When She Woke: A Novel

Hillary Jordan's 2011 novel When She Woke is a retelling of Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter, set in a theocratic dystopian America reminiscent of Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale. I recently read both of those books, and couldn't get into Hawthorne at all, but found Atwood's novel one of the best I'd ever read. Thus, Jordan's mixture of the two piqued my interest, and while I wouldn't call it a classic, I did enjoy it a lot and would rate it closer to Atwood than Hawthorne.The setting in a future America where the religious right has taken over and there's no longer any separation of church and state - in fact, the US has a Secretary of Faith in the cabinet. A disease has wrecked havoc on fertility (much as in The Handmaid's Tale), which has combined with the religious slant to result in abortion having been outlawed as murder.Our protagonist is Hannah Payne (analog to Hester Prynne of The Scarlet Letter), who has had an abortion following an affair with the married Reverend Aiden Dale (the Rev. Arthur Dimmesdale update), but refused to name him as the father. The novel begins as Hannah wakes from the process of being chromed by the state of Texas for the crime of murder. Chroming turns the criminal's skin a shade based on their crime, is the punishment of the future, as it doesn't cost taxpayers as much as prison and isn't as cruel to the offender (at least, that's the line). As a convicted murderer, Hannah is a Red, and has to find her way in the world that reviles her.While Hannah has to navigate the now-hostile world, she also has to wrestle with herself. Having been raised in this theocratic world, she questions her place in it, her relationship with God, her faith itself, and her relationship with Aiden. This part of the novel is as compelling as the dystopian world, and if Hannah doesn't find all the answers, it's entirely believable, as how many are able to conclusively answer all of life's questions in reality?Jordan does an excellent job of synthesizing her two main inspirations. The modern language and the more relevant near future circumstances make When She Woke much more accessible than The Scarlet Letter. Jordan also does a good job of establishing her dystopian setting. It's not as strong as Atwood's work in The Handmaid's Tale, nor is Hannah's story as heart-wrenching as Offred's, but that's a high bar to compare a relatively new novelist to, When She Woke being Jordan's second novel.I listened to HighBridge's 2011 production of When She Woke, read by Heather Corrigan. Corrigan does an excellent job of giving voice to Hannah and her tale. The unabridged recording runs approximately 11 hours.When She Woke is a good novel that does a solid job of using its inspirations well while also taking the reader to new places. If you enjoyed either of The Scarlet Letter or The Handmaid's Tale, or dystopian novels in general, it's worth a read.

This is one of those times I desperately want a half-star rating... It was better than very good, but not quite a five star - few and far between for me.Combining Hawthorne's public humiliation (and a few other points) from The Scarlet Letter with reality TV, abolitionists' Underground Railroad, the extreme religious/political right, big brother technology, and a coming of age story, Hillary Jordan has giving us a scary glimpse into an all too possible near future.In Jordan's world, prisons are reserved for only the worst of the worst and most crimes are punished by chroming - genetically repigmenting the skin to a crayola color - the perpetrators of crimes. The story is told from the perspective of Hannah who has just been chromed red - the color for murderers. We follow Hannah on her journey from a girl raised in an evangelical home through a crisis of faith to her ultimate destination - a physical, spiritual, and emotional end of an odyssey.Ultimately, the novel is about dichotomy: choice vs predestination, retribution vs punishment, religion vs spiritualism, compassion vs hatred and more. Fortunately, such topics weren't dealt with in a simplistic manner nor so much as resolved as they were explored.The characters were well drawn and for the most part sympathetic. Hannah was complex and her struggle with a situation that was horrific on several levels was believable although perhaps compressed. I didn't always love her - in fact there were times I wanted to shake her and say "how can you think that" but that is coming from my own largely liberal belief system and when I failed to remember that she had a lifetime of being in a system that she never had much cause to question. Characters weren't simply explained and it took time to get to know most of them.Which brings me to my only complaint - I would have liked that exploration to have been a bit slower. Same for the world they lived in. There were hints that intrigued me about these "terrorist/freedom fighter" groups - were there others like the Novembrists or even like "The Fist"? And I wanted more closure on Becca's story. While I don't feel that the story was incomplete, I did feel the journey could have been a bit more - maybe some time in chrometown?The novel has been compared to Margaret Atwoods The Handmaids Tale and it certainly holds its own - where it fell short of the novel I consider one of the great political dystopian novels is in the language - the wit of Atwood and the way she created a layer of sacred language used to justify or hide the most profane of acts. Jordan does write well and the novel is a great read but fell just short of brilliant for me.

"When she woke, she was red..." Thus begins this novel, which promises so much in an exciting and well written opening section. Hannah Payne is a young woman, from a religious and strict family, who strays by first having an affair with a married man and then having an abortion. Her punishment in this draconian society, is to be 'Chromed' red - her shame for everyone to see. Much of the strong themes in this book comes from Hannah finding herself an outcast in a society in which she has once been strongly a part of, a believer in, and in questioning the faith she has always followed.Unfortunately, after a strong start, the plot becomes quite confused. Hannah, after a series of events in which she seems to behave out of character (and then slip back into her 'good girl' persona, almost as though the author is not sure where she wants to take her) finds herself on the run and aided by those she would have called terrorists before her chroming. As another reviewer has pointed out, much of the action is not in Hannah's control and so the story often sees to drag. She also spends much of the book obsessing about her married lover who, frankly, just doesn't seem worth so much trouble and worry. The storyline is a good idea (if somewhat reminicent of "The Scarlet Letter") and I imagine it would have more impact in America, where issues such as abortion cause highly divided and emotive opinions. Overall, the novel was enjoyable but did not live up to its promise.

I love a good dystopian novel and this one really didn't disappoint. I felt it to be so well-written, never overtly criticising the "State society" that Hannah, the narrator, has found herself falling a victim to, never descending into ranting about it or making it too obvious in the telling - instead Hannah lets things slip gradually, so that the reader only discovers the true horror of the society which Hannah and her contemporaries are living within at the same gradual rate. The facts of the State - the diseases, the nuclear bombs, the wars, the terrorists, the bigotry and fear are disclosed matter of factly and subtly so that I as a reader suddenly found myself immersed in a world which was utterly and frighteningly believeable and yet quite recognisable and familiar.The story itself seemed to be a modern retelling of Hawthorne's "The Scarlet Letter" with it being no coincidence that the character's crime is melachromed to the colour red, both linking it to this historical story (but with a modern twist - but then, let's face it,tales of bigotry, racism and women suffering at the hands of men are as old as time itself) and to the character's ultimate REDemption.I loved this story - the characters were beautifully developed and believeable, as was the story itself. It was stylishly told and I couldn't put it down for long. Like Hannah, I felt myself to be on a journey - and like Hannah, I had no idea where it was going to take me or what the end result would be. Too many stories are predictable in the end - but I was damned if I knew what Hannah's fate was going to be - even with only 11 pages left I had no idea if she would make it or not.I cannot recommend this book enough - I have found a new favourite author and I expect myself to be "Mudbound" and getting to grips with the author's first novel, very soon.

Interesting and thought provoking book, a modern day interpretation of The Scarlett Letter. The Main Character Hannah lives is a future version of our world, but crimes, and their punishments have 'progressed' - the criminals being chromed - the colour of their skin being altered - the color of the chrome depends of the crime, and then they are put back into society for the duration of their sentence. The novel poses many questions throught, is abortion wrong,or murder, or adultery - who is to blame, and what I particularly liked about this novel was that it didn't try to answer these questions for you or for Hannah for that matter - it just showed you Hannahs story in the dystopian future in which she lives allowing you to just enjoy the story and come to your own conclusions.

Absolutely fantastic, just gutted I’ve finished it and another reason being what too me so long to find it on my TBR list. A must read

A friend recommended this, I downloaded the sample and was hooked by the end of those few pages.The book is written brilliantly and the story, well there's never a dull moment and as it unfolds your literally holding your breath and trying to read fast. It is probably one of the most well written books I've read, I actually felt what the character felt. I filled up and felt sadness when the character did, I applaud the writer for their writing skill. A huge recommendation to read!