When She Woke

by Hillary Jordan

Book Overview

Bellwether Prize winner Hillary Jordan's provocative new novel, When She Woke, tells the story of 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--their skin color is genetically altered to match the class of their crimes--and then released back into the population to survive...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1616201932
• ISBN13: 9781616201937
• Release Date: September 2012
• Publisher: Algonquin Books
• Length: 368 Pages
• Weight: 0.60 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 5.4" x 8.1"

Customer Reviews

High hopes, mediocre reality

The concept of this book sounded amazing, with echoes of Margaret Atwood's 'The Handmaid's Tale'. I could hardly wait to read it. The reality: it was good, but definitely not great. I felt like so many of the concepts the author introduced in this dystopian world were so exciting, but I didn't feel like any ever played out completely nor well. We do care about the characters, but I was always left wanting more detail, more history, more content about the ideas that drew me in, and I never got that. It was good, it's worth reading, especially in the world we live in today, but it didn't fully deliver for me.

An amazing masterpiece!

Though published over a decade ago, the book touches on human rights issues relevant to even today’s world. The author, Hillary Jordan, uses powerful and vivid writing to a whole new level in this dystopian story. Amazing!

Good read

The book tackles a lot of different subjects such as church and state and women's rights. Very good book, wasn't the biggest fan of the ending but I'll live.