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When She Woke: A Novel Paperback – September 18, 2012

by Hillary Jordan (Author)
4.2 4.2 out of 5 stars 1,762 ratings
Goodreads Choice Award nominee
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Bellwether Prize winner Hillary Jordan’s provocative new novel, When She Woke, tells the story of a stigmatized woman struggling to navigate an America of a not-too-distant future, where the line between church and state has been eradicated and convicted felons are no longer imprisoned and rehabilitated but chromed―their skin color is genetically altered to match the class of their crimes―and then released back into the population to survive as best they can. Hannah is a Red; her crime is murder.

In seeking a path to safety in an alien and hostile world, Hannah unknowingly embarks on a path of self-discovery that forces her to question the values she once held true and the righteousness of a country that politicizes faith.

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  1. Print length
    368 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Algonquin Books
  4. Publication date
    September 18, 2012
  5. Dimensions
    5.55 x 0.95 x 8.3 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    1616201932
  7. ISBN-13
    978-1616201937
  8. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

Review

“[A] chilling futuristic novel.”—O, The Oprah Magazine ―Kirkus Reviews

“Jordan manages to open up powerful feminist and political themes without becoming overly preachy—and the parallels with Hawthorne are fun to trace.”—Kirkus ―Library Journal

“Christian fundamentalists may shun this novel, but book clubs will devour it, and savvy educators will pair it with Hawthorne’s Scarlet Letter. Essential.”—Library Journal
―Booklist

“Jordan blends hot-button issues such as separation of church and state, abortion, and criminal justice with an utterly engrossing story, driven by a heroine as layered and magnetic as Hester Prynne herself, and reminiscent, too, of Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale (1985). Absolutely a must-read.”—Booklist, starred review―Family Circle

“[A] provocative, politically charged novel... [Hannah’s] journey to reclaim herself is equally chilling and riveting.”—Family Circle ―The Book Case

“It reads like a thriller, and one that makes you think hard, to boot. I’ve already placed this one on my favorite-books-for-book-clubs list.”—The Book Case

“An utterly engrossing story, driven by a heroine as layered and magnetic as Hester Prynne herself, and reminiscent, too, of Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale. Absolutely a must-read.”
—Booklist, starred review

“The Scarlet Letter could unfurl from no better a speculative pen than that held by Hillary Jordan. She takes the seeds of that story and roots them in a world where ‘right to life’ is the law of the land . . . The result . . . is as compulsively readable as it is thought-provoking.”
—The Denver Post

“In the chillingly credible tomorrowland of Jordan’s second novel, Roe v. Wade has been overturned, abortion has been criminalized in 42 states and a vigilante group known as the Fist of Christ brutalizes violators . . . Jordan’s feverishly conceived dystopia holds its own alongside the dark inventions of Margaret Atwood and Ray Bradbury.”
—The New York Times Book Review

“Hannah’s fight for freedom is both a sober warning and a gripping page-turner. Already it reads like a classic.” —AARP

“Jordan’s take on the hot button issues of our time—separation of church and state, abortion, an imperfect criminal justice system—is compelling.”
—San Antonio Express-News

“An inventive tale about a new America that has lost its way . . . When She Woke is, at its heart, a tense, energetic and lively paced story about self-discovery and reclamation in the wake of enormous shame. It is a story about the price of love.”
—Minneapolis Star Tribune

“[A] provocative, politically charged novel . . . [Hannah’s] journey to reclaim herself is equally chilling and riveting.” —Family Circle

“Will spark many an intriguing book club discussion.” —The Cleveland Plain Dealer

About the Author

Hillary Jordan is the author of the novels Mudbound (2008) and When She Woke (2011), as well as the digital short “Aftermirth.”

Mudbound won the 2006 Bellwether Prize, founded by Barbara Kingsolver to recognize socially conscious fiction, and a 2009 Alex Award from the American Library Association. It was the 2008 NAIBA Fiction Book of the Year and was long-listed for the 2010 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. Paste magazine named it one of the Top Ten Debut Novels of the Decade. Mudbound has been translated into French, Italian, Serbian, Swedish, and Norwegian, and the film version is forthcoming in fall 2017.

When She Woke was long-listed for the 2013 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award and was a 2012 Lambda Literary Award finalist. It has been translated into French, German, Spanish, Turkish, Brazilian Portuguese, and Chinese complex characters.

Jordan has a BA from Wellesley College and an MFA in Creative Writing from Columbia University. She grew up in Dallas, Texas, and Muskogee, Oklahoma, and currently lives in Brooklyn, New York.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Algonquin Books; Reprint edition (September 18, 2012)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 368 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1616201932
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1616201937
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 10.7 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.55 x 0.95 x 8.3 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.2 4.2 out of 5 stars 1,762 ratings

About the author

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Hillary Jordan

Hillary Jordan

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Hillary Jordan grew up in Texas and Oklahoma. She received her BA in English and Political Science from Wellesley College and spent fifteen years working as an advertising copywriter before starting to write fiction. She got her MFA in Creative Writing from Columbia University.

Her first novel, MUDBOUND, was published by Algonquin Books in March 2008 and became an international bestseller. It won the 2006 Bellwether Prize for Fiction, founded by Barbara Kingsolver and awarded biennially to an unpublished debut novel that addresses issues of social justice, as well as a 2009 Alex Award from the American Library Association. It was the 2008 NAIBA (New Atlantic Independent Booksellers Assoc.) Fiction Book of the Year and was longlisted for the IMPAC Dublin Literary Prize. PASTE Magazine named it one of the Top Ten Debut Novels of the Decade. MUDBOUND has been translated into French, German, Dutch, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Swedish, Norwegian, Hungarian, Serbian, Polish, Czech, Brazilian Portuguese, and Chinese Simple.

MUDBOUND was adapted into a 2017 Netflix film starring Mary J. Blige and Carey Mulligan. The film debuted at Sundance and garnered many accolades and honors, including Academy Award nominations for Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Cinematography, Best Supporting ACtress and Best Song.

Hillary's second novel, WHEN SHE WOKE, was published by Algonquin Books in October 2011. It was a #1 Indie Next pick, one of BookPages Best Books of 2011 and a BookList Editor's Choice for Best Fiction of 2011. It has been translated into French, Spanish, German, Turkish, Chinese and Brazilian Portuguese.

Hillary is also the author of the Kindle single "Aftermirth." She lives in Brooklyn, along with half the writers in America.

Customer reviews

4.2 out of 5 stars
4.2 out of 5
1,762 global ratings
A Right To Live And Love
4 Stars
A Right To Live And Love
Imagine a “Scarlet Letter” world. Skin color is determined on the severity of your offense and dye injected into the body for the allotted years of punishment. Hard, fast and unforgiving rules, government and religious domination is the groundwork for Hillary Jordan’s novel, When She Woke. We follow young adult, Hannah Payne. Hannah must navigate her puritanical upbringing to the life she now suffers as a “red.” Traveling many torturous paths, meeting good and evil accomplices, Hannah is determined to discover a life of free will or not live at all. A formidable and well written piece of work.
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Top reviews from the United States

Ricki Lewis
5.0 out of 5 stars great, but beef up the science
Reviewed in the United States on December 31, 2011
Verified Purchase
I don't usually take too kindly to the evil geneticist (my field) stereotype in fiction, but I can't resist a good dystopian novel. "When She Woke," by Hillary Jordan, is a compelling hybrid of Nathaniel Hawthorne's "The Scarlet Letter" and Margaret Atwood's "The Handmaid's Tale."

In the future, after bombing of the west coast kills nearly a million and an epidemic of a "scourge" spreads mass infertility, "sanctity of life" laws enacted in Texas and a few other states make abortion murder. The guilty are punished with a gene-based treatment called melachroming, which changes their skin color. Chromes must then survive in a hostile society.

In melachroming, an injection of manipulated viruses mutates the DNA in enough skin cells to turn a woman who's had an abortion bright red. (Other crimes assume different hues.) Eye color is spared, but in the first cases, blindness resulted. This was all very strange for me to read, since my new narrative nonfiction book is about an 8-year-old cured in 4 days of inherited blindness with a similar gene therapy procedure (...).

For me, the nerd nitpicker, the science in "When She Woke" is too sparse and rather murky. The viral skin color lasts only four months, so the Chrome needs a booster. To make sure she gets one, the evil geneticists include in the virus a "compound" that induces paranoia and suicidality ("fragmenting"), timed to turn on when a never-described first compound activates it. How the suicide-inducing compound travels from the skin cells to brain cells is unclear.

The author cleverly skirts the confusing science: "That was all Hannah, or anyone else other than the geneticists employed by the Federal Chroming Agency, knew; the exact science behind fragmentation was a closely guarded secret." But it needn't have been - gene therapy has been around since 1990. If the experts consulted for the book had included a virologist or molecular biologist, the author could have come up with a much more plausible and logical explanation for the mechanism of melachroming.

But is scientific accuracy necessary in fiction? Not according to the Catalyst Workshop at the American Film Institute that I attended in 2005. This is a week-long immersion into the world of screenwriting, for scientists. My group dissected "The Day After Tomorrow," until finally our intrepid Hollywood screenwriter instructor smugly let us in on a secret: Getting the science correct in a feature film just doesn't matter. Plot and characters made "The Day After Tomorrow" a hit.

So it is for "When She Woke," mysterious mutating melachromes notwithstanding. It's fast, compelling, and moving, with spirituality trumping science. I loved it.
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Ubookquitous
4.0 out of 5 stars Engaging
Reviewed in the United States on June 21, 2014
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This is one of those times I desperately want a half-star rating... It was better than very good, but not quite a five star - few and far between for me.

Combining Hawthorne's public humiliation (and a few other points) from The Scarlet Letter with reality TV, abolitionists' Underground Railroad, the extreme religious/political right, big brother technology, and a coming of age story, Hillary Jordan has giving us a scary glimpse into an all too possible near future.

In Jordan's world, prisons are reserved for only the worst of the worst and most crimes are punished by chroming - genetically repigmenting the skin to a crayola color - the perpetrators of crimes. The story is told from the perspective of Hannah who has just been chromed red - the color for murderers. We follow Hannah on her journey from a girl raised in an evangelical home through a crisis of faith to her ultimate destination - a physical, spiritual, and emotional end of an odyssey.

Ultimately, the novel is about dichotomy: choice vs predestination, retribution vs punishment, religion vs spiritualism, compassion vs hatred and more. Fortunately, such topics weren't dealt with in a simplistic manner nor so much as resolved as they were explored.

The characters were well drawn and for the most part sympathetic. Hannah was complex and her struggle with a situation that was horrific on several levels was believable although perhaps compressed. I didn't always love her - in fact there were times I wanted to shake her and say "how can you think that" but that is coming from my own largely liberal belief system and when I failed to remember that she had a lifetime of being in a system that she never had much cause to question. Characters weren't simply explained and it took time to get to know most of them.

Which brings me to my only complaint - I would have liked that exploration to have been a bit slower. Same for the world they lived in. There were hints that intrigued me about these "terrorist/freedom fighter" groups - were there others like the Novembrists or even like "The Fist"? And I wanted more closure on Becca's story. While I don't feel that the story was incomplete, I did feel the journey could have been a bit more - maybe some time in chrometown?

The novel has been compared to Margaret Atwoods The Handmaids Tale and it certainly holds its own - where it fell short of the novel I consider one of the great political dystopian novels is in the language - the wit of Atwood and the way she created a layer of sacred language used to justify or hide the most profane of acts. Jordan does write well and the novel is a great read but fell just short of brilliant for me.
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Top reviews from other countries

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Ingomar Lindner
3.0 out of 5 stars Phantasie9
Reviewed in Germany on August 3, 2021
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Die Storie lehnt sich sehr an den Roman " Southern Railrod" an.
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Jess Williams
5.0 out of 5 stars Captivating
Reviewed in Australia on January 4, 2018
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The author writes in an almost musical way, where I was captured by the story and main character. This was an incredible tale of growth and challenges. It was heavier on the Jesus than I would have ordinarily liked, but the faith aspect played such an important role in the society and in the personal journey of Hannah it woud have been strange without it.
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Cliente Amazon
4.0 out of 5 stars A good read and food for thought
Reviewed in Italy on October 23, 2016
Verified Purchase
It isn't a masterpiece but I found it gripping. It's too long in some parts; the similarities to The Scarlet Letter are few but poignant; The Handmaid's Tale sure comes to mind, but above all the rendering of a dystopian future version of the USA is well made and chilling.

One of those book for which the comment 'read it while it's still possible' is true.
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Dena
5.0 out of 5 stars Pulls you along
Reviewed in Canada on December 19, 2013
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Are you into this new trend in dystopian fiction? When She Woke is a good read, with a believable female protagonist and an interesting plot. I felt that some of the peripheral characters were flat in comparison, but it didn't matter, as so much of my mine was focused on the main character.

Really good! Another great book in the same category is The Unit by Ninni Holmqvist.
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Chez
5.0 out of 5 stars An amazing, heart stopping book
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 14, 2014
Verified Purchase
A friend recommended this, I downloaded the sample and was hooked by the end of those few pages.
The book is written brilliantly and the story, well there's never a dull moment and as it unfolds your literally holding your breath and trying to read fast. It is probably one of the most well written books I've read, I actually felt what the character felt. I filled up and felt sadness when the character did, I applaud the writer for their writing skill. A huge recommendation to read!
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