Found this book really interesting - it follows different woman in alternating chapters and considers their fertility. Found this format difficult to get into at first, but it was really well developed and the characters were believable. Would highly recommend this to students studying dystopia - great for unseen passages.

RED CLOCKS is an interesting, thought-provoking, and chilling vision of a dystopian America/world in which the religious right get their way: near-total control over women's bodies and reproductive choices. The author has a gift for conjuring disturbing and/or vivid scenes. The characters are well-drawn, well-written, and engaging. The story is a little fractured, perhaps. Interesting, unsettling, but with a lot to say.

Love, loved, this book. Follow 5 women in the not too distant future when abortion is banned, and there only identity is thru being mothers. Nothing else.

This one sounded good in theory especially with the rise of The Handmaid's Tale in recent years. This book was frustrating for me to read but so was Handmaid's Tale and I think that is the point. It's frustrating to watch rights being stripped away from women like this. And it is frustrating to watch women have to struggle to just be seen as humans that should be treated with decency.

Thank you so much for the opportunity to review this book and to be an early reader via NetGalley! However, I will not be writing a review for this title at this time, as my reading preferences have since changed somewhat. In the event that I decide to review the book in the future, I will make sure to purchase a copy for myself or borrow it from a library. Once again, thank you so much for providing me with early access to this title. I truly appreciate it. Please feel free to contact me with any follow-up questions or concerns.

The Red Clocks is a mixed up mess of a book. I could not keep story-lines or characters straight. Maybe I will try it again but for now I did not finish it and put it aside.

Another stunning work of fiction exploring how the bodily rights of women are subverted, curtailed, and flat out denied by a patriarchal political structure that's terrifying in its banality and realism.

I thank you for the opportunity to read the ARC of this title, however I did not finish at 45%. I would like to explain why and why I am also reviewing in spite of this.
I love both Handmaid's Tale and The Power and felt this book would also be one I would enjoy. I was initially intrigued by the individual stories of the women and their clear voices, however found it exhausting as it went on. I think, personally, the world is a depressing and scary place to most people at the moment, but particularly for women. It was a bit 'too real' for me and I realised I was becoming anxious and depressed myself reading it. My library has purchased it and I have recommended it to others who I believe will enjoy it, and the feedback I've had has been excellent. It wasn't the right book for me at the right time.

Loved this book! And I certainly spread the word about this original and provocative idea. Bravo....

I discussed Red Clocks by Leni Zumas in my December monthly wrap up on my booktube channel. Please see the below link to watch the video.

Loved this book. This is one of the best I've read all year. Bought multiple copies for friends. Highly Highly recommend.

This edge-of-dystopian story was perfectly, perfectly done. It had me looking at the evening news with more than my usual amount of horror. Kudos!

“She knew—it was her job as a teacher of history to know—how many horrors are legitimated in public daylight, against the will of most of the people.”

This is an incredibly timely and stunning book.

RED CLOCKS is a story is set in a small town in Oregon in the near-future where these four women live. The Personhood Amendment has made abortion and in-vitro fertilization illegal. As the story begins we also learn that a new bill is being passed that makes it impossible for unmarried people to adopt children. As these four women cope with these laws and motherhood or lack thereof we start to see how societal expectations shapes each of their lives. There’s Ro, an unmarried teacher and unpublished biographer, who is desperate to have a child while battling failed attempts at getting pregnant. Then there’s Mattie, a straight A high school student who accidently becomes pregnant and is desperate to have an illegal abortion. Then there’s Susan, a mother of two children and a wife to a man she no longer wants to be married to. And last but not least we have Gin, a “witch” who offers herbal cures to a myriad of women’s health problems, including abortions.

All of the characters are super dynamic, complex, and interesting. The story is compelling and oftentimes upsetting because of the way it reflects on our real world. I would recommend it to someone who is interested in feminism and/or dystopia because the book inspires to think of important issues and put more effort to try to understand them. I recommend it.

With the situation in the US as it is, a book like this is quite timely. While the synopsis of the book makes it seem like this generations Handmaid's Tale, there seems to be too much emotional distance put between the reader and the characters. There is also an experimental writing style that distracted too much from the story itself. As a reader, it was hard to get in to this book even though it's something I really wanted to enjoy simply because there was too much keeping me from getting invested.

When I first started to read Red Clocks, I wasn’t sure this was going to be the book for me. But then, I continued reading, and boy was I wrong!


I got a bit confused at first by the chapter changes — each chapter is from one of the four main character’s point of view and their name is never mentioned in that chapter. However, once I got to know the characters, their voices were so unique that there was no danger of confusing them.


I love the premise of the book — that in the near future (ie, anytime, really), the abortion laws in the US are repealed and embryos are granted person status, which changes everything around reproduction. Also, there’s a new law around adoption where “every child needs two”, meaning single people can no longer adopt. Red Clocks takes place just as these new laws are going into effect so that we can see their full impact.


By throwing the world into this kind of situation, combined with the story of the 19th century Icelandic Arctic explorer, Elivor. Zumas is able to explore the concept of motherhood from many different angles in a fascinating and thoughtful way. By about mid way through the book, I couldn’t put it down and just had to finish.

Rating: 2.5 stars rounded up to 3 stars.

In a dystopian United Stated, Congress passed the Personhood Amendment, which gives a fertilized egg the Constitutional right to life, liberty, and property from the moment of conception. Abortion is illegal. IVF (in vitro fertilization) is banned, and adoptions are soon to be restricted to married couples only. Women who travel to Canada and are suspected of being there in order to get an abortion are sent back to the U.S. for prosecution. The right to choose is a thing of the past.

What I Liked

First, let me mention that the book focuses on the points-of-view of five women:

The Biographer: Ro, a single woman who works as a teacher, and wants to be a mother—IVF attempts failed, and time is running out for her to be able to adopt a child before the new law is enacted.
The Explorer: Eivør Minervudottir, the 19th century woman Ro is writing a book about.
The Mender: Gin, a healer who provides herbal remedies to women in need; people consider her to be a witch.
The Daughter: Mattie, a teenage student of Ro's, is pregnant and wants to get an abortion.
The Wife: Susan, an unhappy wife and mother of two.

The premise for this story got my attention right away, and I was eager to read it. Dystopia is one of my go-to genres, but I'm particularly intrigued with the books that deal with the oppression of women in some way. This is the first I've come across that deals with banning abortions, IVF, and adoption restrictions, and I felt certain this book was going to be absolutely spectacular.
It was interesting, to be sure—some portions more than others—but it fell far short of spectacular in this reader's opinion.

What I Didn't Like

I disliked everything having to do with Eivør Minervudottir. I felt impatient and bored every time I read the portions dedicated to this character.

I didn't feel a connection with any of the characters. I felt sympathy for them sometimes, but I never managed to really care about any of them. That's something that rarely happens when I'm reading, especially when I'm so excited about the premise of the book.

The way it was written—the choppy prose, inconsequential conversations, and tedious details—prevented the story from having an easy flow. I found myself constantly noticing how brief many of the sentences were, which broke my concentration and forced me to re-read passages I hadn't focused on properly the first time around. If it had any one of those issues mentioned above, lightly sprinkled into the story, I don't think it would have bothered me. With so much of it throughout the entire book, however, it proved to be a serious distraction. This sort of writing style may be pleasing to other readers, but it didn't work for me.

Final Thoughts

I felt this book had great potential, and I wanted to love it. Unfortunately, it never lived up to it. Certain parts were interesting, but my lasting impression of this book is that I was too often distracted by the writing style to be able to connect with any of the characters in a meaningful way. I still think the premise is fantastic, but I'm disappointed that the book didn't live up to my expectations.

I received an advance review copy of this book courtesy of Little, Brown and Company via Netgalley.

The theme of Red Clocks by Leni Zumas is women and the right to choose. This book is clear on which side of the question it stands on. I appreciate the premise of this book. The conversation is an important one. I also appreciate the surreal environment the book manages to create. However, for me, the book feels like it's trying too hard to be literary. I am left focusing on how the book is written rather than the story being told.

Read my complete review at http://www.memoriesfrombooks.com/2018/04/red-clocks.html

Reviewed for NetGalley

This dystopian novel is told from the perspective of several characters. It is thought-provoking and would be perfect for a book club.

I'm glad I hung in for this book. Since the chapters shift between four women's perspective and information on woman from Iceland the mid 1800s, it takes some patience to get the rhythm. The dystopian quality is subtle, frankly, because it feels like it could be reality at any moment. In Red Clocks, it is illegal for women to seek abortions. The "pink wall" stops US citizens from seeking abortions in Canada. Women have to bury their miscarried fetuses. Adopted children must be brought into two parent homes. But this is the world in which the women live.

These women's lives are interconnected, some more directly than others. A mother and a daughter. Someone adopted. Someone given up for adoption. Partnered and unhappy. Single and not wanting a partner. Seeking pregnancy or at least to adopt. Faced with unplanned pregnancy.

Once I got a feel for Zumas's writing and the different characters, I really enjoyed this book. The book ends, but it doesn't allow for a tidy resolution.

An astounding novel that everyone should read. It is somewhat disjointed and hard to follow but if one can forget about that and just read, it all comes together. If one can get a bit out of one's brain and allow things to be not totally clear, the book hits one at a visceral level. The book has been labeled dystopian because all women's reproductive rights have been outlawed. Seems as though that is what many in this country want to happen and that future may be almost upon us. Read this book.