In The Handmaid's Tale, which this got compared to in the blurb and is therefore the easiest comparison, we have an immediate answer for WHY society devolved into a hyper-patriarchal heteronormative hellscape. The setting is a christofascist totalitarian state. This is a logical leap that's easy to make, because it's literally a thing people actively want to create.
This novel lacks any sort of similar reasoning for how society got to this point and instead specifically says that religion is outlawed and seems largely eradicated. No explanation exists--at least within the first look, which is when basic worldbuilding like this is most important--to explain the hows and whys of this happening in a setting that is specifically the NEAR future.
The whole thing comes across as if it's one of the many generic, poorly-thought-out dystopian YA novels that sprung up after the success of the Hunger Games but it was published about a decade too late for that craze.
Only reason this isn't one star is that the main character is a relatable depiction of queer womanhood.
I read and was iffy on The Sacred Lies of Minnow Bly but I think I'm just going to be avoiding this author in the future because this is two big misses.
This novel lacks any sort of similar reasoning for how society got to this point and instead specifically says that religion is outlawed and seems largely eradicated. No explanation exists--at least within the first look, which is when basic worldbuilding like this is most important--to explain the hows and whys of this happening in a setting that is specifically the NEAR future.
The whole thing comes across as if it's one of the many generic, poorly-thought-out dystopian YA novels that sprung up after the success of the Hunger Games but it was published about a decade too late for that craze.
Only reason this isn't one star is that the main character is a relatable depiction of queer womanhood.
I read and was iffy on The Sacred Lies of Minnow Bly but I think I'm just going to be avoiding this author in the future because this is two big misses.