Genre:
Dystopian
Description:
“It's
2052, and there's one less state in the union. Texas, now known as
the Republic of Texas, has seceded, just like it did in 1861, though
for different reasons this time.
Rebecca
lives in New Zapata, a border town in The Republic of Texas. She's
nineteen years old, born and raised in the R of T, and doesn't
remember a time when things were different, though her Aunt Cathy
does. Rebecca's married to Chad, the boy who charmed her into an
unplanned pregnancy. She loves her young son, Luke, but she almost
died giving birth to him.
That means
Rebecca has a problem. Because in New Zapata, birth control and
abortion are illegal. So is divorce. And Chad thinks sex is his
husbandly right.”
Author:
Teri Hall
lives in Washington State with her two cats and a dog. She’s the
author of two other books, The
Line and
Away, which are the first two
books in a traditionally published YA Fantasy series. She was
supposed to be writing the third in that series, but current events
moved her to take time out to write and self-publish this first.
Appraisal:
Dystopian
fiction, besides taking place in a society that is the opposite of a
utopia, typically explores some of the reasons that things are so
bad. An example familiar to many is Orwell’s 1984. Usually these
reasons are related to current real world issues and extrapolate what
the results of continuing in a particular direction might be. New
Zapata does exactly that, taking aim at recent attempts in the US to
decrease the rights women have over their own reproductive systems.
When a
novel takes a political stance, which is almost always going to be
the case with this genre, and it’s on a current issue where
emotions run high, as with this one, some authors focus too hard on
making their case and not hard enough on telling the story well. When
that happens, even if the reader’s politics make them sympathetic
to the message, the book is still going to be a failure. I’ve
previously read two books that attempted to tackle this same issue.
In spite of agreeing with the authors’ politics and wanting them to
be successful making their point, both those books fell short. New
Zapata didn’t. There are several reasons why.
The most
obvious reason this story worked is the author resisted the urge to
preach and concentrated on telling the story. The premise didn’t
stretch credibility too far (I’d guess there are even a fair number
of people who think this result would be a good one). How women
reacted was very believable, not unlike how different oppressed
groups have reacted in other places and times. I loved the
characters, especially Rebecca and her aunt, was pulling for them,
and the story got me thinking. Can’t ask for more than that.
FYI:
Added for
Reprise Review: Winner in the Speculative Fiction (excluding fantasy)
category for 2014 Readers' Choice Awards at BigAl’s Books and Pals.
Original review ran October 11, 2013.
Format/Typo
Issues:
Very few
issues although there is a consistent problem with using the word
current, as in right now, instead of the word currant (a dried fruit
you eat).
Approximate
word count: 60-65,000 words
Reviewed
by: BigAl
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