Widow Land

Widow Land by C.J. Carey

Reviewed by Mimi
📕📕📕📕📕

Thank you so much @quercusbooks for this ARC.

It's EXACTLY my cup of tea. To set the scene, Churchill never became Prime Minister and instead of embarking on a second world war, the British decided to enter into an alliance with Germany and come under the rule of a Protectorate. As part of this, a new class system for women is instituted depending on age, race, fertility and general breeding.
Widowland is where the lowest class of women exist.

Our protagonist Rose, is the top class female working within the Ministry of Culture on a task to edit literary classics to get them up to date with the morals of the regime. The tenacious Elizabeth Bennett’s and Jane Eyre’s must be toned down and made more subservient to their male superiors, especially when they are a class above. Rose is expected to hold onto her government-dictated values whilst reading material they are fearful of, for the ideas it will generate. As the country prepares for the Coronation of King Edward VIII and Queen Wallis, strange phrases from literature appear on buildings and trouble is stirred.

There are so many reasons I loved this novel. Reading Jane Eyre through the eyes of Rose was just fulfilling as a book-lover. Seeing the power of literature and how scared the regime is of these stories filled me with the joy of all book nerds. This is why I love to read, the power of the written word, how it plants an idea or a feeling that no one can ever remove. The story itself was compelling, Rose is an engaging character, complicated and very much the product of her environment. She feels so confused as her beliefs are challenged.

There will be comparisons to George Orwell, Handmaids' Tale with a bit of SS GB and Man in High Castle but this is fresh, scary, thrilling and exciting in its own right. It feels like a love letter to novels.