When She Woke
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.
I started reading this one but I haven’t had a chance to finish it. It did have a startling, dramatic opening. It reminded me of a cross between Handmaid’s Tale, Scarlet Letter, AND Resident Evil!!!!
Resident Evil! Heh, erm well here I have to admit that I’ve never seen Resident Evil, and erm had to google it…
What a chilling concept. The idea is intriguing so I’m sorry you didn’t love it as you wanted to. I can sympathize since I feel that way so often, especially with Sci-Fi/Fantasy/Speculative books which put so much effort into creating complex, intriguing societies but then fall down when it comes to rounded characters.
Exactly! There are the maps and the family trees and whatnots but somehow some of these books just don’t quite make it…!
I’ve seen this book pop up everywhere lately. I’ll have to look into it sometime. It’s a very interesting, though frightening, concept.
Hi Michelle, thanks for dropping by and leaving a comment!
Yes, it is quite an ‘it’ book, isn’t it? I hope you enjoy reading it.
I’ve had Mudbound on my TBR list for ages, thanks for reminding me of this author. This book sounds intriguing, too, though I’m with you and Claire–I want to love sci-fi more than I do, but I just need those well-rounded characters.