Red Clocks

A Novel

By: Leni Zumas

Narrated by: Karissa Vacker, Erin Bennett

Length: 9 hrs and 6 mins

Publisher's Summary

A Popsugar most anticipated book of fall

A Ploughshares most anticipated book of fall

One of Publishers Weekly's most anticipated titles of fall 2017

Five women. One question. What is a woman for?

In this ferociously imaginative novel, abortion is once again illegal in America, in vitro fertilization is banned, and the Personhood Amendment grants rights of life, liberty, and property to every embryo. In a small Oregon fishing town, five very different women navigate these new barriers alongside age-old questions surrounding motherhood, identity, and freedom.

Ro, a single high-school teacher, is trying to have a baby on her own while also writing a biography of Eivør, a little-known 19th-century female polar explorer. Susan is a frustrated mother of two, trapped in a crumbling marriage. Mattie is the adopted daughter of doting parents and one of Ro's best students, who finds herself pregnant with nowhere to turn. And Gin is the gifted, forest-dwelling herbalist, or "mender", who brings all their fates together when she's arrested and put on trial in a frenzied modern-day witch hunt.

Red Clocks is at once a riveting drama whose mysteries unfold with magnetic energy and a shattering novel of ideas. In the vein of Margaret Atwood and Eileen Myles, Leni Zumas fearlessly explores the contours of female experience, evoking The Handmaid's Tale for a new millennium. This is a story of resilience, transformation, and hope in tumultuous - even frightening - times.

©2018 Leni Zumas (P)2018 Hachette Audio

Need to read it in print

I listen to audio books every single day. This book is too complex - I finally gave up on it and might try the print version. Their is too much going on, visual-wise, that the narrator must convey, and too many jumps in POV at the beginning that’s hard to follow. The story seems promising but maybe just not in audio format.

Wholly misunderstands motherhood

For a book about a woman's right to choose, this book fails to comprehend motherhood entirely. Its portrayals of motherhood and the desire to become a mother are two dimensional at best. Any real rendering of a discussion on this topic would portray better the other side -- not necessarily the desire to outlaw abortion -- but the emotional involvement and sheer joy of motherhood. It's really weird; it seems like there's a disconnect. How can a character spend an entire book going through fertility treatments without saying how she longs to hold a baby in her arms and love it and raise it and teach it? How can you not describe a real longing or ache for the experience? It's really kind of bizarre to me. Am I bringing my own feelings too much into play here? Maybe; I am a woman who underwent fertility treatments to have a baby. But, to me, this just fell totally flat. A good premise, and mildly entertaining, but wholly inadequate. Acceptable, but not anything that will stay with me. If you're looking for something worth reading that will make you think and challenge your preconceived notions, look elsewhere. This is pretty ho-hum.

Not worth it!

Hard to follow. Horrible plot like. Characters are obscure and disinteresting. A total waste of money. Don’t bother, not sure why the editors picked it.

this is poorly written for an audio book.

this book isn't for the enjoyment of the reader who likes to disappear into a book. u have to work hard at staying with it.

Protagonist ABORTS her baby at 7 mths!

I was apauled that the writer made it seem ok for a teen girl to abort her baby at 7 months pregnant! that is not ok! And when her fave teacher was desperate for a child and yet supported her!?! horrible.

Red Clocks

This book is hard to follow - it was hard to tell what was happening with each character. Not sure if it’s because the characters had real names and other names, but it was extremely confusing.

3.84 stars......A Semi-dystopian Tale

Red Clocks is a middle of the road audiobook. It's not great, and it's not bad. The narrators do a good job, and they sound so much alike that I couldn't tell the difference between them. The book kept my attention. The story was decent. It seemed kind of like a YA novel. I don't go into plot details when I review audiobooks and try to keep my reviews short. I don't think anyone needs a summary of the narrative. Red Clocks reminds me of some Margaret Atwood novels, mainly The Handmaid's Tale and The Heart Goes Last. I think fans of novels such as these will like Red Clocks.

Overall rating: 3.84 stars

A cliche Atwood

feeding off cultural bias. no subtlety or art. like a robot wrote it for likes.

over tbe top

Too unrealistic. A perfect storm dystopian yarn. Interesting but not a fun read. Struggled through some parts. Narrative seemed disjointed at times.

Horrifyingly Real and yet Utterly Foreign

With Donald Trump as our President it seems like anything awful is possible. This book takes the next hypothetical step in the Right’s attack on everyone but cis straight white rich men and portrays a world where hours old embryos have more rights than many felons. It’s a much needed exploration of the highly gendered assumptions both women and men make about their respective gender roles in society. The world of Red Clocks is both completely alien (no legal abortion, a Pink Wall between the US and Canada, IVF outlawed, adoption only open to married couples) and yet is utterly familiar (life goes on, people adapt, there is still kind and empathetic individuals, etc.) Leni Zumas did an excellent job in constructing her story. Would HIGHLY recommend!