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Review: Widowland by C. J. Carey

I really enjoy a good speculative novel and I was incredibly excited about this one. Pitched as ‘an alternative history with a feminine twist’, I wasn’t completely sure what to expect from it but I think it’s one of the most immersive reads of the year.

Set in London in 1953, 13 years after Britain and Germany formed a Grand Alliance, the country is under the rule of the Protectorate Leader Rosenberg. In the Alliance, women are divided into castes according to their age, wealth, looks, reproductive abilities and other reductive criteria. Our protagonist Rose is part of the elite. She works for the Ministry of Culture, correcting classic works of literature to fit in with the Protector’s ideals. But then, she is sent on a special mission into the Widowlands, the desolate slums that are home to the women at the very bottom of society.

In the Alliance, the quality of women’s lives are dictated by what they can offer society and the treatment of older, infertile, poor women is abhorrent. Although reality isn’t quite this explicit, there are echoes of our world’s perception and treatment of women according to how well they meet similar criteria, so the author is clearly commentating on this.

The fact that citizens aren’t allowed to think of better times reminded me of the dangerous ways that cults and dictatorships work. Just as an abusive partner would cut you off from your friends, family and who you were before them, the Alliance does everything it can to distance its citizens from the past, which was of course, infinitely better for many people. I’m not sure how this could ever be properly policed because of course, even a tyrannous government can’t see every single thought that a human being has. I guess it’s more about spreading this sentiment amongst the people and punishing anyone who publicly talks about ‘the good old days’.

Rose is tasked with editing novels such as Jane Eyre, Pride and Prejudice and Middlemarch, adapting them to be suitable for study in Alliance schools. She dumbs down, tames and dilutes the personalities of all of our favourite heroines from the 19th century but of course, in order to carry out her work, she has to read the original texts. Although Rose is everything that the Protectorate wants all women to be, she really admires the intelligence and courage of the literary heroines whose lives she is changing. I loved seeing these little glimpses of rebellion within her.

Perhaps the only area where Rose falls short of a perfect Alliance woman is the fact that she is in her late twenties without a husband or children. Her sister Celia has a husband and daughter and comes across as the perfect Stepford wife. Rose is in danger of losing her elite Geli privileges due to her single, motherless status, highlighting once again the importance of women using their bodies to provide for and serve society.

The country is getting ready to crown a new queen, an American queen named Wallis. Sound familiar? As well as Wallis Simpson, of course, the slight suspicion but fascination with a foreign addition to the monarchy reminded me of the nation’s initial reaction to Meghan Markle. When it was first announced that she was to be a part of the Royal family, she was seen to be a radical but beautiful and intriguing part of history. Of course now she is seen as a pariah by a lot of the older generation and I wonder if the same would have happened to Queen Wallis eventually.

Women are hugely discouraged from reading, dreaming and thinking but Rose wants to preserve the freedom of fantasy for her young niece Hannah for as long as possible. Rose writes stories set in a magical land and reads them to Hannah. It’s the discovery of these stories, amongst other things, by the authorities that eventually lands Rose in hot water but Ilyria is as much a place of escapism for her as it is for Hannah. It felt like Rose was silently trying to get away from and break the harsh rules that she was being forced to live under, despite appearing to be compliant on the surface.

For most of the narrative, Rose is having an affair with her married boss Martin Kreuz. At the beginning of the book, she doesn’t seem to have any qualms about this at all, especially as it’s perfectly normal and even customary for wealthy men to have at least one mistress. However, as she becomes more absorbed in classic literature and within her mission at the Widowlands, she starts to think very differently about her relationship. Therefore, the more she learns about the lives of other women and gets to know them in a more intimate way, the more she starts to empathise and connect with them.

The Friedas, the women who are too old or too undesirable to have children or to serve men, in the Widowlands are incredibly smart, thoughtful and resourceful. It seems that no one has really paid attention to them and how they live before until some suspicious graffiti starts appearing, bearing literary quotes from ‘degenerate’ writers. Of course, the Friedas are the prime suspects for writing these quotes and the leaders become afraid that they’re preparing for an uprising. As it turns out, older women who have been ignored and beaten down by society can be exceptionally dangerous under the right conditions.

There is also mention of how the Alliance treats the mentally ill. Madness is one of the biggest fears amongst citizens and when Rose’s father begins displaying signs of it, she is terrified about his fate. Of course, mental health is still something that a large portion of society is afraid to talk about and the stigma that still exists is exactly what has held so many sufferers from seeking help and sharing their stories.

Overall, Widowland is a compelling what-if story that says so much about our reality. It’s a stark lesson as to the dangers of a single-minded society. It’s a celebration of the coming together of different ideas and opinions, the freedom of creative expression and the power of reading. The pages kept turning and I found myself thoroughly enthralled. Fans of other feminist speculative fiction such as Vox and The Handmaid’s Tale will be glued to this fresh, unique novel.

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