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    Red Clocks
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    Red Clocks
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    Red Clocks
    Audiobook9 hours

    Red Clocks

    Written by Leni Zumas

    Narrated by Karissa Vacker and Erin Bennett

    4/5

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    Unavailable in your country

    Unavailable in your country

    About this audiobook

    SHORTLISTED FOR THE INAUGURAL ORWELL PRIZE FOR POLITICAL FICTION

    ‘Intense, beautifully crafted . . . Her talent is electric. Get ready for a shock’ Guardian

    This is a work of fiction. Keep telling yourself that.

    America has changed. For women, it has changed for the worse.

    Ro, a single high-school teacher, is desperate to become a mother. But with IVF now illegal – along with abortion and other reproductive rights – parenthood looks increasingly unlikely for her. Her best friend Susan is trapped in a failing marriage with two children, her star student Mattie is unwillingly pregnant and Gin, an outcast offering other women natural remedies, has become the centre of a modern-day witch-hunt.

    With warmth, wit and ferocious inventiveness, Red Clocks shows us an all-too plausible near-future: like The Handmaid’s Tale, it is a call to arms, set to become a modern classic.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins
    Release dateMar 8, 2018
    ISBN9780008209872
    Unavailable
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    Reviews for Red Clocks

    4/5

    322 ratings31 reviews

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    • 5/5
      I really wasn't sure what to expect with this having read mixed reviews, but I loved it!
      The subject matter was terrifyingly close to what could actually easily become a reality, and in part it almost is in some parts of the world.
      It was a little confusing keeping up with who was who in the first few chapters but as the story enfolds we get to know each character their individual stories and how their stories and lives entwine with each other.
      Thoroughly enjoyed it and it just goes to show that sometimes instead of being confounded by online reviews, it's better going back to the times of simply browsing the bookshops/libraries and just picking books by the synopsis catching your interest.
    • 3/5
      3.5/5 starsThis book, was quite an interesting one. The writing style was very experimental, and kind of weird. The way the POVs are set up, makes you feel slightly detached, but after about half the book, I actually did care what happened to a few of the characters. The world that these women have to live in is terrifying. It isn't even that far fetched, it could become a reality. In this version of the USA, the Personhood Amendment has been introduced into the constitution - where embryos are considered people, and abortion, IVF, and even attempting to abort an embryo is illegal and women can be sent to prison. This book follows 4.5 women and their paths as they navigate their way through the world. The biographer, who is single, but wants a baby, The Daughter, who has an unwanted pregnancy, The Mender, who gave her child up for adoption and helps women with sexual problems, and The Wife, who has two children, but is in an unhappy marriage. (This last POV is the one I least empathized with). The half POV is of the women that the Biographer is writing about, and realistically, this was probably the worst part of the book for me. Most of it just didn't make sense, and really didn't add anything to the narrative for me. I found this book to ask some really tough questions, and it explored who gets to choose. It explored parenthood, adoption, abortion, and many other facets of a women's sexuality. I really enjoyed this exploration and that is why I overall think this was a good and important book. Even if the writing style, and maybe what the author was trying to get across with her writing was lost on me a little. The overall message was there. An interesting read, and one that should garner a lot of discussion in today's world.
    • 2/5
      Red Clocks is a dystopian novel about what would happen if Roe vs. Wade were overturned and a Personhood Amendment was passed. The theme is: Women and the right to choose. I found it very hard to connect to any character as they are are referred to as; the biographer, the daughter, the wife and the mender. The style of short vignettes by each character was very disjointed and made the story very choppy. I also found the premise of the novel unrealistic as 2/3 of the Congress would be needed to overturn Roe vs. Wade and I doubt that many votes would be garnered. The one question I ask is: "Who looks out for the rights of the unborn?"
    • 4/5
      I'm late to reading this novel, so late that I'm not certain it should be classified as dystopian, since the world described could become real any day now. Using multiple perspectives, the author presents very different women, different choices, and different desires, but shows how each is constrained by law and expectations. Often I felt like the author was seeking to describe what it's like to live in a woman's body at different stages of life. I identified with several of the women and especially with their experiences. This book was hard to read, but in the best way possible.
    • 4/5
      In the US, a constitutional amendment has recently passed declaring any fertilized cell to have the full rights of a human being, meaning that anyone who gets or provides an abortion can and will be charged with murder. Another law is about to go into effect, too, preventing single parents from adopting, because "Every Child Needs Two." In this world, we meet four women: One who is desperate to have a child of her own. One who is being driven crazy by her life with her children and her might-as-well-be-a-child husband. One who gave her own baby up for adoption, and who now lives in the woods treating other women with herbs. And a teenage girl who finds herself accidentally pregnant.I'll be honest, I was a bit leery of this book going in, thinking the odds were higher than I'd like that it'd either be a heavy-handed political screed (which aren't super enjoyable even when I very much agree with them) or an incredibly depressing dystopia (which I might find a little hard to handle these days). But I think it does avoid being either of those. The situation faced by women in this all-too-plausible world is infuriating -- at least, it is if you value reproductive rights, although I imagine the novel would be infuriating in entirely different ways if you think those laws sound like fantastic ideas -- but the novel itself isn't as bleak as I'd feared. And giving us the stories of four different women (or five, if you count the snippets from the biography one of the women is writing), all with very different experiences and desires and perspectives when it comes to their own reproduction, is a great way to explore things.All that having been said, I still didn't love it, although I keep second-guessing the reasons why. One of them is that I had trouble getting along with the writing style. Zumas hit a major misstep for me almost immediately with the way that she refuses to use her character's names when writing in their POV. That, in itself, is a literary device that can be interesting, but in this case, it turned out that all the characters know each other and readily use each other's names, so it seemed to accomplish absolutely nothing other than keeping me confused, early on, about which names went with which POV characters and who was being talked about at any given moment. I may have started muttering to myself about stupid literary gimmicks and "yet another MFA type whose writing is so 'clever' it can't get out of its own way" or words to that effect. Which is maybe unfair, and I did more or less warm up to the writing eventually, but I think that initial reaction colored a lot of my response to the whole thing.Also not helping was the fact that I found almost all of the characters annoying. Which is probably also unfair, Hell, the carefully calibrated surgical-strike awfulness of the most irritating character in the book -- the husband of the married POV character -- is actually a fairly impressive artistic accomplishment. And the women are supposed to be flawed, with their issues and capacity for pettiness and so on no doubt being very much part of the point. Women are complicated human beings, people are judgmental because no one ever fully understands another's POV, society's attitudes about women mess with everyone's head, and so on. I get it. And, again, it did work better for me as the novel went on. But as a reading experience, it didn't exactly thrill me. Although it did leave me asking myself uncomfortable and thought-provoking questions about my own ability to sympathize with women whose experiences and desires differ significantly from my own, which I think is probably a worthwhile result in itself.Anyway. Can't say I entirely enjoyed it, for reasons that might well be as much my fault as the author's, but I certainly did appreciate aspects of it, and in the end I'm not sorry I read it, anyway.
    • 4/5
      Red Clocks is scarier for me than The Handmaid's Tale (which I loved!), because it isn't a dystopian novel, set in the future with a different societal setup. It is so frighteningly close to now that I can almost touch it. The legal manipulations going on in Texas and other states concerning abortion and women's rights are just small steps beyond this book. I am incensed and petrified and we have to pay attention. NOW.
    • 4/5
      Keep Them Barefoot

      Leni Zumas uses the Personhood Amendment as the impetus for her novel about the lives of four disparate women, plus a fictional 19th century historical figure, to illustrate in dramatic fashion the constraints under which many women struggle now and perhaps in the near future if certain zealots get their way. She further emphasizes her points by compartmentalizing these women by their primary roles: The Biographer, The Wife, The Daughter, and The Mender. The historical figure, an ambitious woman who doesn’t hew to the societal demands of her time, is simply a woman, itself, when you view the novel this way, a restrictive compartment.

      The novel follows the lives of these women living in a small Oregon coastal fishing town, including how they interact with each other. The Biographer, Ro, researches and writes a biography of 19th century Arctic explorer Eivør Mínervudottir, teaches at the local high school, and tries via IVF to have a baby before her biological clock and a new law sounds expiration. The Wife, Susan, raises two children as she suffocates in her marriage to her teacher husband, who seems indifferent to her and certainly self-absorbed. The Daughter, Mattie, an adopted child, finds herself pregnant and desperate, as abortions have been outlawed and harming a fetus in anyway is a crime. The Mender, Gin, a young crone of sorts, lives in the woods, prefers the company of her animals to humans, and sells herbal remedies to townspeople. And Eivør forms something of an intermezzo between chapters not only adding a note of emphasis to the issues faced by the characters but also reminding us that severely restricting women to certain accepted roles has always been the norm.

      These women prove complex, more expansive than their definitions, but also squarely within them as well. Ro nearly impoverishes herself trying to become pregnant but puts aside her desires to help, though not without much inner torment, Mattie resolve her unwanted pregnancy. Susan struggles to exit her marriage and builds up lots of resentment toward Ro, who she views as free, though Ro resents Susan partly because she has what Ro desires. Gin, for her part, can’t help but be involved with others in town, regardless of how much she wishes most to be left alone.

      Hanging over all of them and affecting them in different ways is the Personhood Amendment, which steals control of their lives from them and imposes potentially severe punishments and restrictions upon them. This, for those not familiar, for in fact it is a real proposal pushed by some antiabortion groups, declares life begins at conception, triggering a whole laundry list of laws, among them murder for abortions, no contraception, and more. In the novel, this is coupled with it being illegal to go to Canada for an abortion, as you will be turned away, even arrested, at the “Pink Wall,” the requirement of two, a man and woman, as parents, and the impending end to IVF. Since all these currently don’t exist but could if some had their way, the novel has the flavor of a dystopian future.

      Some may find the novel’s flow a bit disjointed and the writing a little showy, while others may not think it dystopian enough in the sense of being technologically removed from our time. But for others interested in how society works, and can work even harder, to mold women to limited expectations, the novel will resonate.
    • 3/5
      This is one of those books that makes me go "eh." In theory I should like it. The idea is simple (abortion and IVF is illegal)--but this isn't The Handmaid's Tale; life continues otherwise, boring and banal. THe stories of 4 (and snippets from a biography of another) wind together to describe this reality from different angles.

      The writing is artfully choppy, a little too stylized, though the individual women's voices remain distinct. The relationships are depicted well. But I never got a sense of real urgency here. Zumas is so focused on how it plays out on a micro level that she willfully ignores the fact that there would be large scale political and social consequences to having a country where we can ratify an amendment banning abortion. We know that girls go to prison, that Mattie's best friend is there; but there's no emotion behind it and no wider impact.
    • 5/5
      Yes, there is a dystopian element to the setting of this novel, but it is not that far from our current reality, and I was not that taken aback with the way the characters dealt with it all.What it means to be a woman - in 5 interconnected stories...First and foremost, what it means to be a woman is to be identified by your role, rather than your person. Names exist, sure, but these characters are known by their roles in the community or their self-identified role in place of what might be handed to them by others.Secondly, what it means to be a woman is to learn to accept that the role is your identity, and struggle either against it or lean into it. Usually, women find themselves doing both.The Mender - The forest dwelling natural practitioner who knows how to blend solutions to any woman's needs. She comes from a broken background, wants to fix what she can, while still protecting her existence.The Daughter - The "everyone's" daughter, which I loved. She has a relationship with the Mender and the Biographer, neither of whom are her daily maternal figure. She wants to stay young, needs to lean on others, faces the hardest aspects of this reality.The Wife - The woman who gave up her independence to be a wife and mother of 2, who wants nothing more than some peace, some excitement, some relief. She tries to accept her role, but ultimately needs to be defined outside of her relationship to someone else. There is no true answer as to whether she succeeds, but she will try.The Biographer - She isn't a Spinster - because that would give her no role in comparison to others. She isn't Teacher - because she doesn't yet have anything to teach. Instead, she is stuck in her notes, her revisions, her obsession with a woman she thinks has the answers about what it means to be an independent woman.The Polar Explorer - Here is the true example of a woman who sets out to define herself on her own terms. And yet, she fails, because of her time, her space, her gender.. This lesson was perhaps the hardest for me to read, but the one that most provoked the spark of "Move."
    • 3/5
      The second half was better than the first half - I didn't think the "biographer" and "mender" (etc) titles were particularly effective, to the point where it was difficult to get to know the characters early on. Maybe it was supposed to help make them archetypes? Anyway, it was a good cautionary tale, my issues were mainly with style.
    • 5/5
      Through the lives of four modern women and one forgotten explorer, Red Clocks examines what it means to be female in a patriarchal society, the struggle to control your own destiny as one, and the eternal accusations we face when we dare to breakaway from the social restrictions placed on us. This softly disturbing, near-future dystopia is so utterly contemporary in its feel and the single, devastating change to law so realistic that it leaves you unsettled as does the quiet sound in the night that you aren't quite sure you really heard but can't stop listening for.
    • 3/5
      Imagine a United States much like ours. Now make abortion illegal. Endow embryos with legal rights and personhood according to a Constitutional Amendment. Outlaw in-vitro fertilization because said embryos can't give consent to be transferred from lab to uterus. Set this alternate American story on the eve of the implementation of a law that states that only married couples can adopt because "Every Child Needs Two." This is the world that Leni Zumas has created in her novel, Red Clocks, a world quietly at war against women.Four women in a small Oregon town, a history teacher (called The Biographer), an herbalist who lives alone in the woods (called The Mender), a pregnant teenager (called The Daughter), and a discontented stay at home mother (called The Wife) are all straining against society's definition of them. In the erasure of their identities, they are simply the embodiment of their roles rather than individual women who have hopes and dreams and complicated feelings. Naming them according to their roles strips them of their personhood much as the ever tightening laws about women do. But Zumas isn't consistent with their anonymity, allowing other characters to call the women by their names, which confuses matters. Ro, the history teacher, is single, in her forties, and cannot seem to conceive a biological child through IUI. Time is running out for her to adopt as the law restricting adoptions to married couples only is mere weeks away from becoming reality. As she struggles with the unfairness of her situation, especially in contrast to Susan (The Wife) who appears to have it all and pregnant teenager Mattie (The Daughter), she is also writing a biography of a little known, female Faroese polar explorer named Eivor Minervudottir who faced her own immense struggles against the ideas of men and their ideas of women's place in the world. Susan, the wife, has two children she loves but her marriage is unhappy and she feels and rejects the pressure to be the perfect wife, entirely eschewing cleaning and cooking a certain way and demanding some time to herself to escape her children and their constant needs. She keeps hoping that her husband will be the one to end their marriage because she dreads being seen to be the one who ruined everything. Mattie, the daughter, who is Ro's student and Susan's occasional babysitter, is fifteen and pregnant. She knows what happens to girls who seek abortions and are discovered but she doesn't care. She just doesn't want to be pregnant and she'll go to extreme lengths to find a way to terminate despite the fact that her own parents would never approve. Gin, the mender, is looked at askance in town, living as she does, out in the woods, supplying women with herbal healing concoctions. It is to Gin that Mattie first goes in her quest for an abortion. And it is Gin who is the thin skein of connection between the other three women. How this unkempt, witchy woman is connected to each of them gets revealed slowly throughout the novel as she herself comes under unwanted scrutiny and is placed at risk.This could be a frightening view of our political future but it was actually more about society's defining of women's roles than it was about the laws that curtail their freedoms (although it is about some of that too), laws that aren't so far off in the imagination now. The four women, and Eivor the explorer too, must conform or be punished, must suffer quietly or be outcast, or be considered unnatural. The chapters alternated between each of the women and either a small fragment of Eivor's diary or Ro's biography of her (it's unclear which it is), showing how each woman chafed at her situation. The characters each showed a different face of what society expects of women but in doing so they became fairly stereotypical. If intentionally drawn to show they acquiesced to what was expected of them, Zumas has succeeded but this also meant they lacked the engaging emotional depth of more complex characters, which made the reader less interested in their stories. Their stories, individually or collectively, didn't feel as if they were the most important things here though anyway. Unfortunately the message of the novel took precedence over the plot. For as interesting as the premise was, once the reader got used to the staccato prose style and choppy narrative, this ended up being fairly pedestrian. Maybe that makes it all the scarier as a near future dystopia. That certainly seems to be true for many other readers; it just wasn't for me.
    • 2/5
      I’m not sure why I bought this. I guess the blurb must have caught my fancy or something. Although that doesn’t seem right, because, well, “near-future dystopia”. I mean, who reads them anymore? With the actual shit that’s going down in Trump’s US and Brexit Britain, literary dystopias are starting to look like weak sauce. In Red Clocks, the Republican Christian nutjobs are firmly in charge, abortion is illegal, and only families of one father and one mother can adopt kids. Which is unfortunate for a couple of the characters in Red Clocks, a pregnant schoolgirl and a single teacher desperate for a child (and whose numerous tries at IVF have all been unsuccessful). Zumi chooses to tell her story from the viewpoints of each of her characters, but in their viewpoint chapters they’re not identified by name, only by their role in the story – so “the biographer”, “the wife”, and so on. It doesn’t work. It’s an unnecessary hurdle – although it does successfully disguise for at least the first quarter of the book quite how ordinary its story is. I was also annoyed by the attempt at found documents pertaining to the historical figure who is the subject of the biographer’s unfinished, er, biography, a female polar explorer from the turn of the twentieth century. She’s named Eivør Minurvasdottír – and the first time I saw it I thought, there’s no ø in Icelandic. But there is in Faroese. Which is where she’s from. But the accent on the surname is in the wrong place. It should be -dóttir. The name is misspelt throughout the novel. Didn’t the author check? Didn’t the editor? The publisher? It’s not like it’s hard to find out. It’s a minor complaint – and from someone who chiefly reads science fiction! But for all that Red Clocks was shortlisted for the Orwell Prize for Political Fiction, the first time an Orwell Prize has been offered for fiction, there didn’t seem much to me that stood out. (The Orwell Prize is probably best remembered for giving an award to Johann Hari, only to demand it back when it transpired Hari had plagiarised and misrepresented facts in his articles. He returned the prize but has never returned the prize money.) But Red Clocks. Dull and unoriginal. Not worth reading.
    • 5/5
      Read this thanks to a friend's strong recommendation and physical handoff. I'd stayed away from it when it first came out because it seemed like a bit of a Social Issue Flavor of the Week novel, but I'm so glad it was literally put in my hands because it was great. Really lively, solid writing, without the heavy-handed message I was dreading. That sounds like faint praise, and I don't mean it that way—rather that the story was interesting and nuanced and moral-free (other than the obvious thought that no one should legislate what women do with their bodies), and in fact a lot of fun to read.
    • 4/5
      This novel is set in an American that has started losing rights for women due to the Personhood Amendment that bans IVF, abortions and adoption to single parent homes. It follows the lives of five females and shows how different people can view things very differently and how what is right for one person may not be the right thing for someone else.I seem to find dystopian novel in a world similar to ours more terrifying that ones that are so far gone from what we know now. I can't imagine living in a world where my rights to become a parent, or choose not to become a parent, are not within my rights to make that decision. This is something that could very well happen and scares the bejeebus out of me!
    • 4/5
      A worthy prequel to Atwood's Handmaiden, this dystopian novel does not seem to be either unlikely or futuristic. Set in a sodden Oregon oceanside village, Newville is home to four, really five, women: the Biographer, a teacher writing the life story of a pioneering female polar scientist; the Mother, struggling with rambunctious children and a lazyass partner; the Daughter, sixteen and vulnerable; and the Mender, despised and cherished by local women as a witch. They struggle for and against each other in a country where draconian laws have been passed that ban abortion, in vitro fertilization, adoption by single women, and procreation outside marriage. The "Personhood Amendment" uses the death penalty against abortion providers, prison for their patients, and all adoptions are subject to state approval. Canada is no refuge, as a "Pink Wall" with criminal penalties have been established to prevent women from crossing the border for purposes of gaining or losing progeny. The writing is a bit dense at first and it takes a while for the reader to get settled into the characters, but as each pursues her goals, it becomes a thriller and a race against time and the state. It's a very startling and urgent warning.
    • 3/5
      It's very baby-focused, which is to be expected. What was unexpected though was being left with the feeling that the author (or at least the characters) felt that a woman is defined by what does or doesn't happen in her womb. The men were all complete assholes, which was unnecessary and unrealistic. The concept was good, but the fact that there was no mention of same-sex or mixed-race couples being excluded from adopting, which seems to me something that would have been included in any legislation passed that disallows single-parent adoption feels like a giant hole in the world-building. It was also really, really white. Which, okay, it's set in Oregon, so that's somewhat realistic, but it's fiction so why not be more inclusive? It was also really, really straight, which was less realistic. Admittedly, I listened to the audio, so maybe I missed something, but it just felt, to me, like an entire book of White Lady Baby Problems and left me disappointed imagining what could have been.

      Oh, and I commented on this over on Facebook, but the attitude toward Romance novels taken by the author was ignorant and offensive, especially in a book that is so female-focused. I often read outside my comfort zone and I recommend Zumas do the same.
    • 5/5
      I just read Red Clocks and absolutely loved it. It's set in what could be the present time with just a little variation: the human life amendment has been passed so human rights are granted from the time of fertilization. This means that not only is abortion illegal with mandated prison terms for both the pregnant woman and the person providing the abortion, but IVF is also outlawed because the gamete can't give its permission for the transfer. Add to that a new law stating that adoption is illegal except by a two parent family because every child deserves to be raised by two parents. The book follows an infertile woman, a pregnant teenager, a mother who hates her life, and a nature-based woman (a witch) who provides health care. I doubt many of us has ever known a woman like the witch but I think most of us can relate to the rest of the women. I like that the infertile woman wonders more than once why she is so obsessed with having a baby and that all the women greatly value time they spend alone.
    • 4/5
      I seem to be reading a lot of books in the "Angry Women" category this year, which seems appropriate. This one takes place in an alternate United States (or in the near future?), when a Personhood Amendment to the Constitution has made abortion and in vitro fertilization illegal. It alternates among four women, who are named but who, in their narratives, refer to themselves by role rather than name. The biographer is single and wants to have a child but is having difficulty conceiving. The mender gave up her child for adoption long ago and now helps women with various issues, including unwanted pregnancies. The wife is chafing in her traditional role as wife and mother and longs for an identity of her own. And the daughter is underage, pregnant, and desperate. A fifth woman is the biographer's subject, a nineteenth-century explorer who studied Arctic sea ice and never wanted either a husband or children. Zumas explores the interior worlds of all of these women through the lens of the restrictions placed on them by society, and even though her premise is somewhat dystopian, it also feels all too possible. What seems more shocking than young girls being jailed for contemplating aborting their pregnancies is how accepting everyone seems of the situation. The men in particular float through the story like jellyfish, untethered from responsibility, completely unaware of the struggles the women in their lives are dealing with. But Zumas does not make this a story of either hopelessness or victimhood. These women may struggle with indecision, but they do have agency and they do take charge of their own lives. Zumas's writing is often poetic, very absorbing, and both frightening and inspiring.
    • 4/5
      Red Clocks by Lett Zumas is eerily prescient given the current atmosphere in the United States, but the book manages to be strongly feminist without becoming overly political. Set in a potentially not-too-distant future when the government has passed new laws regulating procreation and adoption, the novel examines the resulting effects on five female characters. Zumas dedicates alternate chapters to each of these women who represent some of the major roles women currently occupy, whether chosen or not. Though the woman have names, they are identified in each chapter heading by their identifying positions- Biographer, Explorer, Mother, Daughter, and Mender. The characters’ overlapping experiences and distinct interior struggles highlight the consequences of tortuous indecision, guilty covetousness, naivete, and rebellion. Although the women are all connected in some way, they remain solitary and somewhat estranged from each other. The male characters are ancillary to the plot, portrayed at best as ineffectual and unnecessary, at worst as abusive perpetrators. A major theme is the need for action and autonomy, overcoming expectations and inertia in order to embrace unknown possibilities. It encourages the idea that chosen paths can be abandoned, and even well-worn identities can adapt to expand or absorb others. Ro, the Biographer, comes to realize: “Her life, like anyone’s, could go a way she never wanted, never planned, and turn out marvelous.” Timely and well-written, Red Clocks provides a fresh perspective on women’s choices, societal- and self-limiting decisions, and escape from constrictive definitions.
    • 2/5
      "Handmaid's Tale " wannabe. Seems the market is flooded with them. Probably a combination of the successful cable show and the regressive trend in women's rights.
    • 3/5
      3 1/2 stars.

      Zumas' Red Clocks is inventive, with a believable swing on dystopia. There is a good amount of excellent prose here as well, but the format and sometimes cringe-worthy dialogue seems to dilute what is otherwise a powerful and important story.
    • 5/5
      A dystopian take on now: Roe v Wade is overturned, Congress has passed a Personhood Amendment that outlaws in vitro fertilization, and 'It Takes Two' outlaws single adoption.Captures the complacency of the present moment from coastal Oregon. Those that complain about the political invading their bubble would do well to weigh the issues brought up by this important novel.Zumas delivers both a solid 'take' on the current moment, and a functional novel - a rare and notable achievement.
    • 4/5
      What is a woman for? In this dystopian novel, set in an easily recognizable future, abortion is illegal, in-vitro fertilization is banned, and embryos have the protections of the Personhood amendment that extends the full rights of life, liberty, and property to the unborn. The novel explores 5 women: a mother in a bad marriage, a teacher trying to get pregnant on her own who is writing a novel about a 19th century female polar explorer, a gifted student unexpectedly pregnant, and a recluse who provides herbal remedies of all kinds to the women of the nearby town. No easy answers here, but lots of questions.
    • 5/5
      Set in the near future, Red Clocks pictures an America where a Personhood Amendment has been passed, criminalizing not just abortions, but most fertility treatments as well. Canada has agreed to erect a "pink wall,' where they detain women of child-bearing age at the border until they've taken a pregnancy test. Those that are pregnant are arrested. Despite the overt political aspects, this is a novel about people. Ro is a high school history teacher. Now in her forties, she desperately wants a child and she's writing a biography about a female polar explorer. Susan is the wife of one of her co-workers. She's a stay-at-home mom who is struggling with that role even as her husband blithely insists that nothing is wrong, but she does need to clean the bathroom more often. Mattie is one of her students and Mattie is in love with a boy who wears a fedora. And Gin has removed herself from society, living outside of town, in a small cabin in the woods, she provides herbal remedies and simple cures to women. Each woman, but especially Ro, is a living, breathing presence. Leni Zumas handles the plot-lines with the same skillful nuance that she writes her characters. Children have become commodities in this world she's written, where who has children and who doesn't is a political weapon, but this is addressed with care. This book took over while I was reading it, demanding that I ignore daily tasks in favor of another few pages. I look forward to reading more by Zumas.
    • 4/5
      In this ferociously imaginative novel, abortion is once again illegal in America, in-vitro fertilization is banned, and the Personhood Amendment grants rights of life, liberty, and property to every embryo. In a small Oregon fishing town, five very different women navigate these new barriers alongside age-old questions surrounding motherhood, identity, and freedom.Ro, a single high-school teacher, is trying to have a baby on her own, while also writing a biography of Eivør, a little-known 19th-century female polar explorer. Susan is a frustrated mother of two, trapped in a crumbling marriage. Mattie is the adopted daughter of doting parents and one of Ro’s best students, who finds herself pregnant with nowhere to turn. And Gin is the gifted, forest-dwelling homeopath, or “mender,” who brings all their fates together when she’s arrested and put on trial in a frenzied modern-day witch hunt.MY THOUGHTS:I was sent this book in exchange for my honest review. It seems lately that I’m reviewing more and more controversial books. lolSo, here goes…The premise sounded absolutely fascinating to me. However, what I thought it would be and what I got were not exactly the same thing… which happens a lot when controversial topics are the subject matter. I believe that although the writing style tends to jump around a lot and can be a bit disjointed, I think the author is quite brilliant to bring to light many jaw-clenching topics in a fictional atmosphere. Before I go any further, I should state that I am a “Pro-Life” supporter. As a woman who found it difficult to conceive, I truly believe that once a pregnancy has occurred, it should run its course until birth. There are SO many women out there that would love to have a child and can’t. Adoption is the next best thing for some. I didn’t choose adoption myself, after Katie was born, even though I survived through six miscarriages to have another until my body demanded I give up. I felt by that time, we were too old.It’s hard to explain why women do this or other things. I’m no expert in the field, however, this book does take a look at many of those aspects. Whether I agree with them or not, isn’t the issue. The fact that the author took this work on and mastered a voice to bring many controversial subjects faced in today’s society to light is interesting and enlightening. I found this book a fascinating read, despite my beliefs, and feel it’s one that all women should read. Sure there are feminists vibes, and male dominance vibes, but there has been a trend for both throughout history and probably will continue far in to the future. You have to take this book and read it like an outsider looking in at the viewpoints developed between its covers about a possibility that could come to light if we’re not careful. I respect the viewpoint as being the author’s, created in interesting POV’s of various fictional characters with a lot of non fiction attributes greatly influencing those views.The author tends to be direct and crude sometimes, a style often resulting in cringing and shocking responses, but seriously, she’s not saying anything that we haven’t thought of, or heard at one point in our lives… Give her credit for being brave enough to put it to print. I suppose she could have flowered it up a bit with rainbows and daffodils, but in truth, it still comes out as cringing and shocking, so why beat around the, ummm, bush about it. Tell it like it is, my mother always told me. There’s definitely no candy-coating coverage involved in this book.The four very different women depicted in this book live lives that interweave as many do in small towns. The topic of “Pro-life” is focused on through each of these women’s perspectives and how the passing of laws to protect unborn fetuses affects each one and their life decisions.This is a perfect example of a book that shows what happens when women lose control over decision-making involving their own bodies. This is such a touchy subject, and personally, I feel the topic doesn’t just involve the woman’s body, but another life it carries… But let’s not go down THAT road…Zumas uses cleverly written pieces placed throughout the book to take the reader on a reflective journey of our own society’s laws and choices when it comes to abortion and fertilization and women’s abilities to choose either under controlling laws and their consequences.The complexity of the story was masterfully upheld throughout the book. Women’s rights have been such a huge topic in the media recently, especially with the current government in the USA. However, this book goes beyond the politics. It shows the impact of decisions made by politicians that shouldn’t be made. Motherhood, infertility, personal identity and control issues are also discussed. This book gives one very possible outlook that affects all these topics in a mirroring aspect of a fictional world very similar to our own. The lack of naming the main characters adds an interesting touch of impersonal categorization that women have faced throughout history, in particular, women being classified as “chattel” for years and having men controlling their lives completely.The Biographer, The Wife, The Daughter, and The Mender — they could be any one of us. I felt that this was a wonderful character arc and plot ploy to add to a story, just to send home a subtle message highlighting the fact of how difficult it can be/has been for women to define themselves as individuals and human beings, people of importance too.Going too far into the nameless women’s characters, would have countered any success this action achieved, and Zumas does this just right. I don’t think Zumas necessarily uses an “experimental writing” style, I just think she writes this way to remain neutral, and like she’s someone looking in on another’s life, similar to a biographer interviewing a candidate.Some of the women I just didn’t “get.” That doesn’t mean that they weren’t fully fleshed out as far as Zumas dared. By doing what the author had, she created an empowering, strong piece of literature that many will discuss for a very long time.I await the day when women can survive on their own without the financial help of a man’s support. As for reproduction… we are a species of two sexes for a reason. One cannot reproduce without the other… for now.
    • 4/5
      In near-future America, the Personhood Amendment has granted legal rights to unborn embryos, thus outlawing abortion and IVF. Also, the "Every Child Needs Two" Act is about to pass, preventing unmarried people from adopting. It sets the scene for a fascinating intersection of five women's lives -- four in the present, and one a century earlier -- that has a David Mitchell-esque feel to the plot structure and tone. I enjoyed it immensely while being horrified by how plausible this dystopian vision is.
    • 4/5
      I purchased this book from @bookofthemonth to read. ??All opinions are my own. ????Red Clocks by Leni Zumas. Four women all from the same small town all linked together in strange ways battle to find their own way without judgment. A biographer turned teacher, a stay at home mom, an outsider (for lack of better words, a witch), and a high school student. One desperately wants away from her life, one wants a baby, one wants to not have a baby and one only wants to be free away from everyone. Living in Oregon seems to take root in your soul and only you can control the way you react and grow. While reading the book I was intrigued I wanted to know more, but when I reached the end my only thought was that's it? That's all? The writing was amazing I just wanted a better ending. ????Review also posted on Instagram @borenbooks, Goodreads/StacieBoren, Amazon, Go Read, Twitter @jason_stacie, and my blog at readsbystacie.com.
    • 5/5
      ReviewIf I could give this 10 stars I would! Powerful read. Frightening and timely,a very unusual and interesting book. This reminded me of of Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood. Zumas is an exceptional writer and storyteller. Story of 5 women, Mender,Biographer,Wife,Daughter and Explorer. This story takes place in the near future.The government has revoked Roe v Wade, there is the "Pink" wall with Canada where women going to get legal abortions in Canada are turned in and face prison.I found it interesting that in the early stages of the book,none of the women had names just referred to by the titles I mentioned above. BUT the men all had names and identities. Why wouldn't women be "anonymous" when they have no rights and no decision making power over their own bodies.IVF is illegal since the zygot/fetus had no decision making process for impregnation, babies are born to 2 parent families only. Adoption is for only 2 parent families as well. This was a frightening read. As a teen I watched Roe v Wade go thru the Supreme Court.I still cannot believe in this day and age that men and politicians still have more rights to make decisions for me and every other American woman. I feel this is a MUST read for any female over age 18 and ANY younger female (when a parent feels it is acceptable).We have to raise our daughters to know their worth and their basic human rights.Our daughters and females everywhere are NOT a piece of property to be owned or controlled by others.I did not want to put this book down. This one is tagged in my "Big Brother" shelf along with the classics.This will be a best read of 2018 for me. (less)
    • 3/5
      2.5 StarsI really liked the premise of this book when I read description. However, the reading of the book was so tedious and challenging that I had to give up on it at about 35% into it. There was not a story here, per se, IMO. It was filled with phrases just thrown in. No conversation or plots. The characters (the mender, the daughter, the wife, etc.) are called by their roles. Then every once in a while, their names are used. And you had better be paying attention to catch this.Unfortunately, the book was not garnering all my attention, hardly any of it. Not only would I need a spreadsheet to keep up, but I would need a white board, as well. One that I could tie strings from person to person detailing relationships, etc.For me, this was all too challenging with little entertainment provided. I am not a fan of this type of writing at all.Thanks to Little, Brown and Company and Net Galley for providing me with a free e-galley in exchange for an honest, unbiased review.