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The Auction
In a society where babies have become a source of government income, laws designed to push up the birth rate are enacted that strip women of the most basic of human rights: The right to choose when to have a child, the right to choose who to marry, and the right to raise her biological child.
Logical computer programmer Jane overindulges at a graduation party, winds up pregnant, and is forced to marry a near-stranger. Drama queen Angelica bets a gay guy in a bar that he couldn’t “do it with a woman.” Pregnant Angelica loses her job and the love of her life. And after 13 years of trying, Millie finally conceives, but sitting vigil at her severely injured husband’s bedside takes priority. Fifteen-year-old Wendy loves school and art, but an ex-convict breaks the glass from her window and rapes her.
Their paths cross when they are sentenced to the same pregnancy prison. But as lawmakers know, putting women together can lead to ideas. Ideas that could end the baby auction and bring down the government.
Logical computer programmer Jane overindulges at a graduation party, winds up pregnant, and is forced to marry a near-stranger. Drama queen Angelica bets a gay guy in a bar that he couldn’t “do it with a woman.” Pregnant Angelica loses her job and the love of her life. And after 13 years of trying, Millie finally conceives, but sitting vigil at her severely injured husband’s bedside takes priority. Fifteen-year-old Wendy loves school and art, but an ex-convict breaks the glass from her window and rapes her.
Their paths cross when they are sentenced to the same pregnancy prison. But as lawmakers know, putting women together can lead to ideas. Ideas that could end the baby auction and bring down the government.
504 pages, Kindle Edition
Published February 4, 2022
327 people are currently reading
1682 people want to read
About the author
Elci North
1 book22 followersOriginally, I planned to publish “The Auction” under my real name, but then the character Angelica started speaking in my head, and she has a foul mouth. There is nothing my mother hates more than the “F” word. If she knew I used curse words in a book, it would crush her. And if one of her friends read the book and mentioned the swear words to her, well, that would be my mom’s version of public humiliation.
I typically write in a vastly different genre. Readers of my other books would be shocked by The Auction. Even my son, after reading the original first fifty pages said, “Mom, if I didn’t see you sitting at your computer typing this, I would never have believed you wrote it.”
Finally, we live in a world of “woke,” and this book will offend some people in my (live not virtual) social network. I don’t want to be shunned by my community. It’s better if they have no idea I’ve ventured into an edgier genre.
So, Elci North is a figure of my imagination. In addition to being much taller than me, Elci is a risk-taker, and I am not.
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June 3, 2024
The conversation I would have with Elci North. We would be sitting at my favorite Dunkin Donuts and Elci would be sitting at the booth behind me with dark Jackie O sunglasses and a fedora and trench coat.
Me: What the unholy hell did I just read?
Elci: My novel fighting "The woke." That is why I am incognito and writing under a pseudonym. I CANNOT be canceled just because I decided the ride the wave of feminist novels, and the popularity of The Handmaid’s Tale and try and write a feminist dystopian novel. What would people think?
Me: Well I don't know what "people" will think, but I was completely disgusted and baffled by your book. What, exactly, were you trying to say with this book?
Elci: You know, vaguely political rumblings and feminist dystopia, I JUST said that like 30 seconds ago.
Me: So what is your political stance? There was Trad wife, Make America Great Again, ult-right shit which was not described in a glowing way, but you also claimed that America got into the state it was by providing everyone with free healthcare, free housing and free secondary education, which is pretty leftist sounding. But you also claimed that the rebels wanted to go back to the original Constitution, so I guess you are proposing Libertarian values?
Elci: Maybe, is that how you interpreted it?
Me: Well to be honest, I feel like I just read a book where the author was trying to sprinkle enough political doublespeak to not offend anyone, but be political enough to appeal to everyone. It CANNOT be done. Just pick a lane already!!!! At this point I try to turn around to confront the author, but they hiss "Don't you DARE!" and I stay sitting back to back with them.
Elci: "So are you saying all character and situations should be black and white? That does not seem very nuanced and understanding of you." And I can hear the condescension in their voice.
Me: Oh no you don't! I strongly believe that novels benefit from nuance and have called out several novel in my time for being too nail-on-the-head in plot development. But the political beliefs are all over the place and not well developed. If the characters say that want to go back to the original Constitution, does that mean that none of the amendments are worthy? Plus you hold Russia up as an example of a society doing it right/ Russia, really?
Elci: I needed a country, and Russia is one of the great superpowers.
Me You published this book in 2022. Do you know or even care that 15 journalist were killed in the Russian aggression against Ukraine in 2022? Makes all those statements in your book about freedom of the press sound like weak tea.
Elci I can't talk politics with you, Fake News. Woke! Woke! Woke!
Me: Ok, Lets talk about feminisms. You know that in your book the men did all the heavy lifting while the women cheered them on. Your Pregnancy Jail, felt more like pregnancy reform school, and the only reason the rebels were able to succeed, was because Angus and Angelica's dads money greased the wheels for Angus and Dave. This was feminist like the Girldefined and IBLP are.
At this point Elci gets up and walks out clutching their pearls and I sit there with a small smile on my face and quietly whisper....
My work is done.
Me: What the unholy hell did I just read?
Elci: My novel fighting "The woke." That is why I am incognito and writing under a pseudonym. I CANNOT be canceled just because I decided the ride the wave of feminist novels, and the popularity of The Handmaid’s Tale and try and write a feminist dystopian novel. What would people think?
Me: Well I don't know what "people" will think, but I was completely disgusted and baffled by your book. What, exactly, were you trying to say with this book?
Elci: You know, vaguely political rumblings and feminist dystopia, I JUST said that like 30 seconds ago.
Me: So what is your political stance? There was Trad wife, Make America Great Again, ult-right shit which was not described in a glowing way, but you also claimed that America got into the state it was by providing everyone with free healthcare, free housing and free secondary education, which is pretty leftist sounding. But you also claimed that the rebels wanted to go back to the original Constitution, so I guess you are proposing Libertarian values?
Elci: Maybe, is that how you interpreted it?
Me: Well to be honest, I feel like I just read a book where the author was trying to sprinkle enough political doublespeak to not offend anyone, but be political enough to appeal to everyone. It CANNOT be done. Just pick a lane already!!!! At this point I try to turn around to confront the author, but they hiss "Don't you DARE!" and I stay sitting back to back with them.
Elci: "So are you saying all character and situations should be black and white? That does not seem very nuanced and understanding of you." And I can hear the condescension in their voice.
Me: Oh no you don't! I strongly believe that novels benefit from nuance and have called out several novel in my time for being too nail-on-the-head in plot development. But the political beliefs are all over the place and not well developed. If the characters say that want to go back to the original Constitution, does that mean that none of the amendments are worthy? Plus you hold Russia up as an example of a society doing it right/ Russia, really?
Elci: I needed a country, and Russia is one of the great superpowers.
Me You published this book in 2022. Do you know or even care that 15 journalist were killed in the Russian aggression against Ukraine in 2022? Makes all those statements in your book about freedom of the press sound like weak tea.
Elci I can't talk politics with you, Fake News. Woke! Woke! Woke!
Me: Ok, Lets talk about feminisms. You know that in your book the men did all the heavy lifting while the women cheered them on. Your Pregnancy Jail, felt more like pregnancy reform school, and the only reason the rebels were able to succeed, was because Angus and Angelica's dads money greased the wheels for Angus and Dave. This was feminist like the Girldefined and IBLP are.
At this point Elci gets up and walks out clutching their pearls and I sit there with a small smile on my face and quietly whisper....
My work is done.
July 29, 2022
Read Full & Detailed review: https://cynthology.blogspot.com/2022/...
The way to hell is paved with good intentions, they say. Where does the way paved with bad intentions and totalitarian control lead? Dystopia, for sure.
Jane, a student of software engineering at the University of Pittsburgh, gets drunk and sleeps with her classmate Dave Stowe and gets pregnant. Now in her second trimester, they are married, but Jane does not love him. Angelica dares gay Eric to do it with a woman and gets pregnant. Visually impaired Millie and her husband, Jason, are pregnant after 13 years of marriage and a number of miscarriages. Wendy, a 15-year-old schoolgirl, is pregnant after being raped by a psycho who breaks into her room while she is asleep and rapes her while holding a knife to her throat. She is constantly raped and tortured by her husband.
According to the law, women must marry the biological father of the child they are carrying. But Angelica doesn’t want to marry Eric. She wants to marry Angus, a rich lawyer who she loves.
The law also says that a mother may not study or work until her child turns 18. Also, couples must give up the child they bear to the government and must bid for and buy a child from the government-run auction. These laws, enforced by the Office of Reproductive Oversight, have been passed by President Boyce, who wants to bring back the Second Halcyon Days, similar to the 1950s and early 1960s.
Jane works on a secret project for her husband’s department. Angelica, who routinely uses drugs, pays Jane to buy her clean urine. When Jason meets with an accident, Millie is deemed unfit to live alone. Wendy’s husband is arrested for breaking the rules of his parole, and she has nowhere to go.
All four of them are sent to McKee Place, a jail for pregnant women who have broken the law or have no family member to care for them. But what the government doesn’t know is that the women may be bringing about a revolution.
The book is set in America in the future. The exact year isn’t clear, but it is after 2166. Each chapter in the book consists of first person past tense PoVs of Jane, Angelica, Millie and Wendy, in that order. The portions that are in the PoV of Wendy and those that relate to Jocelyn, another young girl, who is pregnant, in particular, make for disturbing reading.
The main narrative is interspersed with Flash Newsbriefs relating to political policies and the consequences they lead to. These are at first interesting, as the consequences of women withdrawing from the labour force mean labour shortages. But then the effect peters out, when there is more of the same.
The prison doesn’t feel like a prison at all. The women call it a “spa by the river” in a mocking tone, but the way they behave, it does appear as if they are on vacation. The menace exuded by the Office of Reproductive Oversight is not really felt. President Boyce who calls the shots doesn’t have an active role, beyond the Flash News Briefs, giving him an insubstantial air.
For a novel set in dystopia, we never get the impression of the characters being in danger ever. Even the Office of Reproductive Oversight is a silly little thing, getting flummoxed when two women tell them their appeal committee is invalid.
There were a lot of spelling errors in the copy. For instance, one of the characters talks about feeling ‘self-conscience’, rather than ‘self-conscious.’
There is altogether too much dialogue about banal, ordinary things. There is a lot of repetition with characters repeating their stories to different people in different words.
Towards the end, the book becomes increasingly more unconvincing as if the author just wanted to get the book done. The entire plan to take down the auction is propped on such a flimsy base as to be almost laughable. If the author had put some details about how Jane intended to hack the system etc, it would have helped. But all we get is that there are a lot of hackers in Russia, and Jane can’t explain things because her friends won’t understand. The hacking sounds like a ridiculously easy solution.
Also, the shipping of contraband books about the real history of the US happens easily, facing no objection from the authorities. The parts which Jane reads and explains are tedious.
The constant references to Angus’ sexiness and his perfection lose their novelty soon enough, but the characters don’t stop talking about it.
Millie’s heightened, almost superhuman, sense of smell should have been integrated into the plot, rather than being just an attribute of hers, used to tell the others about when meat is rancid. For a while, I hoped she might solve the mystery about whoever died in the room. But that didn’t happen either.
The arc of many of the characters is left incomplete. We learn nothing about the babies that the women give birth to. For all their grief about Wendy, they don’t seem to care as much about her child.
For a story that claims to be about women’s empowerment, the women get rescued by the men for the most part. It is Angus’ money that seems to buy a lot of concessions for them even in the prison.
The only reason Wendy has to die is because there is no loving male in her life. Otherwise, her depression isn’t very convincing.
There is no explanation for why Dave and Angus don’t believe the government’s propaganda, considering that the government has been spreading it for nearly a century. Also, why Angelica’s father and Angus are willing to spend their own money to bring down the government without any political motivation? Angus claims to want to bring down a system that denigrates women and yet he too hopes that his baby is a boy.
At one point, Wendy goes into a high-security floor of the prison where prisoners, deemed to be flight risks, are incarcerated in solitary confinement. Yet she escapes from there, and the author doesn’t tell us how.
The book is set more than 100 years into the future, but there is no mention of newer technology. Granted that communication technologies are deliberately kept low-key by the government, even the surveillance technology is exactly as we know it is in the present time. Even medical technology seems to be at today’s level. Dave returns from Russia, and says, they have made amazing advances with virtual reality. Bah! Virtual reality is already making waves today. Over 150 years later, you have nothing to add about the technology. The author has set the book in the future, but not created any setting in terms of time and socio-economic conditions prevalent.
Many of the readers compared this book to The Handmaid, but for me, this book was far from impactful. That was partly to do with the less-than-forceful plot resolution, and also with the fact that we in India are descending into a dystopia that is far worse than anything found in these pages. Being forced to marry somebody we don’t love is already a reality for many women around the world.
The way to hell is paved with good intentions, they say. Where does the way paved with bad intentions and totalitarian control lead? Dystopia, for sure.
Jane, a student of software engineering at the University of Pittsburgh, gets drunk and sleeps with her classmate Dave Stowe and gets pregnant. Now in her second trimester, they are married, but Jane does not love him. Angelica dares gay Eric to do it with a woman and gets pregnant. Visually impaired Millie and her husband, Jason, are pregnant after 13 years of marriage and a number of miscarriages. Wendy, a 15-year-old schoolgirl, is pregnant after being raped by a psycho who breaks into her room while she is asleep and rapes her while holding a knife to her throat. She is constantly raped and tortured by her husband.
According to the law, women must marry the biological father of the child they are carrying. But Angelica doesn’t want to marry Eric. She wants to marry Angus, a rich lawyer who she loves.
The law also says that a mother may not study or work until her child turns 18. Also, couples must give up the child they bear to the government and must bid for and buy a child from the government-run auction. These laws, enforced by the Office of Reproductive Oversight, have been passed by President Boyce, who wants to bring back the Second Halcyon Days, similar to the 1950s and early 1960s.
Jane works on a secret project for her husband’s department. Angelica, who routinely uses drugs, pays Jane to buy her clean urine. When Jason meets with an accident, Millie is deemed unfit to live alone. Wendy’s husband is arrested for breaking the rules of his parole, and she has nowhere to go.
All four of them are sent to McKee Place, a jail for pregnant women who have broken the law or have no family member to care for them. But what the government doesn’t know is that the women may be bringing about a revolution.
The book is set in America in the future. The exact year isn’t clear, but it is after 2166. Each chapter in the book consists of first person past tense PoVs of Jane, Angelica, Millie and Wendy, in that order. The portions that are in the PoV of Wendy and those that relate to Jocelyn, another young girl, who is pregnant, in particular, make for disturbing reading.
The main narrative is interspersed with Flash Newsbriefs relating to political policies and the consequences they lead to. These are at first interesting, as the consequences of women withdrawing from the labour force mean labour shortages. But then the effect peters out, when there is more of the same.
The prison doesn’t feel like a prison at all. The women call it a “spa by the river” in a mocking tone, but the way they behave, it does appear as if they are on vacation. The menace exuded by the Office of Reproductive Oversight is not really felt. President Boyce who calls the shots doesn’t have an active role, beyond the Flash News Briefs, giving him an insubstantial air.
For a novel set in dystopia, we never get the impression of the characters being in danger ever. Even the Office of Reproductive Oversight is a silly little thing, getting flummoxed when two women tell them their appeal committee is invalid.
There were a lot of spelling errors in the copy. For instance, one of the characters talks about feeling ‘self-conscience’, rather than ‘self-conscious.’
There is altogether too much dialogue about banal, ordinary things. There is a lot of repetition with characters repeating their stories to different people in different words.
Towards the end, the book becomes increasingly more unconvincing as if the author just wanted to get the book done. The entire plan to take down the auction is propped on such a flimsy base as to be almost laughable. If the author had put some details about how Jane intended to hack the system etc, it would have helped. But all we get is that there are a lot of hackers in Russia, and Jane can’t explain things because her friends won’t understand. The hacking sounds like a ridiculously easy solution.
Also, the shipping of contraband books about the real history of the US happens easily, facing no objection from the authorities. The parts which Jane reads and explains are tedious.
The constant references to Angus’ sexiness and his perfection lose their novelty soon enough, but the characters don’t stop talking about it.
Millie’s heightened, almost superhuman, sense of smell should have been integrated into the plot, rather than being just an attribute of hers, used to tell the others about when meat is rancid. For a while, I hoped she might solve the mystery about whoever died in the room. But that didn’t happen either.
The arc of many of the characters is left incomplete. We learn nothing about the babies that the women give birth to. For all their grief about Wendy, they don’t seem to care as much about her child.
For a story that claims to be about women’s empowerment, the women get rescued by the men for the most part. It is Angus’ money that seems to buy a lot of concessions for them even in the prison.
The only reason Wendy has to die is because there is no loving male in her life. Otherwise, her depression isn’t very convincing.
There is no explanation for why Dave and Angus don’t believe the government’s propaganda, considering that the government has been spreading it for nearly a century. Also, why Angelica’s father and Angus are willing to spend their own money to bring down the government without any political motivation? Angus claims to want to bring down a system that denigrates women and yet he too hopes that his baby is a boy.
At one point, Wendy goes into a high-security floor of the prison where prisoners, deemed to be flight risks, are incarcerated in solitary confinement. Yet she escapes from there, and the author doesn’t tell us how.
The book is set more than 100 years into the future, but there is no mention of newer technology. Granted that communication technologies are deliberately kept low-key by the government, even the surveillance technology is exactly as we know it is in the present time. Even medical technology seems to be at today’s level. Dave returns from Russia, and says, they have made amazing advances with virtual reality. Bah! Virtual reality is already making waves today. Over 150 years later, you have nothing to add about the technology. The author has set the book in the future, but not created any setting in terms of time and socio-economic conditions prevalent.
Many of the readers compared this book to The Handmaid, but for me, this book was far from impactful. That was partly to do with the less-than-forceful plot resolution, and also with the fact that we in India are descending into a dystopia that is far worse than anything found in these pages. Being forced to marry somebody we don’t love is already a reality for many women around the world.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 16, 2022
It was the image on the cover that first drew my attention to this book. The image of the pregnant woman behind bars is certainly a compelling one. Then once I read the blurb, I knew that I absolutely had to read it.
Sadly, the society within the book is not all that unbelievable when you look around and read the news articles right now from different parts of the world. The society is run by men and of course this means that the world is angled and in favour of the male race. The government is made up of men too, the head of which is President Boyce. President Boyce’s ideal, that he pushes everyone to strive to is his vision of the “Halcyon Days” basically what the male government see as the “good old days.” His good old days consist of the women at home having babies, doing all the housework, with a pretty dress, face full of makeup and dinner ready on the table when the bread winner husband arrives home from work. The government and their vision of the Halcyon Days is an extremely discriminatory one. When it becomes apparent that the government needs more money for the running of the country, they begin to use babies as a source of income. A system is created where families “give a baby, and, take a baby” When pregnant women have their children, they leave their baby at the hospital. Most of the time they don’t even see or hold their own baby. This procedure is referred to as “giving a baby.” Later the babies are put up for auction. This is the other part of the procedure “taking a child.” There is a set minimum bid amount, that all babies make. If the parents that give a child are poor, they are given a loan, a “Family Development Loan” which is “offered” or rather “given” by the Office Of Reproductive Oversight. This loan is for an 18 year term which is free of interest for just the first 6 months. If the baby you give up is sold for over $35,000 the parents receive 2% of that amount.
Women are really not allowed to work unless they meet very specific criteria, which are, that they have completed the menopause, are sterile or carry a severe genetic disorder which would mean the baby would be a burden of the health & welfare and cost the government money. In other words, they cannot have any/any more babies! There are only a few jobs women are permitted to do and those are not influential positions. Women are not allowed to own a business at all. Even when women are “conforming” and are pregnant they have to keep up certain conditions and have regular checks whilst pregnant. If the government think the women is in contempt of any rules and/or is not caring for her unborn baby, the woman will have to go to a Home for Pregnant Women or as they are referred to by the normal population as “pregnancy prison.” Women also have to marry the biological father of their baby, or if they are not available, a male member of the biological father’s family. There are no excuses for not marrying the biological father of your baby. Even the word “Rape” is literally outlawed. President Boyce and his government simply do not recognise rape, there is no such thing, it is the fault of the women, she led the man on past his point of control, so it is all her own fault! The government is also very prejudiced against any other sort of disability on one level, such as those disabled have to prove they can live independent lives to be allowed to get married. If they cannot prove this then they must remain with their parents until their parents die and then they are put in an institution and are not allowed to marry or procreate. Yet when it comes to the auction and the whole “giving a child and taking a child” all parents are informed is that all children are lovable, that there is no such thing as “maternal instinct” women can and will love which ever baby they buy and bring home form the auction. Those who have access to plenty of money can afford to purchase not only a fit & healthy child but one that has certain genetic markers they find appealing too. Those with little money have to buy the less healthy, perhaps disabled babies that are left until last that no one else wants. They then have to care for that child for the rest of their life and that of the child. The government also stresses that there is no such thing as maternal instinct, so parents should accept whichever child they purchase at the auction and love and care for it as much as if it were the baby they created.
The government has been run a long time by President Boyce, others have tried to topple him and all have failed but there is a new candidate now, a woman called Wilma Harding the head of the Traditionalist party.
The book gives some background of the very different main female characters of, Jane, Angelica, Millie, Wendy. Soon they all have one thing in common, for different reasons, they are all sent to “pregnancy prison.” The book reveals their different stories of becoming pregnant, Millie who is blind and very much in love with her husband, Jason, and they have been trying for years to have a baby. Wendy a young teen who hasn’t even finished school who was in bed one night and a man broke into her home, through her bedroom window and raped her, she became pregnant and had to marry the biological father of her baby. Each women had a different tale. They each followed a different path, to how they ended up being pregnant. The women in the McKee Home For Pregnant Women have restricted access to the telephone and also limited visiting hours for their partners or loved ones to come and see them. None of the women are happy to be in the home except Wendy who is relieved to be away from her “psycho husband” as she refers to him. Angelica has a boyfriend, Angus who happens to be a top lawyer, Jane’s husband, Dave, is a computer whizz, Millie’s visitor is neighbour Beverley, and these are the only contacts the women have with the outside world. Angus, Dave and Beverley put their heads together initially just to get the women out of “pregnancy prison” and then set their sights even bigger, they want to bring the whole system of “The Auction” down.
I could honestly go on and on telling you even more about the book and I probably seem like I have revealed a lot already but there is so much more to the book too. The intricacies of each womans background, how they became pregnant, how they ended up in pregnancy prison, what they want from their future etc. Then of course there are secondary characters and their stories too. The world building is brilliantly done, it is so believable, and so skewed against women, you end up hating President Boyce as much as Jane, Millie, Angelica & Wendy do! There is still quite a bit of humour in the book, such as the description of the director of the pregnancy prison, Candy and her hair that literally has you visualising this ditzy, petty, candy floss haired women who thinks she is superior to these women. As well as the women’s stories being told there are “Flash News Brief” pages between the chapters up dating you on what is happening within the world, outside of the pregnancy prison.
My immediate thoughts upon finishing the book were Oh Wow! How very eerily believable with how our world is currently seeming to go backwards on women’s rights!
Summing up I loved this book, and it was quite funny that I was watching Handmaids Tale which also has the theme of men being in charge, and women being oppressed as well as similar themes. There was just one thing missing for me at the end, maybe a bit of a loose end, which obviously I cannot really go into, but I will just say it was regarding the character called Wendy, apart from that it was a really great read! I will certainly be keeping my eyes open for other books by this author.
Sadly, the society within the book is not all that unbelievable when you look around and read the news articles right now from different parts of the world. The society is run by men and of course this means that the world is angled and in favour of the male race. The government is made up of men too, the head of which is President Boyce. President Boyce’s ideal, that he pushes everyone to strive to is his vision of the “Halcyon Days” basically what the male government see as the “good old days.” His good old days consist of the women at home having babies, doing all the housework, with a pretty dress, face full of makeup and dinner ready on the table when the bread winner husband arrives home from work. The government and their vision of the Halcyon Days is an extremely discriminatory one. When it becomes apparent that the government needs more money for the running of the country, they begin to use babies as a source of income. A system is created where families “give a baby, and, take a baby” When pregnant women have their children, they leave their baby at the hospital. Most of the time they don’t even see or hold their own baby. This procedure is referred to as “giving a baby.” Later the babies are put up for auction. This is the other part of the procedure “taking a child.” There is a set minimum bid amount, that all babies make. If the parents that give a child are poor, they are given a loan, a “Family Development Loan” which is “offered” or rather “given” by the Office Of Reproductive Oversight. This loan is for an 18 year term which is free of interest for just the first 6 months. If the baby you give up is sold for over $35,000 the parents receive 2% of that amount.
Women are really not allowed to work unless they meet very specific criteria, which are, that they have completed the menopause, are sterile or carry a severe genetic disorder which would mean the baby would be a burden of the health & welfare and cost the government money. In other words, they cannot have any/any more babies! There are only a few jobs women are permitted to do and those are not influential positions. Women are not allowed to own a business at all. Even when women are “conforming” and are pregnant they have to keep up certain conditions and have regular checks whilst pregnant. If the government think the women is in contempt of any rules and/or is not caring for her unborn baby, the woman will have to go to a Home for Pregnant Women or as they are referred to by the normal population as “pregnancy prison.” Women also have to marry the biological father of their baby, or if they are not available, a male member of the biological father’s family. There are no excuses for not marrying the biological father of your baby. Even the word “Rape” is literally outlawed. President Boyce and his government simply do not recognise rape, there is no such thing, it is the fault of the women, she led the man on past his point of control, so it is all her own fault! The government is also very prejudiced against any other sort of disability on one level, such as those disabled have to prove they can live independent lives to be allowed to get married. If they cannot prove this then they must remain with their parents until their parents die and then they are put in an institution and are not allowed to marry or procreate. Yet when it comes to the auction and the whole “giving a child and taking a child” all parents are informed is that all children are lovable, that there is no such thing as “maternal instinct” women can and will love which ever baby they buy and bring home form the auction. Those who have access to plenty of money can afford to purchase not only a fit & healthy child but one that has certain genetic markers they find appealing too. Those with little money have to buy the less healthy, perhaps disabled babies that are left until last that no one else wants. They then have to care for that child for the rest of their life and that of the child. The government also stresses that there is no such thing as maternal instinct, so parents should accept whichever child they purchase at the auction and love and care for it as much as if it were the baby they created.
The government has been run a long time by President Boyce, others have tried to topple him and all have failed but there is a new candidate now, a woman called Wilma Harding the head of the Traditionalist party.
The book gives some background of the very different main female characters of, Jane, Angelica, Millie, Wendy. Soon they all have one thing in common, for different reasons, they are all sent to “pregnancy prison.” The book reveals their different stories of becoming pregnant, Millie who is blind and very much in love with her husband, Jason, and they have been trying for years to have a baby. Wendy a young teen who hasn’t even finished school who was in bed one night and a man broke into her home, through her bedroom window and raped her, she became pregnant and had to marry the biological father of her baby. Each women had a different tale. They each followed a different path, to how they ended up being pregnant. The women in the McKee Home For Pregnant Women have restricted access to the telephone and also limited visiting hours for their partners or loved ones to come and see them. None of the women are happy to be in the home except Wendy who is relieved to be away from her “psycho husband” as she refers to him. Angelica has a boyfriend, Angus who happens to be a top lawyer, Jane’s husband, Dave, is a computer whizz, Millie’s visitor is neighbour Beverley, and these are the only contacts the women have with the outside world. Angus, Dave and Beverley put their heads together initially just to get the women out of “pregnancy prison” and then set their sights even bigger, they want to bring the whole system of “The Auction” down.
I could honestly go on and on telling you even more about the book and I probably seem like I have revealed a lot already but there is so much more to the book too. The intricacies of each womans background, how they became pregnant, how they ended up in pregnancy prison, what they want from their future etc. Then of course there are secondary characters and their stories too. The world building is brilliantly done, it is so believable, and so skewed against women, you end up hating President Boyce as much as Jane, Millie, Angelica & Wendy do! There is still quite a bit of humour in the book, such as the description of the director of the pregnancy prison, Candy and her hair that literally has you visualising this ditzy, petty, candy floss haired women who thinks she is superior to these women. As well as the women’s stories being told there are “Flash News Brief” pages between the chapters up dating you on what is happening within the world, outside of the pregnancy prison.
My immediate thoughts upon finishing the book were Oh Wow! How very eerily believable with how our world is currently seeming to go backwards on women’s rights!
Summing up I loved this book, and it was quite funny that I was watching Handmaids Tale which also has the theme of men being in charge, and women being oppressed as well as similar themes. There was just one thing missing for me at the end, maybe a bit of a loose end, which obviously I cannot really go into, but I will just say it was regarding the character called Wendy, apart from that it was a really great read! I will certainly be keeping my eyes open for other books by this author.
May 27, 2022
Love The Handmaid's Tale? This is a great standalone novel for you!!
I'm not much for dystopian literature usually - but The Auction was so well written!! And you get to see the women reclaim their lives/power/faith in humanity I suppose? By the end of this book, I felt like I learned a lot about myself and how I would handle things!
An introspective read is always great to include amidst the romance and fantasy!
I'm not much for dystopian literature usually - but The Auction was so well written!! And you get to see the women reclaim their lives/power/faith in humanity I suppose? By the end of this book, I felt like I learned a lot about myself and how I would handle things!
An introspective read is always great to include amidst the romance and fantasy!
June 4, 2022
Thank you to NetGalley, Elci North and the publisher for the copy of The Auction. This is a dystopian novel about women with NO rights, forced into both and marriage with extremely strong/tough laws on what women can and cannot do with their bodies while pregnant, it’s in the POV of 4 different women (well I wouldn’t consider Millie a woman she’s quite literally a child) all pregnant with extremely different circumstances.
First off, reading this book made me SICK. With everything going on in the world right now this dystopian novel truly was a hard read for me, but I LOVED it. Seeing Millie, Angelica, Jane and Wendy all end up in the same place despite their back stories and becoming friends made my heart happy. Angelica’s character development was amazing, watching her go from a rich snob to a caring character meant the world to me. I loved watching Jane fall in love with her husband despite their situation, her character was the most relatable to me. I love Dave and Angus, wow what great make characters!! My only fault is the repetition of the girls backstories, I understand every time they’re introduced to another character they share their story but did the author really have to type it out 10 times? We get it Millie was raped, Wendy is blind, Angelica is rich and Jane is smart. Overall I really enjoyed this book, 3.5 stars rounded up to 4
First off, reading this book made me SICK. With everything going on in the world right now this dystopian novel truly was a hard read for me, but I LOVED it. Seeing Millie, Angelica, Jane and Wendy all end up in the same place despite their back stories and becoming friends made my heart happy. Angelica’s character development was amazing, watching her go from a rich snob to a caring character meant the world to me. I loved watching Jane fall in love with her husband despite their situation, her character was the most relatable to me. I love Dave and Angus, wow what great make characters!! My only fault is the repetition of the girls backstories, I understand every time they’re introduced to another character they share their story but did the author really have to type it out 10 times? We get it Millie was raped, Wendy is blind, Angelica is rich and Jane is smart. Overall I really enjoyed this book, 3.5 stars rounded up to 4
May 3, 2022
Writer Elci North is a woman with a vision—one that should scare us all. In this book, women don’t get to keep their own babies; they’re sold-off to the highest bidder, with the proceeds going to taxes. It’s a cautionary tale of what can happen when women are undervalued and governments will do anything to generate income. Without giving spoilers, the concept is brilliant, reminding us to pay more attention to the people who are controlling our lives, our information, and our decision-making. What I love most about this story is that once women are brought together—by the very forces that are trying to hold them down—they converge and find ways to overcome their circumstances, finally creating a better future for themselves. North’s characters are finely drawn: they’re strong, funny, and fiercely loyal to each other. I rooted for them all the way.
January 3, 2023
DNF at 60%. I tried this, I did, but I could not get into it. I can't tell if it wants to be a conservative Ra Ra capitalism book or a feminist manifesto, but it falls flat.. The problems in the US are directly caused because, at one point, the government decides to provide free healthcare to all people. That led to a decline in birth and women being treated like cattle. And for a feminist book, it seemed like the women did very little, and the "good men" are the ones who did the fixing. It may improve, but I doubt it, and I have no genuine desire to finish this book.
May 10, 2022
Absolutely gritty and real! In an age where a woman’s reproductive rights are under threat, this story tells what could happen, how the loss of one right can start a slippery slope to lose much more.
October 16, 2025
I thoroughly enjoyed the dystopian storyline of a future America where society is brainwashed to purchase a baby from “the Auction”. The four women’s’ stories were beautifully woven together to show the differences of how people can become pregnant and how it can impact their lives. The author also did an excellent job of creating the mental psyche for a person who is raised in this type of environment and how “foreign” concepts can be. For a dystopian novel, this is not packed with action or considered a thriller, which I appreciated (I have enough anxiety as it is lol).
Super happy to have supported a self published author and I appreciate the time the author took to put this story together. That being said, there are a few grammatical errors and inconsistencies throughout the novel; I overlooked those but fyi if that is something that bothers you. Also some of the side stories (or side “quests”) were a little illogical to me… regardless, I did enjoy the book and didn’t want to put it down.
Super happy to have supported a self published author and I appreciate the time the author took to put this story together. That being said, there are a few grammatical errors and inconsistencies throughout the novel; I overlooked those but fyi if that is something that bothers you. Also some of the side stories (or side “quests”) were a little illogical to me… regardless, I did enjoy the book and didn’t want to put it down.
October 15, 2024
This book started with a good idea, and then it got worse and worse, and worse. In the book, babies have become a source of government income. A bunch of laws have been implemented to increase the birth rate, such as banning birth control, banning higher education for women, banning abortion, legalizing rape, and forcing women to marry the father of their child no matter the circumstances. When a child is born, it's put up for auction with other babies born around the same time. Every mother is then forced to buy a child from the lot, the more perfect the baby, the more money it's worth. The money then funds the government.
This book has nothing going for it, except for the concept. The book's best part was the last 25 pages or so, when the uprising starts. However, the writing makes it feel like a bad fanfiction. The dialogue is awkward and unnatural. All the necessary information is dumped on the reader in random dialogues, with no room for implicit writing. The characters are flat or are reduced to a single characteristic. Jane is smart and tech-savvy, Angelica is a bitch with an attitude, Millie is blind, and Wendy is angry. Angus is too hot for his own good, and Dave is... kind? I honestly lack words to describe how poorly the book is written.
This book has nothing going for it, except for the concept. The book's best part was the last 25 pages or so, when the uprising starts. However, the writing makes it feel like a bad fanfiction. The dialogue is awkward and unnatural. All the necessary information is dumped on the reader in random dialogues, with no room for implicit writing. The characters are flat or are reduced to a single characteristic. Jane is smart and tech-savvy, Angelica is a bitch with an attitude, Millie is blind, and Wendy is angry. Angus is too hot for his own good, and Dave is... kind? I honestly lack words to describe how poorly the book is written.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 5, 2022
I just reviewed The Auction by Elci North. #TheAuction #NetGalley
Genre: thriller
Synopsis: in this futuristic nation, children are the governments income. And it does not matter if the child you birth is yours, you have to auction to get that child.
What a ride! This dystopian novel will have you questioning the future of humanity. I could not put this book down. And I can honestly say that I have not read anything like this before.
The Auction takes place in the United States, where the country is trying to convert back to the Halycon days. During this time, women are wanted for reproduction purposes. Birth control is illegal and once a woman is pregnant, she must quit her job and raise her child. Also, if she isn’t already, she has to marry the father (after a paternity test to confirm). She must also cook, clean, and be ready to care for her spouse when he returns home from work.
That’s not the worst part. Once the child is born, they are placed up for auction, and the highest bidder takes the prize. So even if you love your spouse and create a child together, you have to put them in the auction and hope you can afford to purchase your own baby.
Genre: thriller
Synopsis: in this futuristic nation, children are the governments income. And it does not matter if the child you birth is yours, you have to auction to get that child.
What a ride! This dystopian novel will have you questioning the future of humanity. I could not put this book down. And I can honestly say that I have not read anything like this before.
The Auction takes place in the United States, where the country is trying to convert back to the Halycon days. During this time, women are wanted for reproduction purposes. Birth control is illegal and once a woman is pregnant, she must quit her job and raise her child. Also, if she isn’t already, she has to marry the father (after a paternity test to confirm). She must also cook, clean, and be ready to care for her spouse when he returns home from work.
That’s not the worst part. Once the child is born, they are placed up for auction, and the highest bidder takes the prize. So even if you love your spouse and create a child together, you have to put them in the auction and hope you can afford to purchase your own baby.
March 14, 2025
After sitting on this, I need to redo my review. It was good and generally the messaging was there, but there was no need to blame basic human rights like universal healthcare for misogyny. Also, there’s just simply no shot that a majority of men are voting to free women from an oppressive system (I’m a pessimist, what can I say). Additionally, there’s no shot that such dramatic changes would be made within a few weeks. It’s just not possible.
June 11, 2022
I finished this book yesterday and I have been trying to come up with the words to describe and review it, and after 24-hours the main word that comes to mind is still wow.
Elci North's The Auction, takes us approximately 150 years into the future of the United States. It is an America that most would not recognize, but also a future that is so terrifyingly possible. American citizen's have been stripped of their rights, women more than men. The US constitution has been abolished as has the ADA. The US Government controls the media, access to the internet requires special permissions and is highly monitored. Women are only allowed to work approved jobs, if they become pregnant it is illegal for them to work. Birth control is illegal, rape is a myth and is always the woman's fault for enticing the man beyond his control. When a woman becomes pregnant, she must marry the man you got her pregnant regardless of how she got pregnant, and she must remain married to him until the child turns 18 or in the case that child get pregnant and marries. If all of that was not bad enough, the American people have been brainwashed into believing in The Auction. Babies are taken from the birth mothers immediately, before they can see them or hear them cry. Once a month The Auction is held. The babies have undergone genetic testing for personality, predisposition of certain traits, intelligence, defects, and disabilities. The wealthy are able to buy designer babies, while the poor get what is left. The minimum bid at auction is $5k and if a couple cannot afford that, they most take out a family loan and pay it back at about 3-4x the amount over 18 years. If a woman breaks the law while pregnant, she goes to pregnancy prison to be monitored and make sure that the baby is brought safely into the world.
It was at that 16% mark that I started recommending this book in all of my reading groups. The four main characters are written and developed so well. Their stories are all so different, yet the same because they are all pregnant women in this misogynistic society. Prior to the 16% mark, I felt like this book was important. It was not one of those books that would fill you with warm fuzzies, or cause you to laugh for hours. It will not keep you on the edge of your eat waiting for the next twist. It is not an epic adventure to go on. It is one that will stick with you. I have put out a call to any and all of my reader friends crossing my fingers that some will read this and discuss it with me.
To say I love this book or that this is a good book sounds terrible. The material is hard. It is dark. There are MANY trigger/content warnings (readers sensitive to certain content should be cautious when picking this one up). However, I would be lying if I did not say that this may be one of the most important reads I have read. Elci North beautifully told this story and I cannot thank her enough for that, but man if she is not going to keep me up wondering who she is and what her normal genre books are, wondering if I have read them and experienced her voice before.
Elci North's The Auction, takes us approximately 150 years into the future of the United States. It is an America that most would not recognize, but also a future that is so terrifyingly possible. American citizen's have been stripped of their rights, women more than men. The US constitution has been abolished as has the ADA. The US Government controls the media, access to the internet requires special permissions and is highly monitored. Women are only allowed to work approved jobs, if they become pregnant it is illegal for them to work. Birth control is illegal, rape is a myth and is always the woman's fault for enticing the man beyond his control. When a woman becomes pregnant, she must marry the man you got her pregnant regardless of how she got pregnant, and she must remain married to him until the child turns 18 or in the case that child get pregnant and marries. If all of that was not bad enough, the American people have been brainwashed into believing in The Auction. Babies are taken from the birth mothers immediately, before they can see them or hear them cry. Once a month The Auction is held. The babies have undergone genetic testing for personality, predisposition of certain traits, intelligence, defects, and disabilities. The wealthy are able to buy designer babies, while the poor get what is left. The minimum bid at auction is $5k and if a couple cannot afford that, they most take out a family loan and pay it back at about 3-4x the amount over 18 years. If a woman breaks the law while pregnant, she goes to pregnancy prison to be monitored and make sure that the baby is brought safely into the world.
It was at that 16% mark that I started recommending this book in all of my reading groups. The four main characters are written and developed so well. Their stories are all so different, yet the same because they are all pregnant women in this misogynistic society. Prior to the 16% mark, I felt like this book was important. It was not one of those books that would fill you with warm fuzzies, or cause you to laugh for hours. It will not keep you on the edge of your eat waiting for the next twist. It is not an epic adventure to go on. It is one that will stick with you. I have put out a call to any and all of my reader friends crossing my fingers that some will read this and discuss it with me.
To say I love this book or that this is a good book sounds terrible. The material is hard. It is dark. There are MANY trigger/content warnings (readers sensitive to certain content should be cautious when picking this one up). However, I would be lying if I did not say that this may be one of the most important reads I have read. Elci North beautifully told this story and I cannot thank her enough for that, but man if she is not going to keep me up wondering who she is and what her normal genre books are, wondering if I have read them and experienced her voice before.
June 7, 2022
3.5 stars i wanted to give it 4 but the last 20% of the book were really hard to get through without complaining.
MAJOR SPOILERS WARNING!!!
The first 50% of the book were a breeze, I was impatient to get all the answers swimming in my head and even though I did get all the answers but I took major issues to a lot of the things. First was the character pf Wendy. She was superbly done but the ending did that seriously need to happen and also we were never told what happened to the baby? Angelica was talking about adopting Wendy and her baby throughout but at the the end their is no mention of the baby. They started a business called Wendy’s Heart and yet no one cared to even check on the baby??
As for her friend Jocelyn she was just mentioned for the shocking factor and add to all the things that were wrong with the country.
The ending felt rushed and all planning was done by ‘The guys’ and the women were never really exactly what they were doing. If so much was wrong with the country how come there were no revolutionary groups? Wilma the presidential candidate and her traditional party were mentioned in the flash news brief but that wasn’t enough.
Even with all the issues I still enjoyed the book and finished it in 2 days.
I received the ARC from NETGALLEY in exchange for an honest review.
MAJOR SPOILERS WARNING!!!
The first 50% of the book were a breeze, I was impatient to get all the answers swimming in my head and even though I did get all the answers but I took major issues to a lot of the things. First was the character pf Wendy. She was superbly done but the ending did that seriously need to happen and also we were never told what happened to the baby? Angelica was talking about adopting Wendy and her baby throughout but at the the end their is no mention of the baby. They started a business called Wendy’s Heart and yet no one cared to even check on the baby??
As for her friend Jocelyn she was just mentioned for the shocking factor and add to all the things that were wrong with the country.
The ending felt rushed and all planning was done by ‘The guys’ and the women were never really exactly what they were doing. If so much was wrong with the country how come there were no revolutionary groups? Wilma the presidential candidate and her traditional party were mentioned in the flash news brief but that wasn’t enough.
Even with all the issues I still enjoyed the book and finished it in 2 days.
I received the ARC from NETGALLEY in exchange for an honest review.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 25, 2022
A MUST READ FOR ALL!!!
WOW!! This book had me hooked from the start. This is a book that everyone should read. It may be a work of fiction but it shows the possibility of where things can progress to if we let it.
I received an ARC and this is my unbiased opinion
WOW!! This book had me hooked from the start. This is a book that everyone should read. It may be a work of fiction but it shows the possibility of where things can progress to if we let it.
I received an ARC and this is my unbiased opinion
June 18, 2022
I was drawn in from page one. A great read.
May 22, 2022
Uhmmm this was a great read with a really difficult theme to swallow, basically women do not have rights, rape doesn’t exist, even other women are biased in thinking that rape doesn’t exist, and women are forced to get married to the father of the baby, also women cant work before the child is 18 years old, so there’s no real need for women to study and for each baby you need to pay at least 5000 dollars, and to make things worse, couples need to bring a baby to the auction but they don’t leave with their baby, yeah everything feels wrong with the auction, worse even is that a man that has lost his wife he is not allowed to raise his son/daughter because only a couple is allowed that… do you feel horrified already?
This book follows the lives of 4 of these women and the men in their lives, and believe me this book will shook you, you’ll be sad, you’ll feel hope and want them to be happy, you’ll hate some characters with passion, and others you just wish you could meet them in real life, and in the end you’ll be left with the feeling that if even people that live in such a dystopic world could still fight, then there’s still hope for us.
I highly recommend this book, even if it is hard for you to read, read it, take your time, is worth the ride.
Thank you NetGalley for the free ARC and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
This book follows the lives of 4 of these women and the men in their lives, and believe me this book will shook you, you’ll be sad, you’ll feel hope and want them to be happy, you’ll hate some characters with passion, and others you just wish you could meet them in real life, and in the end you’ll be left with the feeling that if even people that live in such a dystopic world could still fight, then there’s still hope for us.
I highly recommend this book, even if it is hard for you to read, read it, take your time, is worth the ride.
Thank you NetGalley for the free ARC and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
June 1, 2022
I loved this book. I was enthralled the entire time I read. It made me feel like The Future Home of the Living God, and The Handmaids Tale made me feel.
There is a this Sociological or Philosophical theory that you can fix all of society by taking children from their parents and assigning them all randomly to new parents. The idea is that parents will be motivated to love all children and just be all around better because they won't know which children are theirs and which people are their blood.
Obviously, that isn't how it would work, and this book really explores that. It also covers a "happy"
form of eugenics.
I thought the idea that all of these issues come from government support was ridiculous, because the vast majority of our taxes go to corporate subsidies and the military, but you know what, the rest of it was incredibly relatable and realistic, not to mention the fact that it has all happened before. I mean women have always worked but we have been barred from certain jobs, school, birth control and we have even had our children torn from our arms for "crimes" such as being disabled, poor, unmarried, or young. The adoption system is a billion dollar industry.
And no one can afford daycare anymore, so women have left their careers in droves. With the new triggers laws ready to go into effect birth control will be out of reach for women in 13 states.
We are always just right on the edge of this...
I won't get into the end.
Anyway, I loved it. I did.
There is a this Sociological or Philosophical theory that you can fix all of society by taking children from their parents and assigning them all randomly to new parents. The idea is that parents will be motivated to love all children and just be all around better because they won't know which children are theirs and which people are their blood.
Obviously, that isn't how it would work, and this book really explores that. It also covers a "happy"
form of eugenics.
I thought the idea that all of these issues come from government support was ridiculous, because the vast majority of our taxes go to corporate subsidies and the military, but you know what, the rest of it was incredibly relatable and realistic, not to mention the fact that it has all happened before. I mean women have always worked but we have been barred from certain jobs, school, birth control and we have even had our children torn from our arms for "crimes" such as being disabled, poor, unmarried, or young. The adoption system is a billion dollar industry.
And no one can afford daycare anymore, so women have left their careers in droves. With the new triggers laws ready to go into effect birth control will be out of reach for women in 13 states.
We are always just right on the edge of this...
I won't get into the end.
Anyway, I loved it. I did.
July 7, 2022
Wow! This was an incredibly prescient page turner. I couldn't have picked this up at a better time, given the current state of politics. At over 500 pages, this is a fairly long book for me, but I sped through it because the story was so captivating!
The only reason I have it four stars instead of five is that the ending felt too abrupt to me. There was so much build up to what was going to happen, and then in the lass few pages it happened and then the book was over. It left me craving some more explanation as to how everything happened, and what the fallout was like afterward. Even though the book is long, I think it could have been even longer for this reason.
I really did love the story and just wanted to keep reading! I definitely recommend this one! Thank you to NetGalley for the digital ARC!
The only reason I have it four stars instead of five is that the ending felt too abrupt to me. There was so much build up to what was going to happen, and then in the lass few pages it happened and then the book was over. It left me craving some more explanation as to how everything happened, and what the fallout was like afterward. Even though the book is long, I think it could have been even longer for this reason.
I really did love the story and just wanted to keep reading! I definitely recommend this one! Thank you to NetGalley for the digital ARC!
July 10, 2022
More of a 4.5 ⭐
Reminds me of an easier to read 'The Hand aids Tale" definitely easier to connect with the main characters. This goes a little more into the economic reasons for the Auction, where women give birth but their babies are stripped away from them BUT they're then required to BUY another baby back from the government. All while reading I kept thinking, give a penny take a penny. But its all a scheme to make money for the government and initially to appease big corporations from leaving the US. When you read the News flashes before each chapter in the book you that didn't even work.
I truly enjoyed the book. I felt such empathy for each of the four pregnant main characters. Each of their rights had been stolen from them decades before they were born but they each fight back as best they can.
This is definitely a book I'd like to see a short follow up to by the author, to see if things change in the future for our heroines.
Reminds me of an easier to read 'The Hand aids Tale" definitely easier to connect with the main characters. This goes a little more into the economic reasons for the Auction, where women give birth but their babies are stripped away from them BUT they're then required to BUY another baby back from the government. All while reading I kept thinking, give a penny take a penny. But its all a scheme to make money for the government and initially to appease big corporations from leaving the US. When you read the News flashes before each chapter in the book you that didn't even work.
I truly enjoyed the book. I felt such empathy for each of the four pregnant main characters. Each of their rights had been stolen from them decades before they were born but they each fight back as best they can.
This is definitely a book I'd like to see a short follow up to by the author, to see if things change in the future for our heroines.
August 12, 2025
They've had enough and are ready for change!
Women's rights are no more. The government controls everything. Women are restricted to certain career paths, while men can choose whatever they please. Rape is a myth. Birth control us illegal. One night stands that result in pregnancy, also result in a marriage between the two individuals. And if you are pregnant and break the rules, you are sent to pregnancy prison. Worst of all, babies are taken away from their mothers at birth and auctioned off to the highest bidder. But what happens when 3 pregnant women (and one teenager, whose pregnancy was the result of a rape) from very different walks of life decide enough is enough and work together to take down the system? Read the book to find out!
Women's rights are no more. The government controls everything. Women are restricted to certain career paths, while men can choose whatever they please. Rape is a myth. Birth control us illegal. One night stands that result in pregnancy, also result in a marriage between the two individuals. And if you are pregnant and break the rules, you are sent to pregnancy prison. Worst of all, babies are taken away from their mothers at birth and auctioned off to the highest bidder. But what happens when 3 pregnant women (and one teenager, whose pregnancy was the result of a rape) from very different walks of life decide enough is enough and work together to take down the system? Read the book to find out!
May 30, 2022
The future of America is not flying cars and robots at every corner. Nope. Instead, it's the Auction - the government's way of taxing Americans and getting more money. President Boyce (basically a dictator) wants America to go back to the "Halycon Days" or the 1950s and 1960s. In those wonderful days, the men worked and the woman stayed home and cooked, cleaned, and cared for the children - all in while wearing heels, dresses, and not a hair out of place. According to President Boyce and his laws, if a woman gets pregnant, she must marry the biological father whether or not she knows him. Certain sports are too dangerous for women to play and women can't travel because it all puts too much stress on the woman's body. This book follows four women who live completely different lives but end up in the same pregnancy prison, become friends, and begin to question everything they know.
This book really surprised me. I wasn't expecting to find it so interesting and to like all of the characters (normally one always ends up annoying me) but I felt like I knew them all. Elci North does a great job at describing the characters, their backstories, and what's happening in future America. There were some funny spots that I even laughed at. However, it does slow in the middle of the book and some conversations seem repetitive but it definitely picks back up and finishes strong.
Thank you NetGalley and Indepdent Book Publishers Association for the opportunity to read this ARC in exchange for an honest review.
This book really surprised me. I wasn't expecting to find it so interesting and to like all of the characters (normally one always ends up annoying me) but I felt like I knew them all. Elci North does a great job at describing the characters, their backstories, and what's happening in future America. There were some funny spots that I even laughed at. However, it does slow in the middle of the book and some conversations seem repetitive but it definitely picks back up and finishes strong.
Thank you NetGalley and Indepdent Book Publishers Association for the opportunity to read this ARC in exchange for an honest review.
June 28, 2022
This is an interesting book to read after what has transpired this past week. Hitting a little close to real life. This story is scary to think about and will give the reader thought provoking topics to become aware of. The story brings together four different women, with four different stories and a glimpse of their lives while in a pregnancy prison. Each of these women are unable to decide their own fate, desires or outcomes they aspire to. The most basic rights have been stripped away from their lives. The reader could feel all their emotions, pain, angst and frustration that each of the characters are experiencing. What happens when four determined women are put together in a prison? I read as fast as I could to the ending because I had to see the outcome of this story. This is a story worth reading.
“Thank you to NetGalley for the DRC.”
“Thank you to NetGalley for the DRC.”
June 30, 2022
Warning: DNF
I picked this book up thinking it would be a good read, but then the world seemed to decide that the world of The Auction is actually an ideal. So I found myself unable to finish the book at this time - its too real, which I think is a compliment.
I will return to this book when the topic of forced birth is not so prevalent, to allow me to escape for a bit. Kudos to the author, I'm about 35% of the way in and hope I'll finish soon.
I picked this book up thinking it would be a good read, but then the world seemed to decide that the world of The Auction is actually an ideal. So I found myself unable to finish the book at this time - its too real, which I think is a compliment.
I will return to this book when the topic of forced birth is not so prevalent, to allow me to escape for a bit. Kudos to the author, I'm about 35% of the way in and hope I'll finish soon.
June 30, 2022
Thank you Netgalley and publisher for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.
There are some books that when read, stay with you for a long time, and this is one of them for me, especially because of today’s current climate in women’s rights. I couldn’t stop thinking about it, the storyline and plot are beautiful, yes, I do think that it could be improved with better dialogue and the characters sometimes fall a little flat, but I still would put this book on my best reads of 2022.
There are some books that when read, stay with you for a long time, and this is one of them for me, especially because of today’s current climate in women’s rights. I couldn’t stop thinking about it, the storyline and plot are beautiful, yes, I do think that it could be improved with better dialogue and the characters sometimes fall a little flat, but I still would put this book on my best reads of 2022.
July 3, 2022
Would you consider this a dystopian novel if we are actually living some of the content of this story in the great land of the United States?
The world that the author created and the characters were very real and I do feel like this is the 'Merica that we the people have created.
Many thanks to Netgalley and Elci North, Independent Book Publishers Association (IBPA), Members' Titles. This book released on February 4, 2022.
The world that the author created and the characters were very real and I do feel like this is the 'Merica that we the people have created.
Many thanks to Netgalley and Elci North, Independent Book Publishers Association (IBPA), Members' Titles. This book released on February 4, 2022.
August 1, 2023
Terrific and horrifying
What an excellent read! This is one of those books that will stay with you for a long time. Its horrifying, that a government could gain such control over its people, yet so beautifully written. I loved every word this is the best book I've read in a long time!
What an excellent read! This is one of those books that will stay with you for a long time. Its horrifying, that a government could gain such control over its people, yet so beautifully written. I loved every word this is the best book I've read in a long time!
July 31, 2023
4.5 for me. I enjoyed the characters and found their unique situations interesting. The writing did fold in explanations of several topics that could have been loose so that I appreciated. It did have a couple of unexpected moments and a few times “the expected” typical outcome didn’t go as I would expect -which is great. It was a crazy and sad look into a future that could be imagined.
May 1, 2024
Wow, wow, wow, loved it!
July 7, 2025
Wow- this book was recommended to me on my kindle because I had read and liked handmaid’s tale. This is a similar theme, of women losing their rights and government take over in the United States. Truly scary how many themes in this book replicate political issues today. If you like Handmaids Tale I think you’d like this.
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