scarletbooksandthoughts:

#41 When She Woke: A Novel by Hillary Jordan

This adult dystopian novel, trying to gain acclaim off the back of The Hunger Games, takes its central premise from Nathianel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter.  The dystopian novel, set years in the future, takes us to Dallas, Texas, during at time of strict christianity, massive conservatism, and a reversal of individual rights.  The main character Hannah is by all intents and purposes, the perfect model citizen, until she falls in love with the wrong man.  She commits a crime and is punished by having her skin dyed red. (You will learn all of this in the first 20 pages :)).

   In this dystopian novel, people who commit crimes are sentenced to wear their crime on their skin, separated by differing colors and are stigmatized by other “non” crime committing people.  Hence, Hannah is “scarlet” and you may be able to guess what her crime is.

  I liked this book, but I didn’t love it.  It was not earth shattering, it did not make me want to read another book by this author, but it was entertaining.  I did like this novel until about the last 40 pages.  I felt Jordan almost took us to a really great analytical and questioning place, where we look at our own values and question them.  But she didn’t quite get there.  I was far more interested in the technical features of the story than I was by the Hannah character.  That’s probably a bad thing right?  But I would recommend it to all you dystopian fiends.  It sure is better than a lot of the YA books that are coming out in droves.  It’s also an entertaining read.  But it’s no Brave New World.

3.5/5.0 Stars