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Hillary Jordan

When She Woke: A Novel Paperback – September 18, 2012

by Hillary Jordan (Author)

4.2 1,735 ratings

Goodreads Choice Award nominee

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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 as best they can. Hannah is a Red; her crime is murder.

In seeking a path to safety in an alien and hostile world, Hannah unknowingly embarks on a path of self-discovery that forces her to question the values she once held true and the righteousness of a country that politicizes faith.

Print length

368 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Algonquin Books
Publication date

September 18, 2012
Dimensions

5.55 x 0.95 x 8.3 inches
ISBN-10

1616201932
ISBN-13

978-1616201937
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Editorial Reviews

Review

“[A] chilling futuristic novel.”—O, The Oprah Magazine ―Kirkus Reviews

“Jordan manages to open up powerful feminist and political themes without becoming overly preachy—and the parallels with Hawthorne are fun to trace.”—Kirkus ―Library Journal

“Christian fundamentalists may shun this novel, but book clubs will devour it, and savvy educators will pair it with Hawthorne’s Scarlet Letter. Essential.”—Library Journal
―Booklist

“Jordan blends hot-button issues such as separation of church and state, abortion, and criminal justice with an utterly engrossing story, driven by a heroine as layered and magnetic as Hester Prynne herself, and reminiscent, too, of Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale (1985). Absolutely a must-read.”—Booklist, starred review―Family Circle

“[A] provocative, politically charged novel... [Hannah’s] journey to reclaim herself is equally chilling and riveting.”—Family Circle ―The Book Case

“It reads like a thriller, and one that makes you think hard, to boot. I’ve already placed this one on my favorite-books-for-book-clubs list.”—The Book Case

“An utterly engrossing story, driven by a heroine as layered and magnetic as Hester Prynne herself, and reminiscent, too, of Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale. Absolutely a must-read.”
—Booklist, starred review

“The Scarlet Letter could unfurl from no better a speculative pen than that held by Hillary Jordan. She takes the seeds of that story and roots them in a world where ‘right to life’ is the law of the land . . . The result . . . is as compulsively readable as it is thought-provoking.”
—The Denver Post

“In the chillingly credible tomorrowland of Jordan’s second novel, Roe v. Wade has been overturned, abortion has been criminalized in 42 states and a vigilante group known as the Fist of Christ brutalizes violators . . . Jordan’s feverishly conceived dystopia holds its own alongside the dark inventions of Margaret Atwood and Ray Bradbury.”
—The New York Times Book Review

“Hannah’s fight for freedom is both a sober warning and a gripping page-turner. Already it reads like a classic.” —AARP

“Jordan’s take on the hot button issues of our time—separation of church and state, abortion, an imperfect criminal justice system—is compelling.”
—San Antonio Express-News

“An inventive tale about a new America that has lost its way . . . When She Woke is, at its heart, a tense, energetic and lively paced story about self-discovery and reclamation in the wake of enormous shame. It is a story about the price of love.”
—Minneapolis Star Tribune

“[A] provocative, politically charged novel . . . [Hannah’s] journey to reclaim herself is equally chilling and riveting.” —Family Circle

“Will spark many an intriguing book club discussion.” —The Cleveland Plain Dealer

About the Author

Hillary Jordan is the author of the novels Mudbound (2008) and When She Woke (2011), as well as the digital short “Aftermirth.”

Mudbound won the 2006 Bellwether Prize, founded by Barbara Kingsolver to recognize socially conscious fiction, and a 2009 Alex Award from the American Library Association. It was the 2008 NAIBA Fiction Book of the Year and was long-listed for the 2010 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. Paste magazine named it one of the Top Ten Debut Novels of the Decade. Mudbound has been translated into French, Italian, Serbian, Swedish, and Norwegian, and the film version is forthcoming in fall 2017.

When She Woke was long-listed for the 2013 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award and was a 2012 Lambda Literary Award finalist. It has been translated into French, German, Spanish, Turkish, Brazilian Portuguese, and Chinese complex characters.

Jordan has a BA from Wellesley College and an MFA in Creative Writing from Columbia University. She grew up in Dallas, Texas, and Muskogee, Oklahoma, and currently lives in Brooklyn, New York.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Algonquin Books; Reprint edition (September 18, 2012)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 368 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1616201932
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1616201937
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 12.8 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.55 x 0.95 x 8.3 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #688,998 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #1,597 in Political Fiction (Books)
- #4,255 in Dystopian Fiction (Books)
- #6,985 in Contemporary Literature & Fiction

Customer Reviews:
4.2 1,735 ratings

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Hillary Jordan

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Hillary Jordan grew up in Texas and Oklahoma. She received her BA in English and Political Science from Wellesley College and spent fifteen years working as an advertising copywriter before starting to write fiction. She got her MFA in Creative Writing from Columbia University.

Her first novel, MUDBOUND, was published by Algonquin Books in March 2008 and became an international bestseller. It won the 2006 Bellwether Prize for Fiction, founded by Barbara Kingsolver and awarded biennially to an unpublished debut novel that addresses issues of social justice, as well as a 2009 Alex Award from the American Library Association. It was the 2008 NAIBA (New Atlantic Independent Booksellers Assoc.) Fiction Book of the Year and was longlisted for the IMPAC Dublin Literary Prize. PASTE Magazine named it one of the Top Ten Debut Novels of the Decade. MUDBOUND has been translated into French, German, Dutch, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Swedish, Norwegian, Hungarian, Serbian, Polish, Czech, Brazilian Portuguese, and Chinese Simple.

MUDBOUND was adapted into a 2017 Netflix film starring Mary J. Blige and Carey Mulligan. The film debuted at Sundance and garnered many accolades and honors, including Academy Award nominations for Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Cinematography, Best Supporting ACtress and Best Song.

Hillary's second novel, WHEN SHE WOKE, was published by Algonquin Books in October 2011. It was a #1 Indie Next pick, one of BookPages Best Books of 2011 and a BookList Editor's Choice for Best Fiction of 2011. It has been translated into French, Spanish, German, Turkish, Chinese and Brazilian Portuguese.

Hillary is also the author of the Kindle single "Aftermirth." She lives in Brooklyn, along with half the writers in America.

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Gary Hoggatt

An interesting combination of two classic novels, When She Woke makes for a good read

Reviewed in the United States on December 28, 2012

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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.

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Ubookquitous

Engaging

Reviewed in the United States on June 21, 2014

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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.

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V. G. Harwood

Seamless - I have found a new favourite author

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 15, 2013

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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.

Amazon Customer

Beautiful story

Reviewed in Canada on April 22, 2020

Verified Purchase

Such a beautifully heartbreaking story that exposes the truth regarding post-abortion trauma and mourning. I felt as though during certain parts of the book, Hillary seemed to push a sectarian agenda that bashed religion and falsely depicted the abortion industry. With that being said the book was very compelling and makes you feel a deep empathy for women who have experienced the trauma of abortion and the truth that a baby is in fact killed. There was no denial of the truth. Hannah was a very interesting character although she changes drastically towards the end of the novel.

Amazon Customer

When She Woke...

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 25, 2013

Verified Purchase

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.

LAF1970

Wow

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 13, 2022

Verified Purchase

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

Nathou

Contre-utopie

Reviewed in France on May 22, 2013

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When she woke est une contre-utopie, de la même veine que The Handmaid's Tale de Margaret Arwood. C'est l'histoire d'une société où les différents criminels sont "chromés" ou colorés en fonction des différents crimes commis. L'héroïne a avorté, elle est donc emprisonnée, et se révéille ROUGE, de la tête aux pieds, après avoir été jugée coupable par la justice de son pays. Elle refuse de révéler qui était le père de son enfant. Son histoire traite de la manière dont elle vit dans une société dominée et gouvernée par les préjugés, et des raisons qui l'ont amenée à une telle situation. Un bon livre, et un auteur à découvrir.

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