Description:
Hannah Payne’s life has been devoted to church and family, but after her arrest, she awakens to a nightmare: she is lying on a table in a bare room, covered only by a paper gown, with cameras broadcasting her every move to millions at home, for whom observing new Chromes—criminals whose skin color has been genetically altered to match the class of their crime—is a new and sinister form of entertainment. Hannah is a Red; her crime is murder. The victim, according to the State of Texas, was her unborn child, and Hannah is determined to protect the identity of the father, a public figure with whom she’s shared a fierce and forbidden love.??
When She Woke is a fable about a stigmatized woman struggling to navigate an America of a not-too-distant future—where the line between church and state has been eradicated and convicted felons are no longer imprisoned and rehabilitated but chromed and released back into the population to survive as best they can. In seeking a path to safety in an alien and hostile world, Hannah unknowingly embarks on a path of self-discovery that forces her to question the values she once held true and the righteousness of a country that politicizes faith.
Review:
I read this book some time ago in 2011. A year later it’s still on my mind and I just had to write a review.
This feminist and suspenseful novel includes similar themes to Margaret Atwood’s “The Handmaid’s Tale” and the classic “Scarlet Letter.”
In Hillary Jordan’s world, power is held by religious conservatives. Criminals are forced to submit to coloration of their skin for all to see and to judge. Different hues of Chromes exist so that the populace can tell who has done violent crime and who had an abortion, etc. This new punishment eliminates the need for prisons in favor of public disapproval.
Hannah Payne never thought she would live a life like this. She went to church regularly with her family, she dressed modestly, she never had a boyfriend…until she fell in love with a man too high profile to admit he fathered her child. Her only childhood sin was making fabulous clothing that could never leave her closet. Hannah had thought herself content.
But now she’s a sinner. An adulteress. A murderer of an unborn child. Hannah’s family abandons her and she has nothing to her name. Her only hope is to entrust her fate to a faceless organization similar to the Underground Railroad. Her goal is to reach Canada, but she lives in constant fear with no one to trust.
“When She Woke” is an incredibly emotional novel. Hannah begins with such innocence, but she has to protect herself and survive. She sheds the morality forced upon her bit by bit until by the end, she isn’t ashamed to be Red.
I really enjoyed this novel. I appreciated the moral ambiguity of pretty much every character. Is it right for Hannah’s family to abandon her? For her sister to cling to her bigoted husband and put Hannah out? Is it right for Hannah to still dream of her former lover? Is it right for the members of the Underground Railroad to silence anyone who might betray them?
Very tight, very intense, very memorable. Loved it!
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I tend to like books such as this one, so I guess that means I have to add it to the never-ending to-read list!
oh yeah and it’s one of those books you can’t put down! My library had it 🙂
I <3 this book so hard! But then, TSL is one of my favorite classics of all time, and dystopian is a favorite genre, sooo it was pretty much inevitable... 🙂
Yayy I’m glad you loved it, too!