When She Woke

reviews hint at a poor man's Handmaiden Tale

I was not sure how I felt about this book at the beginning. Fair warning there is A LOT of religion in this book. Religion plays a major role in the character development and the universe. Not a dealbreaker in a book for me, but it might be for some people. I wasn't sure for 80% where the book was going and just kind of wanted it to be over. There were elements of the writing that I liked, but overall I didn't feel like the book was going anywhere. It was very slice-of-life and I could kind of see that the author wanted to focus more on character development than actual plot but... boy howdy did I HATE Hannah by the end of this book. The first part of the book was good. The second and third bits were ... ehhh.... and the last part of the book was awful. Choices that were made in terms of Hannah's character were infuriating and made absolutely no sense and I felt at times that diversity was thrown in simply just to have diversity.

I felt the concept was very interesting and timely but I didn't really emotionally connect to the main character as much as I wanted to.

I started this book with pretty high hopes. I absolutely loved [b:Mudbound 2138727 Mudbound Hillary Jordan https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1296591096s/2138727.jpg 2144215] by Jordan and I really liked this premise. A dystopian future where law-breakers are color-coded by the type of crime they commit? Sounds bizarre - sign me up!Ultimately, I ended up with mixed feelings about this book. The first half was great and a fantastic start for a [b:The Scarlet Letter 12296 The Scarlet Letter Nathaniel Hawthorne https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1327879100s/12296.jpg 4925227] retelling. The main character wakes up to find that she has been “chromed” red. All of her skin is as red as a fire truck to symbolize that she is a murderer. She had an affair with a married man and was caught having an illegal abortion, so now she is doomed to be red for 16 years.The second half is where I feel that the book loses steam. It stops being about racism and the extreme religious-right type government and tries being an action packed adventure with a lot of preachy dialogue. The whole story just seemed rushed and the main character seemed to evolve too fast to be believable.

I originally rated this four stars because of how much I liked the first half... but ended up dropping it down to two. As time goes on I remember less and less about the dystopian beginning compared to the romance novel that the second half turned out to be.

Made it about half way through.

I wanted so badly to LOVE this book. I wanted it to take up residence on my “favorites” shelf. The subject matter of this book, I just knew, as soon as I saw it, this was right up my alley. I promptly put it on my wish list over at barnes and noble, high priority, even. When I saw that the nookbook had one day dropped in price to $3.99 from $14+, I got that tingly feeling that only getting a much-wanted book at a bargain price can give.

The story started okay, explaining who the character was, her predicament and the hows and whys of how she got there. After that, the story pretty much dropped off and it just felt like it was all over the place and NOTHING was resolved. What happened to her sister and Cole? What happened to the people that ran the home she spent those six weeks at? There was mention that the Novembrists might do something to them, but nothing ever happened. Her situation with Aidan, I felt there was no resolution there either. I was sorely disappointed with the story and felt like the author just hurried up and finished. It's almost as if Hillary Jordan got tired of writing and said “screw it, I'm done, let's wrap it up and put a bow on it.” I give the book three stars because the idea behind the book is a good one and I did enjoy reading about that. This is just another one of those books that I feel the author could've done so much more with.

Pros: intense character development, fascinating - if terrifying - world, positive message at the end, thought provoking

Cons: very dark tone, some disturbing scenes (religious / near violent)

Hannah Payne has been sentenced to 16 years as a Chrome. Her skin has been turned a rich, vibrant red in order to denote her crime of murder, for aborting her child. The scourge that killed many and made women infertile has been cured and the Sanctity Of Life laws mark women like Hannah as outcasts. Her fundamentalist Christian upbringing did not prepare her for forbidden love with a married man or the horrors she would face as a Red. When She Woke is Hannah's story of endurance, enlightenment and ultimately self-empowerment.

As with many dystopian novels, When She Woke is terrifying because in may ways it's easy to see this future coming about. In the book Roe v. Wade is overturned in order to help increase the population, an act some parties in the US are already trying to do, removing women's rights to control their own bodies and their bodies' reproduction. The idea of tracking released criminals is also one close to being realized, with the jump to making such a database open to the public only a small step further.

While based on Nathanial Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter, When She Woke is much darker. While she faces the reproach and repudiation of Christians, she also faces the lechery of those who would take advantage of the downtrodden, and a fundamentalist group the equivalent of the KKK, that targets and kills Chromes.

The book was therefore unsettling on a number of levels. It reads as though it will have an unpleasant and depressing ending, yet at some point Hannah stops letting others decide her path and takes control of her own life. It's amazing seeing her go from a cowed if outspoken Christian girl to a fully liberated woman who questions the truth and motivations of others. One who knows the consequences of her actions and is willing to face them instead of trying to please others and their notions of repentance. Her character changes so completely - yet so honestly - as the book progresses that when you reach the end it's hard to remember who she was at the beginning of the book.

Not for the faint of heart, this is a good thought-provoking read about personal rights, the justice system and being your own person.

I really wanted to love this book. Instead, I liked it a lot, but I did not love it. It took awhile to get going, but once it did it really rolled. I never read the Scarlet Letter, so I am not sure how close it is to that. For me, it was more like The Handmaid's Tale. It was unclear to me whether religion (well, Christianity) was the bad guy or the good guy or just a weapon to be used against people. Hannah is a great character-very strong! I felt like I could have spent more time with Kayla. Maybe there will be a sequel with Kayla's adventures.
As far as a crossover into YA lit, sure, I know some teens that would dig this book and I would not think twice about recommending this title to them.
A good read!