To adopt from China, your body-mass index must be under 35, your annual household income over eighty thousand. Dollars. Unmarried persons will be legally prohibited from adopting children. In addition to valid marriage licenses, all adoptions will require approval through a federally regulated agency, rendering private transactions criminal.” The novel follows the perspectives of four different women, plus a fifth historical perspective, who are all loosely connected to one another. Gross descriptions of body parts and fluids - Of all the things I have the stomach to read, it's descriptions of body fluids and hair that make me retch. I'm fine with a few scenes ( White Bodies), but it makes my skin crawl when it's threaded throughout the whole book: wet "scabbards," glistening" fingers, and SO MUCH pubic hair. (Helpful hint: If you have similar issues, avoid the movie Don't Breathe! I still gag thinking about it!)

In addition Canada has agreed to the Pink Wall – and actively tries to seek out and detain Americans seeking abortions (including carrying out pregnancy tests on unaccompanied minors) She did not leave behind money or property or a book or a child, but her corpse kept alive creatures who, in turn, kept other creatures alive. Into other bodies she went, but also other brains." - There are multiple ways our legacy lives on, not just through the passing of genes.

It was never yours." - As much as it hurts to admit, Ro has to learn she isn't entitled to something no matter how badly she wants it. Other characters realize that their children are their own people, not just an extension so them: "The girl is continuing herself."

Mainly, we follow these women through vignettes of their lives, as they grapple with difficult choices based on their gender, or sexuality. I went to find this book review for a news article link, but the entire review had been wiped! Maybe it was too long? I pieced it together again from Netgalley and a draft with quotes. I'm going to try to put my link section in the comments instead) I love the plausibility of the world Leni Zumas has created here, it feels organic in a way that is scary and frustrating. Set in the not so distant future, reproductive rights have been severely limited: abortion is illegal in all and every circumstances (and in fact considered murder), in-vitro fertilization is unavailable, and soon adoption will only be possible for straight, married couples. Told from five different perspectives, Zumas shows the far-reaching consequences these changes to the law might have. Her world is plausible and aggrevating and often feels contemporary rather than speculative. The only people working their ass off - NOT COMPLACENT- were people fighting like hell to make ‘sure’ gays would ‘not’ be allowed to marry.The structure of the novel is basically perfect. The four women in the book all have lives centered around the central system of the female sex: its ability to bear children. It is the thing that has made patriarchal culture what it is, but it is also something that women have reclaimed and found joy and identity in as feminism has evolved. The way these women relate to pregnancy, birth, abortion, and childrearing stands in stark contrast to one another, but they all felt real and personally relevant. That Zumas allows them to be so different, to envy and dislike each other for their differences, and leaves it all without comment, without choosing any one character to be a moral highground or an arbiter of what is good, is another thing I liked about it so much. The book stays zoomed in on these women's lives, letting us see how they intertwine and react. It doesn't try to make a bigger statement, which is why it makes such an effective statement. This is a dystopian story, but more than anything it seems to be a story that reminds us what can happen when we aren’t actively engaged, voicing our opinions in ways that matter regarding the decisions made by those in power. It didn't make me more empathetic towards anyone I wasn't already empathetic towards. If you have negative feelings coming into the book, you'll probably have a negative feeling at the end. It works more as a call to action. It made me more aware of my own "splinters of glass" that distort my perspective.

And yet, what makes this novel popular is the fear that this little freedom will soon go away. In real life. Oh, gosh. I'm probably the most inattentive person in the world. NOW I get what is depicted on the cover. Ughhhhhh! What for, people? Why do we need to see stylised female parts on a book cover? There some deep motivation behind it? Half the population have these parts. Do men get to publish books with their parts on the cover? (*just an afterthought*) I had heard about this novel as part of the speculation leading up to the 2018 Women’s Prize – and was surprised not to see it longlisted. My perception was that it was a dystopian and political novel – very much in the spirit of The Handmaid's Tale (or The Power). Damn, I really wanted to love this book. The premise is obviously timely and appropriate, and the book had a lot of hype. But I just didn't care for it.The new laws turn the girl into a criminal, Gin Percival into a criminal, the biographer herself . . . . into a criminal. If not for her comparing mind and covetous heart, the biographer could feel compassion for her fellow criminals. Instead she feels a splinter of glass. In Texas Life Support Case, Hospital vs. Family. Marlise Munoz was fourteen weeks pregnant when she was declared brain dead. Her husband and parents were ready to carry out her wishes and withdraw life support, but the hospital insisted on keeping her alive because of a Texas law declaring that "life-sustaining treatment" cannot be withheld from a pregnant patient. Who should be the deciding factor in a situation like this: the woman and her family or Texan voters? A judge later ruled that the Munoz must be removed from life support, but laws overriding a pregnant patient's advanced directives remain. All in all, this novel *is* a what-if. It says nothing more than what I already believe, that women should not have to suffer, either economically or legally or socially, for the desire NOT to be saddled with a real and true burden. Not unless they're able and willing to take care of said burden.

Suddenly, a broad swath of people—both people who want to be parents and those who don't—have criminal inclinations or at very least are treated as an underclasss. The last time she had sex was almost two years ago, with Jupiter from meditation group. “Your cunt smells yummy,” he said, extending the first syllable of “yummy” into a ghastly warble. Wiped semen from the dark swirls of his belly hair and said, “You sure you’re not getting attached?” On January fifteenth—in less than three months—this law, also known as Every Child Needs Two, take effect. Its mission: to restore dignity, strength, and prosperity to American families. On January fifteenth—in less than three months—this law, also known as Every Child Needs Two, takes effect. Its mission: to restore dignity, strength, and prosperity to American families. Unmarried persons will be legally prohibited from adopting children. In addition to valid marriage licenses, all adoptions will require approval through a federally regulated agency, rendering private transactions criminal. (c) But… while this has a powerful message, and occasionally beautiful writing, connecting to the characters and the story wasn’t always easy. This wasn’t so much an “enjoyable” read as one I appreciated the reminder of the ultimate cost of complacency.Wry and urgent, defiant and stylish, Zumas's braided tale follows the intertwined fates of four women whose lives this law irrevocably alters." My thoughts on this are all jumbled up; I thought I would adore this and it is not a bad book by any means but it took me three months to finish this. I could just not get on board and I am not quite sure where my problems lie. I guess we can probably expect more of these weird feminist(?) dystopias in the wake of The Handmaid's Tale's Hulu series. Between this and the superhero-movie-turned-superhero-book trend, you can pretty much predict the new book trends based on what's popular on the big and small screens. This device of labelling the characters can feel both artificial and also in some ways counter productive and anti-feminist – implying that the characters are one-dimensional and largely defined by their family status.