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: New Zapata
by Teri Hall was the WINNER in the Speculative Fiction (excluding Fantasy)
category for B&P 2014 Readers' Choice Awards. 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).
Rating:
***** Five Stars
Reviewed
by: BigAl
Approximate
word count: 60-65,000 words
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