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rebeccaschmitz's review against another edition
3.0
I'm sorry to say Hillary Jordan took the easy way out with her heroine, Hannah Payne, in When She Woke. In a time when one major political party in America is currently courting the kind of religious extremists ultimately in charge of our country in Woke, Jordan didn't need to resort to over-the-top plot devices. Just the set-up--the division between church and state is gone in an age more technologically advanced than ours--is chilling and believable. Having Hannah fight back in smaller ways is enough: befriending other Chromes, accepting others' belief systems, coming to peace with her decision to have an abortion, escaping to a secular and private life in Canada. Suddenly having a naive young Evangelical woman (yes, naive even after an adulterous affair and that abortion), go full dyke to show she's a new, strong woman felt wrong to me. It was too too and too predictable, just like Jordan's other stock characters: the abusive fundamentalist husband, the hypocritical pastor and his disturbed wife, and the super macho lesbian. This could have been a better novel, one just as disturbing as Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale, if only I wasn't turning each page and thinking to myself, "Yeah, I knew this would happen."
kaitwernsing's review against another edition
3.0
I didn't hate this book, but I also didn't love it. I really enjoyed the premise but I had a hard time with the love stories and I felt that Hannah actually went backwards in some aspect. I enjoyed probably the first 3/4 of the book, but had some issues with the writing and the ever changing strength/weakness of the main character. She had some bad ass moments, but seemed to quickly backslide from them like she almost forgot who she was. Now I'm blabbering!! Good book, not great, but good.
bri_all_the_way_down's review against another edition
3.0
A little religious for my liking, but glad the ending is more self-focused.
sarahkuntsal's review against another edition
3.0
So much potential for this book...but it just didn't live up to what it could have been. The premise of the book is great - in the future, things have gone a bit wonky, the jails are full, and they need to find a way to release some of the people. So they start melachroming prisoners - dying their skin to signify what their crime was. This is the story of one woman who wakes up in prison with bright red skin. We learn what her crime was, how she ended up red, and what she does after she's released. The book "riffs on" The Scarlet Letter (riffs being her words, not mine), and though it does have similar ideas, they get lost in some of the fluff parts. What I disliked the most was all the harping on her "one true love"...It was very reminiscent of Twilight. Shiny boys that are just so attractive and so beautiful that life doesn't seem worth it without them...meh. It would have been ok in small doses - but it was just too much. It's unfortunate, because the story really could have been great.
marciafhm's review against another edition
3.0
If I could give half-stars, I'd give this 3.5. Compelling post-modern reselling of The Scarlet Letter. It did get a tad tedious in the middle but ultimately a good read.
lizzieanne771's review against another edition
5.0
Brilliant. I'm no normally one for dystopian lit, but I loved this one! A truly haunting fable of what could be if certain factions get their way...
kate_albers's review against another edition
4.0
I didn't expect to like this book as much as I did, although I will say that the first three-quarters of the book is stronger than the end. That said, it has some beautiful writing and is a fantastic read about a very brave woman who risks everything for what she believes.
nsmargaretanne's review against another edition
3.0
Very interesting - dystopian world especially for women. Criminals are (mostly) no longer locked up but they are coloured using a genetic method that colours murderer's red, for example, - abortion is murder so should you be caught having one. . . you are made to walk around red. Elements of hand maids tale, Scarlet letter and a bunch of other sci-fi. I only gave it three stars (I liked it) but this may not be fair on my part as I whizzed through it clearly engrossed. On the other hand I read and read looking for more generally about the "world" but the story remained pretty personal and I was left wishing for more general info about the world that the protagonist inhabits. . . Still I recommend it as general feminist sci-fi . . . but has no sci-fi feel for those that hate sci-fi as long as you buy the world (think Texas today expanded) and the chromo process.
jujubird's review against another edition
4.0
For the most part, I really enjoyed this book. But when it comes down to it, there was one particular scene towards the end which felt gratuitous and unnecessary to the story. It threw me for just enough of a loop. While I believe that there was a slight purpose to it, the way it was presented almost made it feel like it was thrown in for more of a shock value than for an actual storyline purpose (particularly based on what followed next).
That said, I enjoyed this dystopian world view. So close to our own, yet very foreign in some ways. As always, I'm a what happens next?- type so the open ending did leave me wanting more.
Overall great book and story telling flow!
That said, I enjoyed this dystopian world view. So close to our own, yet very foreign in some ways. As always, I'm a what happens next?- type so the open ending did leave me wanting more.
Overall great book and story telling flow!
alongapath's review against another edition
2.0
(2.5 stars)
Imagine a society that coloured the skin of their criminals. Each type of crime has its own colour. Red, of course, is for murderers. Yellow for thieves. Blue for molesters. This is the world that Hannah was raised in and believed was just. But after having an abortion, Hannah finds herself on the other end of the reality and suffers dearly because of it. After a month of TV-monitored imprisonment, she is free to re-enter society, wearing her crime on her skin. She discovers a whole world of evil and finds that her life is threatened at every turn.
Jordan has a great idea for a dystopian society here but be prepared for the religious preaching that thickly coats each chapter. Until the very end, I was unsure if Jordan was mocking the Christian religion for its inflexible thinking and hypocritical attitude or if Jordan was trying to recruit a few new members to her strict sect. Being an unreligious person, I found this aspect of the novel offensive and I would have closed the book for good, had it not been for my partner-read commitment! In the end,
Hannah is a flat, unlikeable character. It is difficult to root for her as she escapes misfortune when you don't really care about her. For such a Christian-raised person, she sure is quick to judge and quicker to hate. Actually, most of the characters are flat and unlikeable. Aidan is weakly developed; her mother is cold and unloving; her sister is a spineless follower; her brother-in-law hates and rages for no reason; even Simone is ugly and stiff.
As with [b:The Slap|5396496|The Slap|Christos Tsiolkas|http://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1330062364s/5396496.jpg|5464024], people seemed to fly into a rage for no reason at all. Hannah would be having a conversation with someone and suddenly envision herself strangling that person or hurling insults their way for no apparent reason. Do people really do this?
Another aspect that irked me was Jordan's obvious confusion between feminism and lesbianism. At one point, Hannah is being protected by a feminist group, who have pro-choice beliefs, and within a week in their care, Hannah initiates a lesbian encounter with her protector. A bit out-of-character, I say, since this same Hannah recently believed that homosexuals were worms in the eyes of god. Jordan needs to learn the difference between feminism and lesbianism before she treats their topics in a novel. Bah...
Considering the enormous potential of the dystopian society that Jordan created, it was a highly disappointing read.
Imagine a society that coloured the skin of their criminals. Each type of crime has its own colour. Red, of course, is for murderers. Yellow for thieves. Blue for molesters. This is the world that Hannah was raised in and believed was just. But after having an abortion, Hannah finds herself on the other end of the reality and suffers dearly because of it. After a month of TV-monitored imprisonment, she is free to re-enter society, wearing her crime on her skin. She discovers a whole world of evil and finds that her life is threatened at every turn.
Jordan has a great idea for a dystopian society here but be prepared for the religious preaching that thickly coats each chapter. Until the very end, I was unsure if Jordan was mocking the Christian religion for its inflexible thinking and hypocritical attitude or if Jordan was trying to recruit a few new members to her strict sect. Being an unreligious person, I found this aspect of the novel offensive and I would have closed the book for good, had it not been for my partner-read commitment! In the end,
Spoiler
it becomes apparent that Jordan is indeed as religious as thought but simply wishes that 'god's will' was replaced with 'free will'.Hannah is a flat, unlikeable character. It is difficult to root for her as she escapes misfortune when you don't really care about her. For such a Christian-raised person, she sure is quick to judge and quicker to hate. Actually, most of the characters are flat and unlikeable. Aidan is weakly developed; her mother is cold and unloving; her sister is a spineless follower; her brother-in-law hates and rages for no reason; even Simone is ugly and stiff.
As with [b:The Slap|5396496|The Slap|Christos Tsiolkas|http://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1330062364s/5396496.jpg|5464024], people seemed to fly into a rage for no reason at all. Hannah would be having a conversation with someone and suddenly envision herself strangling that person or hurling insults their way for no apparent reason. Do people really do this?
Another aspect that irked me was Jordan's obvious confusion between feminism and lesbianism. At one point, Hannah is being protected by a feminist group, who have pro-choice beliefs, and within a week in their care, Hannah initiates a lesbian encounter with her protector. A bit out-of-character, I say, since this same Hannah recently believed that homosexuals were worms in the eyes of god. Jordan needs to learn the difference between feminism and lesbianism before she treats their topics in a novel. Bah...
Considering the enormous potential of the dystopian society that Jordan created, it was a highly disappointing read.