When She Woke, by Hillary Jordan, is a work of speculative fiction, that I imagine feels far less speculative today than when it was published in 2011. The author doesn’t specify the year of our Lord in which this novel takes place, but it’s definitely in the future. Los Angeles has been nuked to filth. There are water wars in Northern Africa. There are “National Identity Cards” which allow the government to monitor and track citizenry. And there was a “superclap” pandemic which did nothing to men (because of course) but made women infertile.
It was, supposedly (big eye roll), because of this plague and the dropping birth rates that there was a conservative backlash to a woman’s right to choose. Roe v Wade was overturned and abortion became illegal in more than 40 states. When convicted of having an abortion, women were sentenced to undergo a process called “melochroming” in which a convict’s skin color is changed at the cellular level for the duration of their sentence.
And the color of your melochroming depends on your crime. Yellow for misdemeanors, green for violent crimes, blue for child molesters. And red for murder. After being melochromed and fitted with a nanotransmitter (for public safety, dontcha know) Chromes are released into the world to be shunned, subject to assault and discrimination, and treated as second-class citizens.
The novel focuses on the lovely Hannah. Raised as a Trinity Party Christian in Texas, Hannah was a God-fearing, church-attending virgin. Right up until she wasn’t. Unmarried Hannah has an affair, gets pregnant, and has an abortion. She is caught and convicted and receives an extra-long sentence because she refuses to identify her lover or the abortionist. The book begins with Hannah waking up in jail after being turned Red, but majority of the book takes place after her release into the public.
And then the author just tries to do too much. She touches on abortion rights, criminal justice, discrimination, the rightwing manosphere, state-sponsored terrorism, religion vs faith, climate change, human trafficking, religious hypocrisy, morality and more. The book is 344 pages, but is too short for everything our main character experiences. And on top of all of that, we have to hear about Hannah’s absolutely idiotic affair (not the most compelling heroine, I’m afraid).
In the end, I can only give this book three stars. I appreciate how well thought-out the concept of melochroming as punishment was, but the “love story” was a miss for me and I wish the author had cut a few of the story lines/social issues.
CBR18 Bingo Circle: Justice
