Red Clocks

I read this really quickly (once I actually started it), but somehow I didn't feel like I ever really got into it. It's not bad at all, but I felt at a remove from all the characters - I'm guessing at least part of this was intentional, considering how the chapters are titled “The Daughter,” “The Mender” and so on. The most interesting parts of the novel to me were Ro and Mattie's stories. I thought I knew where they were going, but I was wrong and I really like how everything turned out there. Susan and Gin's stories didn't feel like they connected with the others in the same way, and Susan's in particular feels like it could be in any work of fiction written in the past sixty or so years. That's not necessarily bad, and it was definitely well-written, but it didn't seem to take advantage of the setting in the same way as the others. As far as the setting, I wish the author had taken it further - I know all these restrictions are based in reality, but the world didn't seem as fully realized as something like The Handmaid's Tale, even. (Like, did they get rid of the Supreme Court? Most of the new laws would be blatantly unconstitutional.) Overall, this was interesting and definitely a change of pace from my usual fiction reading, but I don't think it's something I'll be compelled to return to.

Red Clocks first caught my attention because it's set in a small fishing town in Oregon, my home state. After that, learning that it's a dystopia where abortion and in vitro fertilization have both been banned outright meant I HAD to read it. Of course, I got it from the library some weeks ago and had so many other books to read that I didn't get to it until the day it was due back to the library! Luckily, I read fast!

I think the cover description oversells the book a little. I wouldn't call Gin's trial “frenzied” nor the drama exactly “riveting” but it did keep my attention throughout the book. I really enjoyed the relationships between the characters, and the point that none of them really know what is going on in each other's personal lives. One moment I particularly liked is slightly spoilery, but I loved how Ro was able to put her personal feelings aside to help Mattie, her student. That was really, really hard for her, but she recognized how much damage it would do to Mattie to not help her.

I think I found Gin the most interesting - given all the reading I've been doing lately about autism, her entire personality screams autism to me, but she was never labeled as autistic. So I'm marking her as a possibly autistic character. (I'd love if any of my autistic readers could weigh in on that, if you've read the book!) Between preferring to live in the woods with animals and NOT around people, specifically, and the way she reacts to the textures and smells in the jail when she's arrested (shoving the bleach-scented blankets as far away in the cell as possible, and refusing to eat the food), and how she stumbles over her answers in the courtroom when she's interrogated - it seems likely.

My only actual complaint about this book had nothing to do with the writing or plot! But it refers to the ghost pepper as “the hottest pepper known to man” which the Carolina Reaper growing in my backyard would have an issue with!

Other than that very minor quibble, I thought this dystopia was pretty good. I'm always interested in Reproductive Rights-related dystopias. This isn't as good as The Handmaid's Tale, but it's MILES better than Future Home of the Living God. It's good at showing the lengths women will go to, to ensure their own reproductive freedom. Outlawing abortion doesn't eliminate abortion. It just makes it less safe.

You can find all my reviews at Goddess in the Stacks.