Martin J. Goodman

Wow. This book was hard. Really hard.

Think A Clockwork Orange, The Handmaid's Tale, and 1984 all mashed together. I think that I really liked it. I kept thinking of the old adage, 'If men could get pregnant, then abortion would be a sacrament.'

This is a dark near-future dystopia. I dislike the term 'gritty' but I can't think of a better adjective for this novel. It's told primarily from the point of view of Stephen-turned-Bender who is about as an unreliable narrator as you get.

Gender issues and identity are expertly explored. Karen and Stephen as twins and Karen is the last girl to be born. I agree with a previous reviewer that it would have been nice to have a better fleshed out worldview in this dystopia. Why are there no more girls being born? What exactly is Cromozone? I don't mind being left with questions but the 'world building' constructed in this novel left me a little empty.

There seemed to be an overemphasis on Stephen's teensquad and I think that cutting down large portions of those sections might have made the novel more accessible.

It requires a careful reading and does lend to questioning what reality really is and how we define it. If you love dystopias and speculative fiction - then this one might be for you - but it is incredibly heavy and although it's not that long, it takes time wade through the narrative.
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