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When She Woke

Hillary Jordan

Start date: July 2, 2013

Finish date: July 31, 2013

Discussion: Books of the Month

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What Members Thought

Jun 27, 2013 Rebekah rated it really liked it

Shelves: rating-4, genre-science-fiction, genre-book-club, genre-adult, genre-adult-fiction, genre-science-fiction-dystopia, nbrc-bom-br

This book is a timely and gripping novel that initially filled me with cold dread. I always have trouble with dystopian novels, because I find them hard to believe and difficult to put myself in the place of the characters. But honestly, the initial premise of this story struck me as more realistic than any other dystopian novel I have read. The world that Jordan creates seems eerily realistic and plausible. Honestly, growing up in an evangelical conservative church, many of the arguments and ch This book is a timely and gripping novel that initially filled me with cold dread. I always have trouble with dystopian novels, because I find them hard to believe and difficult to put myself in the place of the characters. But honestly, the initial premise of this story struck me as more realistic than any other dystopian novel I have read. The world that Jordan creates seems eerily realistic and plausible. Honestly, growing up in an evangelical conservative church, many of the arguments and characters were horrifyingly familiar to me. I have read and am fans of both The Scarlet Letter and The Handmaid's Tale and definitely see the nods to these two great novels, but feel like this is a quite honest critique of many aspects of modern American society and a current and important addition.

However, this book does not get five stars, because it does have some major flaws. Occasionally the author throws in obscure vocabulary words for no good reason. I don't know if she is trying to sound smarter than she is, or what, but it was annoying to have to look up words in the dictionary and didn't match the rest of her writing style. Also, the book REALLY loses steam and focus at the end and becomes increasingly implausible. There is a lesbian sex scene that is so laughable, out of character, and juvenile, that I couldn't decide whether to laugh or be insulted. Because the one lesbian character in the novel MUST be sexually attracted to our main character! Also, towards the end, the focus changes from philosophical debate to more like a cheap unrealistic thriller. Some major characters are put in dangerous situations and it is as if suddenly the main character does not care about them anymore. It is bizarre. It is almost as if the author was on a deadline and just wanted to wrap up the book, without giving it much thought. Our heroine scrapes by and everything is great and she's changed, all in a very adolescent and I believe, unrealistic, fashion. How sad for a book that started off so grand, ending so poorly? If the author had kept it up, I don't doubt this could have become an American classic.

That being said, I still highly recommend that everyone read this book, if just to have a discussion about the disintegration of women's rights in this country and what the implications are for our future girls. ...more

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Jun 19, 2011 Amy rated it really liked it

Shelves: fiction, rec-ig-blogs-friends-other, _own-ebook, rec-botn, busy-as-a-bee-books-group, read-in-2011

When She Woke is a fantastic dystopic novel that examines fairly intense topics such as faith, religion, individualism, choice, and punishment. Hillary Jordan tackles a number of fairly controversial topics - most notably abortion - in this novel. I love that she takes them on straightforwardly and honestly. I thought the author's retelling of The Scarlet Letter was clever but I liked how Jordan modernized the overall story and took the story down a new path with When She Woke.

The concept of ch When She Woke is a fantastic dystopic novel that examines fairly intense topics such as faith, religion, individualism, choice, and punishment. Hillary Jordan tackles a number of fairly controversial topics - most notably abortion - in this novel. I love that she takes them on straightforwardly and honestly. I thought the author's retelling of The Scarlet Letter was clever but I liked how Jordan modernized the overall story and took the story down a new path with When She Woke.

The concept of chroming (coloring people to categorize them as various 'offenses' such as murder, pedophilia, etc) was really interesting and, frankly, ingenious. I almost wish that she'd explored that aspect even more deeply because I wanted to know more about the details and how the government came to a place of coloring people as punishment. It's a very interesting concept.

What I loved most about this novel was the journey of the main character, Hannah. The novel is essentially about female empowerment. The author did a wonderful job creating complex, believable, intensely human characters overall. However, Hannah's personal development through the course of the novel was particularly well done.

All of the issues in this novel were well written and explored in a well rounded way. I thought her journey was amazing and gave me a lot to think about. The entire novel was a thought provoking journey and I really enjoyed it. I didn't want to put the book down! Despite the heavy material and the thought provoking nature of the book, I would say it is an engaging and exciting book!

There is a great deal of controversial and socially relevant subject matter written with an unabashedly feminist perspective which may be off-putting for some individuals. If that is something that rubs you the wrong way, this book will not be for you. I found the novel to be an inspiring story about the struggle from oppression to empowerment, similar to Margaret Atwood's The Handmaids Tale. I suspect that if you enjoyed that novel, you will like this one! ...more

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Mar 14, 2012 Jane rated it it was amazing

Shelves: sci-fi, favorites

A modern take on The Scarlet Letter. This is a compelling tale which addresses the horrors which could arise when church and state are no longer separated.

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