When She Woke in Ultimate Popsugar Reading Challenge

Nov 02, 2011 Sharlene rated it liked it

Shelves: ebook, 2011, library

Hannah is red. A Red. Red for murder. Her skin has been tinted for the crime she has committed. For in When She Woke‘s dystopian America, abortion is a crime.

It is a dramatic, movie-like, opening.

“When she woke, she was red. Not flushed, not sunburned, but the solid, declarative red of a stop sign.

She saw her hands first. She held them in front of her eyes, squinting up at them. For a few seconds, shadowed by her eyelashes and backlit by the hard white light emanating from the ceiling, they ap Hannah is red. A Red. Red for murder. Her skin has been tinted for the crime she has committed. For in When She Woke‘s dystopian America, abortion is a crime.

It is a dramatic, movie-like, opening.

“When she woke, she was red. Not flushed, not sunburned, but the solid, declarative red of a stop sign.

She saw her hands first. She held them in front of her eyes, squinting up at them. For a few seconds, shadowed by her eyelashes and backlit by the hard white light emanating from the ceiling, they appeared black. Then her eyes adjusted, and the illusion faded. She examined the backs, the palms. They floated above her, as starkly alien as starfish.”

Hannah spends thirty days in the Chrome ward, after which she has to figure out how to survive in the outside world. For she has to live as a Red for 16 years – her sentenced extended thanks to her refusal to name both the father of her child (a public figure, a married man, a forbidden love) and the abortionist. And Chromes (also Yellows, Greens, Blues depending on their crime) live on the fringes, in ghettos, and are closely monitored and easily tracked by anyone. It is especially terrifying for Hannah, whose life had been devoted to her faith and family, whose 26 years have been sheltered and closed.

Things go downhill (if that’s possible) when she checks into a halfway home which is all about repentance and prayers and crappy food. Hannah later meets a pro-choice group and, well, a variety of things happen but let’s leave it at that.

I constantly thought of Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale as I read this. And if I had actually read Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, I would have figured out that Hester Prynne = Jordan’s Hannah Payne (note to self: read The Scarlet Letter!).

However, while When She Woke has a startling, fascinating beginning and setting, once in the outside world, Hannah meets some cliched, others wooden, characters. Hannah herself, well, she is a bit of a mystery to me. The change we see in her, at first meek and obedient, then strong and determined, is huge especially in such little time, but I wanted more (my expectations for fictional characters are remarkably high). I wanted her not to have done that silly thing she did towards the end, but I guess we all have frailties.

I liked this book. I think I wanted to love it, as I loved The Handmaid’s Tale. However, I am still pretty interested in reading Jordan’s first book, Mudbound, which I’ve heard plenty of good about. ...more

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Nov 18, 2011 jess rated it really liked it

Shelves: audiobook-d, fiction, ladyish, 2012

Our narrator, Hannah Payne, is a young woman from a family of faith in a not-too-distant dystopian America where faith and religion have become extremely powerful. The POTUS has a Secretary of Faith to advise him, and religious beliefs rule much of public policy (more so than now, if you can imagine it). For example, abortion is completely illegal. In this future world, prison has become too expensive, so criminals are genetically altered to change the color of their skin to match the category o Our narrator, Hannah Payne, is a young woman from a family of faith in a not-too-distant dystopian America where faith and religion have become extremely powerful. The POTUS has a Secretary of Faith to advise him, and religious beliefs rule much of public policy (more so than now, if you can imagine it). For example, abortion is completely illegal. In this future world, prison has become too expensive, so criminals are genetically altered to change the color of their skin to match the category of their crime. Hannah has an abortion and gets caught - so Hannah becomes a Red, a marked murderer in the eyes of society.

The primary tension here is sin/punishment and Hannah's struggle with her faith. Hannah questions her god, her church, her family's beliefs and her whole belief system. There are some interesting reflections on privilege when Hannah suddenly becomes a Chrome and loses much of her own privilege. Suddenly she relates to Chromes and other disenfranchised people and starts to see her world for what it really is. Hannah also tries to navigate queer identity and feminism. Although those parts are small compared to Hannah's tormented love for man she can't have, I appreciated that they were in there. It made a profound difference in how we experience Hannah's character.

I really enjoyed reading this book, although I felt the pace and tone were a little flawed in some places. I was impressed by how Jordan's characters evolved through the book, each a recognizable but very distant version of their former selves. No one escaped from this story unscathed. I would recommend this to a pro-choice pal with a hankering for a scary (scary because it could be real like, within five years! i swear!), grown-up dystopian book.

This book has a lot of the hallmarks of dystopian feminist future fiction. Comparisons are inevitable to Handmaid's Tale and Scarlet Letter. The writing is forthright in that way that made me feel like I was reading YAF, but some of the subject material is graphic and disturbing, so I quickly realized this book is actually for adults and older teens, not YAF at all.

Also, I would really like to read the spin-off story that tells us more about Simone, the powerful, ruthless homo freedom fighter. ...more

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Nov 21, 2011 Anastasia rated it really liked it

Shelves: fiction, womens-issues, racial-ethnic-experiences, 2011, dystopia

I love dystopic novels, especially those that deal with women's issues and address environmental sustainability. As you've no doubt read from the blurb on the book jacket, this novel draws on The Scarlet Letter and The Handmaid's Tale in exploring a near-future hyper-religious world in which the Scourge has decimated women's fertility, sanctity of life laws have been passed in 40 states, Los Angeles has been bombed to smithereens, and, as a way to cut prison costs, criminals are now punished by ...more

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Nov 09, 2012 Julia rated it really liked it

Shelves: politics, scifi-fantasy, classics, religion, horror, nook

Another great book by a Yaddo author, a brilliant re-telling of Nathaniel Hawthorne's Scarlet letter set in a distopian future.

I cannot decide if it is a 4 or 5, so I'm marking 4 but might revise within the next week, depending on how much mulling over it I do. It should be at least a 4.5... ...more

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Dec 30, 2011 Bradley rated it really liked it

Shelves: year-2012

Let me say one thing: I'm so over dystopian fiction. That said, I really loved When She Woke. The book is eerily relevant to what's going on now in politics, the fights over birth control and Planned Parenthood. ...more

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