Widowland

I just finished Widowland by C.J Carey and here is my review.

It's time for the Coronation... It's 1953 and it is not Elizabeth II being crowned.

London, 1953, Coronation year - but not the Coronation of Elizabeth II.

It's 13 years after the war and a Grand alliance has quieted the nations of England and Germany. Edward VIII is king and all the power belongs to the Protector, Alfred Rosenberg.

Keeping women uneducated and brainwashed is the new normal. Every woman is cataloged based on their beauty and child baring abilities. Rose Ransom belongs to the elite class of women and has a nice job at the ministry of culture. Her job is to rewrite literature to make women appear more subservient.

Rose is being pulled into a new assignment. To find out who is writing graffiti from the voices of the very women Rose is rewriting... Her current assignment has her in widowland. A place for undesirable women. They have nothing to lose and with the leader coming to visit... The suspicion of a rebellion is louder than the men seeking to quiet them all.

This book was brilliant! A reimagined dystopian novel with a very different path after WWII. It felt like a mash up of the handmaids tale and 1984 but with a beautiful twist. The writing was elegant and lucid. I couldn't have imagined a world like this and thanks to CJ Carey, I know have a vivid picture in my mind of what life would have been like had the war ended differently.

We follow Rose through this journey. She's in the top class of women but she has the lovely down to earth quality with a real sense of justice and fairness. She never really towed the line of what a woman was supposed to be and I loved that! Now the women in widowland.... Sigh, they are my people. Strong, opinionated and not willing to bow.

Loved the setting of post WWII in this clever way and I'm so glad I have the next book up next!

5 stars! This might be the best dystopian novel of the year for me

Thanks to @sourcebooks for my gifted copy!