[I received an electronic review copy of this book from Netgalley and Berkley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.]
Summary
In the “before,” Dr. Jean McClellan was an accomplished neurolinguist studying aphasia (loss of speech or understanding of speech) in the Wernicke’s area (aphasia in this area means the person can still speak, but the words don’t make sense). She and her team were on the brink of developing a serum to cure Wernicke’s aphasia.
In the “after,” Jean is relegated to her home with no job and no resources of her own. A device on her wrist counts her words each day with a limit of 100. She isn’t allowed to write, read, sign or otherwise communicate beyond her 100 words or she receives increasingly painful electric shocks.
The “moral majority” and extremists in the Christian faith, led by Reverend Carl Corbin, right hand man to the president, implemented the changes in the country over a period of time. In their new system, ultra-conservative religious values are taught in schools (men are in charge and women belong at home and should stay quiet), and homosexuals are jailed and sent to work camps unless they renounce their sexual orientation and pursue a heterosexual relationship. Women and girls who have sex outside of marriage are severely and publicly punished while high end “men’s clubs” have cropped up for those who can afford them. Men are the only ones allowed to work and girls are sent to separate schools from the boys where they are only taught home management skills – cooking, bookkeeping, etc. They are not taught to read, and they are rewarded if they get through the whole day without using any of their 100 words.
Dr. McClellan can feel her fury grow as she watches her daughter wilt under these rules and watches her oldest son become a judgmental misogynist. But she is powerless to change anything for her own family, much less anyone else. Until the government asks her to resume her research to help an important presidential ally. But is the president’s request really as simple as it seems?
Review
I found the premise of this fascinating! I’ve read reviews from other Christians who found the premise unbelievable. I disagree. I found threads of truth in some of the world building. Our country is struggling. Our moral compass is off track in some ways. And pockets of the population are angry and afraid. If you have enough anger and fear in one direction, things could get worse – things of faith could get twisted. One of the messages of the book is a call to engagement – vote, march, talk to your representatives. I found that whole part of the book on target.
Unfortunately, there were others things I did not like. The main character didn’t click for me. I just didn’t like her. Her choices and her language and attitude (in general – not just her anger over the oppression) were off-putting. And the ending was a disappointment. For a girl-power sort of story, it was odd to have the final action take place off the page without any of the women directly involved. I heard a writing teacher recently say that your protagonist has to be the agent of the resolution of the story. The ending the author chose to write could not have included a woman in this world – I get that. But it left me frustrated that the main character is sitting around waiting for something else to happen and the reader only hears about it second hand.
If you’re curious about the dystopian world and how the writer envisions us getting there, give this a try. I will say within just a couple chapters, I was angry. The author did a great job of drawing me into the world and pulling at my emotions over the injustice. I was stirred up by the whole thing. Let the story inspire you and challenge you to use your voice for whatever your politics call for. I think this would be a great book club choice because I think it would draw out a lot of great discussion, no matter what readers think about the book as a whole. (Language, violence)