Author: Stephanie @that_bookish_life

Complimentary review copy provided by publisher.

Set in a very near future in an alternate timeline where Civil Rights Movement never happened, instead a second civil war was fought in the mid-20th century. The United States was toppled and an overt white supremacist regime installed at the helm of the country now known as the Order whose federal seat now resides in Texas. In this reality Black citizens are categorized as Decedents of Slavery and controlled by the state; males are conscripted as soldiers to quell civil unrest throughout the land, often losing their lives in the process, females are assigned to white men for a period of five years at age 15, then married off to Black men, always used as the men see fit, and of course their main purpose a vessel for procreation.

The story follows Solenne who, at age 15, becomes entangled with Bastien, a high-ranking Order official being groomed as the next leader. Their relationship is controversial as Solenne, now aged 20, is not merely his assignment but instead lives as his concubine, both Bastien and Solenne believing love a part of their union. Intertwined with Solenne’s reality is a biography she is penning of her ancestor, Henriette, who was brought from Africa to be enslaved in America as a teenager in 1801.

The Blueprint is a compelling piece of speculative literary fiction with undeniable echos of The Handmaid’s Tale and historical relationships such as that of Sally Hemings and Thomas Jefferson. Rashad has created a feasible and recognizable world drawn not only from the roots of our history, but our present as well. This familiarity lends a fascinating and unsettling layer to the story as it explores themes of autonomy, choice, love, liberty, control, and power. There’s much to chew on here and all told with lyrical prose. I couldn’t put this down once I started reading.

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As the title suggests this story is told predominately through the book, or diary, of an unnamed midwife. After a deadly virus kills off nearly the entire population an unnamed nurse-midwife wakes from her sickbed to a sparsely populated, apocalyptic world with male survivors outnumbering females ten to one; chaos and violence is rampant and survival is precarious, especially for females. Pregnancy and childbirth under these circumstances is inherently risky, further complicated as post-pandemic females are able to conceive and gestate, but their pregnancies do not result in live births.

The Book of the Unnamed Midwife reads like classic dystopic/apocalyptic literature. The structure of the story being framed through a historical document referenced by future survivors is reminiscent of The Handmaid’s Tale as is the limited point of view. I found this to be a strong offering to the genre and appreciated the feminist lens. Not eveything is clearly explained and not all questions answered (again, reminiscent of Handmaid), but to me, Unnamed Midwife feels like a complete, stand alone novel; I like the ambiguity. For readers who want more a second and third book have since published forming the Road to Nowhere trilogy.

A generation forward on the same path we’re currently trekking finds a world suffering even more extreme consequences of climate change driving a select few to enter protected weather-proofed indoor communities to ensure survival. One such community, located in New York City, is founded by #GirlBoss billionaire CEO and fourth-wave feminist Jacqueline Millender whose Inside Project space is furnished with soft pinks and mauves filled with a disturbing number of white, educated, upper middle class women, and founded on the idea that in order to heal our world the patriarchy must be eliminated. While Millender decamps with the other 1%ers to spaceships orbiting our dying planet her feminist utopia upstart slides towards a dystopic future.

Yours for the Taking {#gifted @stmartinspress} offers some truly interesting ideas for consideration about power structures, systems of stratification and exploitation, and the necessary elements for a functional society. While I really dug the concepts I do wish I had found the narrative a little more compelling. Still plenty to appreciate here and I hear there is a forthcoming sequel, which I’d be interested to read.