On the recommendation of a good friend and colleague, I just read Hillary Jordan's When She woke. The cover blurb talks about Jordan here channeling Nathanial Hawthorne by way of Margaret Atwood, and I have to say I couldn't stop thinking about The Handmaid's Tale as I read this. I wouldn't classify this as a YA book. The protagonist is around 25 years old so I guess if anything it's "new adult" i.e. if books have to have an "age group" attached to them. It's definitely dystopian, but it's atypical in that it's a quieter story than a lot of the action/adventure/romance dystopias out there today. This one has its share of action and adventure (and even some romance), but it's more philosophical. Jordan muses on religion, gender and race as she imagines a future society where thoughts on abortion, women's role in society, and religion are taken to the nth degree. The lead character - Hannah Payne - is easily relatable. She's an honorable character trying to do the right thing in an impossible situation, hampered by her sheltered upbringing in terms of figuring out the meaning of right versus wrong in unfamiliar contexts. I haven't read any other reviews of this book and I imagine the content could be off-putting to some people, particularly in terms of its focus on religion and abortion. But for the most part I thought she handled the issues sensitively, using the fiction framework to develop arguments about where unbridled fundamental beliefs in anything (freedom of choice, role of religion, free will, justice and violence) could lead a society. This is not a "boy meets girl and fights repressive society" story like a lot of modern dystopian tales, but rather a "girl suffers terrible fate largely of her own making, and struggles to survive the consequences in a confusing and often violent/repressive society" story. It's difficult to review the book without giving too much away. It won't be everyone's cup of tea because the subject matter can be stark and confronting in places. But I found it highly engaging and thought-provoking.
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