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Red Clocks by Leni Zumas - 3* - My Review

Red Clocks is speculative fiction set in a near-future America where abortion has been banned, and the Personhood Amendment grants full rights to embryos and fetuses. The novel follows four women living in a small Oregon town. Ro, a (single) high school teacher, desperately wants to be a mother before new laws make it impossible. Mattie, Ro's fifteen-year-old student, discovers she's pregnant. Susan, a mother of two, feels trapped in her marriage and considers drastic measures. Gin is a local healer who is targeted by authorities for providing reproductive healthcare to women in need. The characters are initially identified using archetypes (The Daughter, The Wife, The Mender, and The Biographer) before revealing their names.

This book explores how reproductive restrictions affect women across different ages, social classes, and life circumstances, but it only touches a few of the more obvious situations. The narrative is fragmented, shifting frequently among the four protagonists. The writing style is direct and unadorned. This book is relevant to contemporary debates around reproductive rights, making it feel uncomfortably plausible. It can get a bit gross in its discussions of smells, bodily functions, and fluids. I would have preferred a more flowing and deeper probing storyline, but it is certainly relevant to today’s society.