
When She Woke by Hillary Jordan
5.0
received an advanced copy of when she woke from algonquin books and i swear, someone there knows just what i’ll love and only sends me those books.
when she woke is the book version of a nightmare. it’s set in a dystopian world where roe v. wade is overturned and the separation of church and state has become the marriage of the two. the main character of the story wakes up to red skin, fire engine red skin, because she has been tried and convicted of murder – of aborting her fetus. she refused at the trial to speak her lover’s name and she’s silently paying the price. little do the jury and judges know, the very man, the pastor, who spoke at her trial, is her lover.
if it sounds like the modern-day scarlet letter, you aren’t mistaken. the quote at the beginning of the novel is from hawthorne’s novel and even the character’s initials and name, hannah payne, are an homage to hawthorne’s hester prynne.
the book also had some elements that reminded me of a strange battle royale. after hannah’s sentencing, she wakes up in a locked room to serve her thirty days of confinement before her sixteen year sentence. through her, we realize that these cells where they keep the “chromed” prisoners confined are filmed, covered with cameras. she herself has gotten to see this before her own confinement. we hear through hannah of how many who are confined are screaming, talking in tongues, going mad. the only thing you’re allowed in the cells is a bible.
reading the book for me was a pretty involved experience because i feel so close to the women’s rights movement and the pro-choice movement. i also feel like our society has gotten dangerously close to breaking the barriers between church and state. within when she woke, instead of having a secretary of state, they have a secretary of faith, responsible for the moral superiority of the country. i know that kind of talk ends friendships, but i think it’s a topic that needs to be discussed and scenarios that need to be imagined before decisions are made either way governing laws. literature gives us a way of seeing what a future could be like and gives us a chance to reflect on those horrors before we make them realities.
just like in every era where there are prohibitions on items, it just makes them all the more tempting and stirs up illegal and unhealthy ways of acquiring those items. i refer now to alcohol, the current war on drugs, prostitution and even the pre-roe v. wade days where women died trying to abort a pregnancy. anything made illegal that is low on the maslow scale will end badly; people will still find a way to acquire it.
i don’t know the author or much about her, but i think it’s brave to write a book about this topic, to start a conversation, at a time like this. a time that i’ll even say is pivotal. every day we move forward and make important decisions, life-altering decisions that impact the rest of the world and we need to think them through.
regardless of your politics or your thoughts on my thoughts about the book, above any books i’ve read so far, this is one i’d like to gift to everyone i know. and then to challenge them to imagine themselves in that world and see how they’d like it. i’m sure some would find that it’s an ideal place for them and in line with their ideals, but i think a great majority would find the future world that hillary jordan has built to be one that isn’t inclusive of everyone, that doesn’t define freedom the way the founding fathers did. and then, they’d do whatever it was in their power to ensure that our society doesn’t move in that direction.
when she woke is the book version of a nightmare. it’s set in a dystopian world where roe v. wade is overturned and the separation of church and state has become the marriage of the two. the main character of the story wakes up to red skin, fire engine red skin, because she has been tried and convicted of murder – of aborting her fetus. she refused at the trial to speak her lover’s name and she’s silently paying the price. little do the jury and judges know, the very man, the pastor, who spoke at her trial, is her lover.
if it sounds like the modern-day scarlet letter, you aren’t mistaken. the quote at the beginning of the novel is from hawthorne’s novel and even the character’s initials and name, hannah payne, are an homage to hawthorne’s hester prynne.
the book also had some elements that reminded me of a strange battle royale. after hannah’s sentencing, she wakes up in a locked room to serve her thirty days of confinement before her sixteen year sentence. through her, we realize that these cells where they keep the “chromed” prisoners confined are filmed, covered with cameras. she herself has gotten to see this before her own confinement. we hear through hannah of how many who are confined are screaming, talking in tongues, going mad. the only thing you’re allowed in the cells is a bible.
reading the book for me was a pretty involved experience because i feel so close to the women’s rights movement and the pro-choice movement. i also feel like our society has gotten dangerously close to breaking the barriers between church and state. within when she woke, instead of having a secretary of state, they have a secretary of faith, responsible for the moral superiority of the country. i know that kind of talk ends friendships, but i think it’s a topic that needs to be discussed and scenarios that need to be imagined before decisions are made either way governing laws. literature gives us a way of seeing what a future could be like and gives us a chance to reflect on those horrors before we make them realities.
just like in every era where there are prohibitions on items, it just makes them all the more tempting and stirs up illegal and unhealthy ways of acquiring those items. i refer now to alcohol, the current war on drugs, prostitution and even the pre-roe v. wade days where women died trying to abort a pregnancy. anything made illegal that is low on the maslow scale will end badly; people will still find a way to acquire it.
i don’t know the author or much about her, but i think it’s brave to write a book about this topic, to start a conversation, at a time like this. a time that i’ll even say is pivotal. every day we move forward and make important decisions, life-altering decisions that impact the rest of the world and we need to think them through.
regardless of your politics or your thoughts on my thoughts about the book, above any books i’ve read so far, this is one i’d like to gift to everyone i know. and then to challenge them to imagine themselves in that world and see how they’d like it. i’m sure some would find that it’s an ideal place for them and in line with their ideals, but i think a great majority would find the future world that hillary jordan has built to be one that isn’t inclusive of everyone, that doesn’t define freedom the way the founding fathers did. and then, they’d do whatever it was in their power to ensure that our society doesn’t move in that direction.