A thoughtful and richly rendered novel about censorship, authority, and liberation.
A group of citizens challenges the government’s virus narrative in Davies’ dystopian novel, one in a series.
Over the last century, humanity has survived a series of “outbreaks”—the exact number is disputed—that have nearly wiped out civilization. Now, fear of the Zoribiatus virus (which turns victims into the zombielike “near-dead”) is used by the government to control the remnant population clustered in the cities. Only “dissenters,” who think the government is lying, are willing to risk wandering the countryside. Many residents of the capital resist the government’s rules in their own ways. Zayd Baba, a factory floor supervisor, takes on a lucrative under-the-table job smuggling contraband between cities. Mora Rossi is a poor student but a lover of literature from the old world—and of Omen, the raven (whose species is purportedly extinct) that visits her sometimes on the roof of her building. Amy Park is a medic and aspiring scientist who has just washed out of a prestigious laboratory program and is willing to break the rules to be with her lover. Moe Simons mans a remote energy station and works with the dissenters to undermine the government. As each character’s search for the truth about the virus leads them inevitably into conflict with the powers that be, they must decide how far they are willing to dissent—particularly if it means separation from the people they love. Davies has constructed a world of impressive depth, one shaped by the mutual maturation of the virus and the measures taken to contain it: “Viruses evolve. Zoribiatus hid and changed, and when it reemerged in the fringe communities, spreading out like tendrils through the main infrastructure, the Institute changed, too.” The cast is large, and the plot takes a long time to get going, particularly if the reader is expecting the “creeping hordes of diseased people clamoring for an unsuspecting populace” teased at the outset. While not entirely satisfying as a stand-alone novel, fans of the other books in the series will no doubt enjoy this expansion of the universe.
A thoughtful and richly rendered novel about censorship, authority, and liberation.Pub Date: May 21, 2025
ISBN: 9798989004348
Page Count: 402
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: May 30, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Suspenseful, full of incident, and not obviously necessary.
Atwood goes back to Gilead.
The Handmaid’s Tale (1985), consistently regarded as a masterpiece of 20th-century literature, has gained new attention in recent years with the success of the Hulu series as well as fresh appreciation from readers who feel like this story has new relevance in America’s current political climate. Atwood herself has spoken about how news headlines have made her dystopian fiction seem eerily plausible, and it’s not difficult to imagine her wanting to revisit Gilead as the TV show has sped past where her narrative ended. Like the novel that preceded it, this sequel is presented as found documents—first-person accounts of life inside a misogynistic theocracy from three informants. There is Agnes Jemima, a girl who rejects the marriage her family arranges for her but still has faith in God and Gilead. There’s Daisy, who learns on her 16th birthday that her whole life has been a lie. And there's Aunt Lydia, the woman responsible for turning women into Handmaids. This approach gives readers insight into different aspects of life inside and outside Gilead, but it also leads to a book that sometimes feels overstuffed. The Handmaid’s Tale combined exquisite lyricism with a powerful sense of urgency, as if a thoughtful, perceptive woman was racing against time to give witness to her experience. That narrator hinted at more than she said; Atwood seemed to trust readers to fill in the gaps. This dynamic created an atmosphere of intimacy. However curious we might be about Gilead and the resistance operating outside that country, what we learn here is that what Atwood left unsaid in the first novel generated more horror and outrage than explicit detail can. And the more we get to know Agnes, Daisy, and Aunt Lydia, the less convincing they become. It’s hard, of course, to compete with a beloved classic, so maybe the best way to read this new book is to forget about The Handmaid’s Tale and enjoy it as an artful feminist thriller.
Suspenseful, full of incident, and not obviously necessary.Pub Date: Sept. 10, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-385-54378-1
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Nan A. Talese
Review Posted Online: Sept. 3, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2019
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
Uneven but fitfully amusing.
Betrayed by her husband, a severely depressed young woman gets drawn into the over-the-top festivities at a lavish wedding.
Phoebe Stone, who teaches English literature at a St. Louis college, is plotting her own demise. Her husband, Matt, has left her for another woman, and Phoebe is taking it hard. Indeed, she's determined just where and how she will end it all: at an oceanfront hotel in Newport, where she will lie on a king-sized canopy bed and take a bottle of her cat’s painkillers. At the hotel, Phoebe meets bride-to-be Lila, a headstrong rich girl presiding over her own extravagant six-day wedding celebration. Lila thought she had booked every room in the hotel, and learning of Phoebe's suicidal intentions, she forbids this stray guest from disrupting the nuptials: “No. You definitely can’t kill yourself. This is my wedding week.” After the punchy opening, a grim flashback to the meltdown of Phoebe's marriage temporarily darkens the mood, but things pick up when spoiled Lila interrupts Phoebe's preparations and sweeps her up in the wedding juggernaut. The slide from earnest drama to broad farce is somewhat jarring, but from this point on, Espach crafts an enjoyable—if overstuffed—comedy of manners. When the original maid of honor drops out, Phoebe is persuaded, against her better judgment, to take her place. There’s some fun to be had here: The wedding party—including groom-to-be Gary, a widower, and his 11-year-old daughter—takes surfing lessons; the women in the group have a session with a Sex Woman. But it all goes on too long, and the humor can seem forced, reaching a low point when someone has sex with the vintage wedding car (you don’t want to know the details). Later, when two characters have a meet-cute in a hot tub, readers will guess exactly how the marriage plot resolves.
Uneven but fitfully amusing.Pub Date: July 30, 2024
ISBN: 9781250899576
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: Sept. 13, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
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