Birth Control: Dystopias on Reproductive Rights

Today I’d like to talk about a trend within a trend that I keep bumping into (no pun intended...okay, maybe pun a little intended).  Dystopian novels usually make an important allegory for the present, and that allegory most often has something to do with our right to choose.  Our jobs, who we spend our lives with, where we live, our privacy etc.  There is one choice in particular that I’ve found to frequent the plot lines of these stories, and that is the right to choose when, if, and how to have children.  I want to open this one up for the floor, largely because this is a topic I’m not set on and when I don’t know how I feel about something, I like to see other takes.  Here are some of the books that include this theme--they range from classics and adult novels such as The Handmaid’s Tale (one of my all time favs) to recent young adult, such as Partials, released this last week:

Anthem - Ayn Rand

Birthmarked - Caragh M. O’Brien

Bumped - Megan McCafferty
The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood
Partials - Dan Wells
Unwind - Neal Shusterman
When She Woke - Hilary Jordan
Wither - Lauren DeStefano

Now, I admittedly have only read half of these books (Anthem, The Handmaid’s Tale, Partials, When She Woke), and that is in large part due to this common theme (I don’t like being too repetitive with my reads).  Reproductive rights, while not always the main theme, are an important driving force in each of these stories.  

To me, reproductive rights are an interesting and important topic of choice for dystopias because it tends to be a hot-button issue that is difficult to address in contemporary fiction.  That said, I am beginning to wonder how much it is really being used to create discourse on the topic.  I’ve found that the bulk of books that broach this subject are written from the same stance, that is, the stance that women should reserve the right to choose when, how, and if to have children no matter the situation.  Being a feminist myself, I agree with this stance, but I also think that only presenting one side of an argument can keep us from really thinking about the implications of a situation.  This is bad.  I like to read and see things that I disagree with, because by understanding others’ arguments we are able to more intelligently determine our own stance, as well as broaden our world view.  

This past week I finished reading Partials, which addresses this issue in the form of The Hope Act (I don’t really feel like I have spoilers here, just wanna talk about this aspect more in-depth--you don’t have to have read it!).  The Hope Act has been enacted because 99% of the human population has been eradicated from the earth, largely by a virus called RM.  The small portion of the human population who have found themselves immune have created The Hope Act in order to ensure the future of humanity.  This act requires all women 18 and over to give birth once a year, with the hope that with more babies to study they are more likely to find a cure for the virus.  However, after a decade, they are no closer to this cure, and all babies die within three days of being born.  One of the things I appreciated most about Partials was that Dan Wells argued both sides of The Hope Act very well.  Even our heroine, Kira, who disagreed with The Hope Act on a personal level could see the reason for it and at times found herself arguing in its defense.

I appreciated this fact a lot, especially because Partials is a novel written for young adults.  I’ll admit it--I’m kind of uncomfortable with the amount of YA books out there that address teenage marriage and/or pregnancy.  I like that we’re giving teens enough credit these days to address big issues that are real, but at the same time, I hope that we’re teaching them to think for themselves like Kira in Partials.  I’m not saying that because a teen reads a dystopian novel where young women are forced to give birth they will want to get knocked up, most likely the opposite, I’m saying that I want to make teens (and anyone for that matter) think about these things.  I don't want them to only get one half of the argument and choose their position accordingly. This is what makes dystopian novels great book club picks!  You can really delve into how the society got to where it is--why these decisions were deemed necessary, and what situation could be extreme enough to warrant stripping away reproductive rights.

I’m not really sure what I’m trying to say here, honestly, it’s just a topic I’ve been thinking about for some time now and wanted to see what others thought.  While I loved both The Handmaid’s Tale and When She Woke, I feel like both sides were represented very unevenly.  The anti-reproductive rights side was obviously extreme, repressive, and ‘wrong’.  I’d like to see more dystopias argue both sides enough that you can really understand them without judging outright.  Do any of the other four books I mentioned do this, or do you have other reading suggestions for me?  Do you think we're helping our teens to think, or driving them toward one given point of view? Please share your own thoughts on reproductive rights in dystopias.

Review: Crossed by Ally Condie

Title: Crossed [Amazon|GoodReads]
Author: Ally Condie [Website|Twitter|Facebook]
Series: Book 2 in the Matched trilogy, following Matched.
Genre: Young Adult, Dystopian, Romance
Published: November 1st, 2011 by Dutton Juvenile
Format: Hardcover; 367 pages.  
Source: Borrowed from my local library.  
Spoilers!:  This review contains some spoilers for Matched.  So go read that first.  

Cassia's time at the work camps is almost up, and she'll soon be sent to Central, the biggest city in the Society, for her final work assignment.  She came here with the hopes of getting closer to Ky, of finding him.  So far, she's managed to keep the stock of blue pills from Xander and Ky's compass secret and safe, but if she's going to go she needs to go now.  When the morning to be moved arrives, Officers come to collect selected Aberrations and take them away.  Cassia decides to sneak into the group as this might be her only chance to get to the Outer Provinces.

Ky has been sent to die.  The Society seems to be killing off its Aberrations as they are sent to live in abandoned border villages of the Outer Provinces.  Nearly every night there's fire, and the boys in the villages have been given nothing but blank ammunition with which to defend themselves.  They're told if they complete a mission of six months they'll be welcomed back to Society as full Citizens.  The boys figure out pretty quickly that nobody has ever lived that long, and Ky's already been there longer than most.  If he's going to live to see Cassia again, he has to get out now.  Luckily, they have just been stationed in a land that is familiar to him.  When he was a child he called this place home, and with the Carving in sight Ky knows there is a chance to reach land the Society won't easily enter, and even possibly find help among the Farmers who live there.

Like it's predecessor, Matched, Crossed is written with the voice of a poet.  Ally Condie's writing is lyrical, enchanting, and it reads with the feeling of a very long and beautiful love letter.  Part of the reason I loved Matched so much was its quiet sense of danger and urgency always lurking just below the surface.  Everything about Matched was so careful.  The entire book was spent dancing on egg shells, and so much was said in small actions, stolen moments, erasable words.  Crossed maintains the underlying feeling of the story, but kindles it with something new.  Unlike the first installment of the series, which was narrated in first person by Cassia alone, Crossed is narrated in first person perspectives alternating between Cassia and Ky.  It is so heartwarming/heartwrenching to see things from Ky's perspective.  We are able to see his love of Cassia through his own eyes, learn more of his story, and reread portions we already knew from his perspective.  I did occasionally have an issue where I would get a page or so into the chapter and realize I wasn't sure whose chapter I was on, their voices were so similar.  However this wasn't an overarching problem (and probably a personal one created by my attempting to pay attention to football while reading).  

While Crossed shares a voice with Matched, the tone and setting couldn't be more different.  Taking place largely in the wilderness of the Carving (inspired by Utah, where Ally Condie lives), Crossed becomes less about emotional survival and more about physical survival.  Cassia is a Society girl, with all the naivety that comes with that, and Ky is facing some demons being so near his past.  Cassia has found a new hope, and unfortunately, it's the one thing Ky isn't sure he's willing to give her.  Besides which, there's the question of Xander--he's still her Match, her best friend, and someone she loves dearly.  Not only that,  there's a secret Xander has yet to tell Cassia, and Ky is pretty sure he knows what it is...and that if she learns it, she might choose him instead.


Check out the official Crossed playlist created by Ally Condie!

Likelihood that I'll be back for more: 100%.  Crossed was a notable read of 2011, and the third installment (as of yet unnamed), is one of my top 10 most anticipated reads of 2012.

Recommended for: People who like poetry, romance, dystopian societies, and roughing it in the wild.

Real life repercussions of reading this book: You will probably have images of 127 Hours running through your head through half the scenes.  Don't worry, nobody will have to drink their own urine.

Review: Matched by Ally Condie

Title: Matched [Amazon|GoodReads]
Author: Ally Condie [Website|Twitter|Facebook] 
Standing: Book 1 in the Matched trilogy.
Genre: Young Adult, Dystopian, Romance
Published: November 30th, 2010 by Dutton Juvenile
Format: Hardcover; 366 pages.  
Source: Borrowed from my local library.
Full disclosure: I read this book quite some time ago, but as I recently finished Crossed and wanted to review it, I figured I should start with dredging up my memories of Matched.  The truth I’m dancing around here is I’m too OCD to start reviews mid-series, so I hope you’ll bear with me.  

Cassia is both giddy and nervous to be attending her Match Banquet.  She’s grown up in the Society where all of her choices and personality traits are tracked, they even monitor her dreams.  They know her so well, she is confident that they will choose the perfect Match for her, the man she will spend her life with.  So it comes as a huge surprise when the moment arrives, to learn that her Match is a boy from her own City--this is rare--and to Cassia’s greater delight, the boy Society has Matched her with is her best friend, Xander.  Cassia is in for a bigger shock though, when she goes to privately view the microcard with information about her Match.  It’s not Xander’s face that appears on the screen, but some other boy’s.  And she knows him too, it’s Ky Markham.  Let the power of suggestion take hold.  Cassia can’t stop thinking about Ky, and if he’s really her best Match.  The Society is trying to pass it off as a glitch, but Cassia can’t help but wonder, and has to find some way to know Ky better.

Personally, I found this book to be beautiful, and felt Cassia’s narrative to be simultaneously strong, naive, hopeful, and afraid.  Matched is written from the first-person narrative, in such a way that it is almost poetic, and settling into the style can take some effort, but is worth it.  I’ve seen this book compared to The Hunger Games quite a few times, but I have to disagree with this assessment.  I realize they’re both YA dystopians with strong female protagonists and love triangles, but I would say that Matched is closer in voice to Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale.  Both Matched and Hunger Games are incredibly appealing and have an urgent sense of danger, but where Hunger Games is loud and full of action, Matched is quiet and secretive.  Katniss has always questioned their society, and can fend for herself.  Prior to her Match, Cassia didn’t know the Society could make mistakes, and she certainly wouldn’t know what to do without them.

Matched has the feeling of an epic love poem.  As Cassia discovers her love for Ky, she discovers her ability to question and think for herself.  In a Society where there are only 100 poems, 100 paintings, 100 songs, Cassia opens her heart and mind to the possibility of creation.  I loved this book, and am honestly torn about its existence as a series.  Like the conclusion of The Handmaid’s Tale, it’s almost better not to know what happens next.  That’s not going to stop me though, as I am already waiting quite patiently for the final chapter of Cassia’s story.  

Likelihood that I'll be back for more: Been there, done that.  My review for Crossed, book 2 in the series and a Notable Read of 2011, will be up on Friday!

Recommended for: People who like poetry, romance, dystopian societies, and don't pop pills.

Real life repercussions of reading this book:  You may want to start waxing poetic all over the place.  Resist.

Review: Under the Never Sky by Veronica Rossi

Title: Under the Never Sky [Amazon|GoodReads]
Author: Veronica Rossi [Website|Twitter|Facebook]
Standing: Book 1 in a new series.
Genre: New/Young Adult, Sci Fi, Dystopian
Published: January 3rd, 2012 by HarperCollins
Format: Kindle edition; 384 pages.  
Source: ARC from publisher via NetGalley.
Challenge: Debut author challenge.

Aria has spent her entire life in Reverie, a pod that has kept generations safe from the Aether storms that now ravage the skies.  She passes the bulk of her time in the Realms, digital worlds that have been created to give Dwellers the illusion of space and opportunity in an enclosed environment.  Lumina, Aria’s mother, has gone to research in another pod, Bliss, and Aria has lost contact with her.  Concerned about the loss of the connection, Aria seeks out help from Soren, unleashing a chain of events that will result in her being dumped unceremoniously into the Death Shop.

Perry has grown up in an Outsider tribe, the Tides, brother to the Blood Lord and uniquely attached to his nephew, Talon.  Perry is concerned for the Tides, the Aether storms have been getting worse along with his people’s sickness and hunger as game disperses from the area.  Perry is torn between the desire to challenge his brother for position as Blood Lord and a need to keep Talon safe by leaving the Tides.  When Dwellers arrive to violently take from Perry what is most precious, he begins a journey that will entwine his immediate fate with Aria’s on a dangerous path to find and reclaim what belongs to them.

Before we get in to why this book was a fantastic representation of the dystopian genre, let’s air some of its dirty laundry.  First off, let me just say, I’ve spent the bulk of my life as an Anglophile romanticizing life in the UK...then I saw the UK cover for Under the Never Sky and became overwhelmingly grateful that I live in the US.  Seriously.  If I had seen this cover first thing, I would not have read this book, especially not a hardcopy, and certainly not in public.  I mean wow.  Just wow.  We’re talking Harlequin romance 80’s fantasy level of embarrassment here.  Wow.

I do like the US cover quite a bit, despite another model that doesn’t necessarily describe the character perfectly...I’m just happy she’s not in a ball gown, and the colors are gorgeous.  But!  As they say, never judge a book by it’s cover (and none of us ever do that, right?), so it’s what’s inside that counts.  The blurbs seem to stress that this is a love story, but Under the Never Sky has so much more to offer than just that.  The world that Rossi builds for us is masterfully crafted and believable, and her characters are developed in a slow burning way that gives them immense depth and likability.

The world created in the pods was to be one of enjoyment--as is reflected in their names like “Bliss” and “Reverie”.  Society had genetically engineered out the bad, and kept only the good.  People can, through the Realms, engage in behaviors from flying to sex with none of the risks or restrictions one would encounter in real life.  They had to reside in a world of unity and peace because they had no other options.  Forced to reside in the pods due to the Aether storms, it is easy to understand why scientists would work to dull those negative sensations in order to preserve humanity.  It is also understandable that they would not immediately realize the repercussions of their actions.

No one had ever died of heartbreak in Reverie.  Betrayal never led to murder.  Those things didn’t happen anymore.  They had the Realms now.  They could experience anything without taking risks.  Now, life was Better than Real.

Life on the outside has become one of survival, tribes dealing with life with the Aether and the genetic mutations that have rendered from it.  Those who are Marked have received heightened senses as Auds, Scires, or Seers, who can hear, smell, or see more strongly than any average human being.  This gives them strong advantages as hunters, but the disadvantage of knowing they are under constant judgement and observation from those around them. The two worlds collide through Aria and Perry, she considering him a brutal savage, and he considering her an ignorant mole. Bound together by a mutual need, Aria and Perry commence a journey, the results of which will leave them either satisfied or hopeless.

Aria is flat out awesomesause.  She may be incredibly naive when it comes to life in the real, but it is clear that despite her coddling and genetically engineered physical advantages she’s not your average girl.  She is incredibly strong willed, willing and able to learn, and she’s not whiney or mopey at all (hurray!).  When Aria is faced with experiencing for the first time things we experience regularly, fear, pain, her mother trucking period, she could easily collapse into herself and become a weepy mess, but she doesn’t.  She learns to accept and appreciate the changes in herself, and face her situation head on.  I almost want to be annoyed with her because she’s almost too good and could use a flaw or two, but I just can’t, she’s wonderful.

Perry?  Massive crush potential on my end.  It’s the ruggedness and the crooked smile and his undeniable sense of right and good that makes him fairly irresistible.  I grew up loving stories of survivors, and Native Americans, and Perry epitomizes both.  Perry has lived his life doing what he has had to do for himself and those he loves, though he is certain that he has often chosen wrong.  He buys into the belief that he is cursed and has destroyed his family, but yet he holds the confidence and skills to be a true leader.  

Aria and Perry’s relationship isn’t one of those wrote ones where they are drawn to one another instantly or meant for each other, it is one built slowly and roughly on mutual respect and the knowledge that they are not the best option for one another.  They are both incredibly intelligent, though in vastly different ways.  Aria must learn to interpret Perry’s quiet actions as speech, and Perry must understand that though he has an uncanny ability to know what Aria is feeling, he cannot unfailingly interpret the reasons for these feelings.

My primary complaint about the story were the names.  All Outsiders seem to have noun, nature names like Vale, Peregrine, Brooke, Rose, etc. while all Dwellers seem to be named for ideas, feelings, or fancies like Aria, Echo, or Paisley.  The reality that I was supposed to root for a girl who sang well and happened to be named Aria made want to me throw up a little at first, but I did feel that Rossi managed to provide a good explanation/excuse for this reality:

It was genetics.  Lumina loved opera, so she’d crafted Aria’s DNA with enhanced vocal traits to create a daughter who could sing to her.  If it was a gift Aria had, then it was a gift Lumina had given to herself.  Her own personal song bird, Lumina’s pet name for her.  Aria had never seen any sense in her upgrade.  No one sang outside of the Realms--at least Soren’s tan made him look good in the real--but that’s what she got for being a geneticist’s daughter.

Overall, Under the Never Sky was a wonderful way to start the year’s debuts!

Likelihood that I'll be back for more: Absolutely!  There is definitely more to the story, but I’m so grateful that Rossi left us with an ending that was neatly done.  No massive cliffhanger, but I still cannot wait to see what happens!

Recommended for: Anyone not burnt out on dystopians yet, it's a great one!

Real life repercussions of reading this book:  I’ve been smelling myself a lot.  I want to know what my Temper’s like.