I love being given the opportunity to update our school library which is a unique space for both senior students and staff to access high quality literature. This is definitely a must-buy. It kept me absolutely gripped from cover to cover and is exactly the kind of read that just flies off the shelves. It has exactly the right combination of credible characters and a compelling plot thatI just could not put down. This is a great read that I couldn't stop thinking about and it made for a hugely satisfying read. I'm definitely going to order a copy and think it will immediately become a popular addition to our fiction shelves. 10/10 would absolutely recommend.

Orwellian-style vision of what Britain could have looked like if Hitler had won World War Two. A nightmare for women, particularly intelligent ones (isn’t that always the case, both in fiction and in life?), who are exiled to Widowland.
A gripping story, with a thrilling ending.

Widowland is an interesting concept, and overall I did enjoy it, especially the style of writing, it was very descriptive. I thought the story started slowly, and it didn't initially catch my attention, however as it progressed I was thrown into the story and it was a good ending.

This has such an interesting and unique concept, it has been compared to 1984 but I feel as though it is completely different. I was intrigued and thought the plot was written very well, I also loved the unexpected ending!

I found Widowland an interesting concept, and overall it was engaging and riveting. I did wish for a bit more action, and that it would have captured my attention earlier - I found the story a bit slow to get into in the beginning. The world building was however quite thorough, and the ending was surprising!

When I saw the premise of this book, I thought that it would be some sort of take on The Man in the High Castle meets The Handmaid's Tale with a heavy dose of 1984. It could be amazing, or it could be a complete trash fire. Thankfully, it swung far further towards greatness than plagiarism.

In a Britain ruled as a Nazi Protectorate after the second world war, women are classified according to a caste structure. Rose Ransom is one of those deemed of value - due to her age, Aryan qualities and ability to breed - and so has a job in the Ministry of Culture, re-writing works of literature to bring them in line with the regime's values. But something is rumbling in the population, something that sounds a bit like revolution. And on the eve of the Furher's visit to celebrate the long-awaited coronation of the King, this can't be allowed to continue. Rose is chosen for a secret mission to infiltrate Widowland - the slums to which older, lower caste women are banished - to help stamp out this insurgency.

I thought this was a fun, page-turnery read that had me hooked from beginning to end. As a fan of all three of the works mentioned above, I was happily surprised to find that I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I hate the term, but it is a bit of a "romp"!

Absolutely fantastic. Such an amazing alternative history which the author makes all too credible. I came away angry - the possibility of this being real seemed just a bit too close to the surface. Well written, strong characters, snappy dialogue and even the odd bit of humour. Loved it.

Widowland has such an interesting concept. I have always been curious about the 2nd world war so reading about what might have happened if Germany won was very interesting.

While everything is fiction, I felt like a lot of the scenarios seemed rather likely. This helped to suck me into the plot and I became rather invested towards the end.

The one thing that I didn't quite get on with was the number of characters. I read this book a little each day (meaning I didn't put it down for a few weeks) and I still found it hard to remember who everyone was. I felt like names were being introduced every few pages. Then people wouldn't be mentioned for ages and when they were, it was expected that the reader remembered who they were. This especially became an issue when it came to revelations about characters. I would have to search the book on my kindle to actually remember who the character was in the first place and what the reveal actually meant.

At the end of the book, Carey states that many of the names used belonged to real people which explains the overabundance of names. I think that Carey could have had the same effect without having to name all the characters. A few real names would have been fine or even a few less original characters so that it was easier to follow the plot as well as get to know the characters.

That said, I did start to remember who people were towards the end of the book and I found that this was when I enjoyed it most. Everything does weave itself together very cleverly and I was left wanting to read more about this world.

Definitely a good read if you are a fan of dystopic novels.

A dystopian nightmare of a story in an alternative world where Hitler is in charge and the world after the second world war looks very different than it does for us today. Into the mix, add the repression of education for women and widows being locked away. Not an easy read and at times it lost its way for me but plenty to think about and get stuck into.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for allowing me access to this ARC!

I did enjoy this book but a couple things fell a bit short for me which made me question the book. I do believe it was thought of with great intention.

These types of books always make me really angry as I don’t understand why women are always the first to be treated in such horrible manner

Derivative and disappointing.

Another alternative history. Instead of declaring war, British leaders have forged an ‘alliance’ with Germany and the UK is now a nazi protectorate.

It is 1953 and the country is suffering rationing and shortages. Women are now assigned to castes with the least privileged being those considered least economically and socially active, the childless and widows.

Rose works in the culture department, censoring and amending classic texts, but is sent to find out who is responsible for subversive graffiti (quoting noted female writers) ahead of a visit to the UK by the Führer himself.

The story is heavy on exposition and little of note happens in the first half of the book. There is no real sense of tension and the ideas it explores have been tackled more effectively in books like Fatherland and The Handmaid’s Tale. Disappointing.

This was an interesting dystopian book but I felt a little to long, could have been a little shorter, I did however enjoy it and enjoyed the similarities to Orwell. Definitely worth your time.

Widowland is a really atmospheric thriller, set in an alternate timeline - one where the German National Socialists and the British reach a compromise in 1940 and become the Grand Alliance. This alliance reads more like occupation though. Britain doesn’t have it’s own government, all laws come from Germany, and Britain is ruled by a German, the Protector, Alfred Rosenberg.

Even though there’s a huge shortage of young men (they’ve been ‘shipped off’ to the rest of occupied Europe to ‘work’) and women greatly outnumber men, women are divided into categories, or castes. These depend on their age, heritage, reproductive status and physical characteristics, and each category is named after a significant woman in Hitlers life. Rose is a Geli, one of the elite. Young, beautiful, and most importantly, fertile.

I thoroughly enjoyed this and read it far too quickly. It had a black and white, 1950’s movie atmosphere about it, and I could easily picture the people and scenes in my head. It brought to mind The Man in the High Castle with regards to Occupation, and 1984 with regards to feeling as though you’re constantly watched - as well as the people being told how to react, think and live. This was especially evident in Rose’s job: she rewrites classics so that they’re in line with the regimes ideals: so no independent, strong females, and all the male leads are changed to Sturmbannführer (at least!).

The drudgery of everyday life made me think of how I envisaged life in the GDR - as well as only allowing state sanctioned literature, there was only one radio channel in Grand Alliance Britain, with some brave people listening to illegal foreign radio stations, knowing that this could result in extreme punishment.

When Rose goes to Widowland near Oxford (there are a few throughout the country) to find the source of a potential rebellion, she’s shocked to see older women living in abject poverty, only permitted to eat a subsistence diet and work menial jobs. But these women are intelligent, and they’re not happy in their state regulated lives. Between her reading of classic books and meeting these women, Rose begins to see what’s wrong with the world she has been living in, and this dawning realisation is so well described. We see how reading ‘subversive’ classics seems to get under her skin, and how she realises that the treatment of women is wrong in this Grand Alliance.

I could go on and on. I raced through this book, and I loved the ending, which came far too quickly!

Many thanks to Quercus for my copy of this book through NetGalley.

The year is 1953. The flags are all out for the Coronation. Huge crowds are expected. But rather than the new young Queen Elizabeth approaching the throne, instead Westminster Abbey is preparing to crown King Edward VIII and Queen Wallis. Thirteen years have passed since Britain and Germany formed an alliance, the subsequent abrupt disappearance of King George VI and his young family and the return of Edward VIII. Yet in practice, power rests in the hands of the Protector Alfred Rosenberg and with most males shipped off to the continent, women outnumber men almost two to one. The status of females is of particular interest to the Protector, who has constructed a complex caste system. At the top are the 'Gelis', one of which is Rose Ransom, star employee at the Ministry of Culture, tasked with correcting the classics of literature to bring them further in line with the goals of the Alliance. But now she has a new assignment. Feminist slogans from literature are appearing around London. Somewhere there is a group of insurgents who seem to be planning to destabilise the Coronation. Suspicion falls on Widowland, the ghetto which houses those on the bottom rung of society - childless women over fifty. In this intricately constructed alternative history, C J Carey imagines the post-war defeat of Britain through a female lens and the results are electrifying.


The central question of the novel is, 'what if a place existed where older women, already marginalised by society, were banished?' The author draws on her own experiences of widowhood as well as her research into the treatment of older woman in Germany during World War II. The real Rosenberg was genuinely attracted by the Brahmin caste system which he felt was the best way of managing women. With Widowland, Carey constructs an incredibly intricate alternate universe where this man's hateful vision is taken to its ultimate conclusion. There are six 'Female Classes'; below the young and blonde Gelis are the Klaras who produce four or more children. Then the Lenis who are the professional women, the Paulas who are the nurses, the Magdas who are the shop and factory employees and the Gretls who do the grunt work. Beneath all of them lurk the Friedas, the lowest of the low.

In terms of alternate history, 'post-1945 if the Nazis had won' has been 'done' many times. Fatherland, The Man in the High Castle, SS-GB, Dominion ... the list goes on. So it is quite an achievement that Widowland feels like a fresh take on such a well-trodden topic. There is an incredible amount of detail to Carey's world-building which does rather unfold in history lecture form as we observe Rose's daily routine. We learn a great deal about the rules of this heavily-regulated state as well as the rumours which run around in whispers. While this method of exposition may not be to the taste of every reader, I found it utterly absorbing, grounding the story in haunting realism. Bluntly, this is a book which kept me up way past my bedtime.

Like its literary ancestor Nineteen Eighty Four, Carey considers how a totalitarian state can reconstruct our way of thinking. This is very much dystopian fiction for book-lovers however as Rose analyses the heroines of literature and works to bring them into line with the Protectorate. Thus, Elizabeth Bennet becomes meek and learns her place. Jo March tones down her anger, sets down her pen and accepts her lot. Rose is startled by Jane Eyre, whose heroine questions her low status and then does not show sympathy to Mr Rochester when it is revealed that he has the affliction of an insane wife. The rules are that, 'No female protagonist should be overly intelligent, dominant or subversive, no woman should be rewarded for challenging a man, and no narrative should undermine in any way the Protector’s views of the natural relationship between the sexes.' I found this ordinance fascinating given the current literary landscape which bristles with trigger warnings and tuttings over problematic plots. Because even as Rose 'corrects' these books, their original messages are seeping through and her ossified mind is beginning to wake up.

Widowland underlines the subversive power of literature and I absolutely loved it. Rose ponders Emma and how it could be a useful text in demonstrating how Emma Woodhouse is wrong to match-make for her lower-status friend Harriet Smith with higher status males. But yet. The book tells it wrong. 'Harriet gained self-confidence through her mistaken romance. She came to understand that high social class did not necessarily imply a finer character. Indeed, Austen seemed hellbent on undermining traditional class divisions and suggesting some difference between mere accomplishments and the deeper understanding that signals self-knowledge.' Having spent years defending Austen from charges of being 'just' a romance novelist or - worse - that her heroines were gold-diggers, it was gratifying to see Austen's quiet radicalism recognised.

Unsurprisingly, the regime discourages female literacy. Girls are not taught to read until the age of eight and even after that, they are taught at a more basic level. The intended goal is that a female's vocabulary should be no more than two thirds that of a man. The risk of reading was 'that it could accidentally expand a child’s use of language. It might enchant and intoxicate her. Help her express herself in new and exciting ways.' It is the casual way that it is gently 'suggested' that a girl need not bother learning to read, such as when Rose's boss - a married older German who is also her lover - tells her that she should not read to her niece,

'You know the Party believes there is no shame in illiteracy. We discourage reading for lower orders. It's hardly revolutionary. American slaves weren’t permitted to read. For centuries Catholics held the mass in Latin. Besides, most people don’t actually want to read. They'd rather listen to the wireless or go to the movies. Once this new television gets off the ground, reading will wither away in a generation, you’ll see. People will fall out of the habit of reading, and once that happens, the mere act of reading will be harder.'

That one feels particularly poignant given how few people I know enjoy reading. And as a committed campaigner against literary snobbery, I kind of hate myself for saying it but I could understand Carey's point that it 'requires discipline' to get through a six or seven hundred (or even more) page novel and if you're not in the habit, you're unlikely to try. I believe that life is short and that people should read what they enjoy. But I also wish wasn't the only person I know who has read Bleak House. I hate how often I have cringey experiences like the time my hairdresser called me an 'intellectual' because I turned up for an appointment with a copy of Middlemarch. There's nothing wrong with not reading but in the midst of my sleep-deprived new-parent haze, I also know that making (stealing) the time to read Anna Karenina really helped my scattered brain to regroup. The ability to sustain that kind of attention can feel like a lost art in a world which promotes instant gratification.

But while Rose might have remained at the Ministry of Culture quietly updating novels and placidly submitting to her boss' unwelcome touch, mysterious happenings are afoot. The Leader, who we are led to believe is Hitler, is planning his first ever state visit to Britain to mark the coronation. Everything must be perfect. And yet in the midst of this, graffiti has been appearing with messages that the Leader must never see. And there are dark suggestions that the Coronation may just be the turning point for Britain towards something even worse. There is something rather delicious that the most organised threat to Rosenberg's regime comes from a highly literate group of middle-aged women - these are not the Katniss Everdeens or Paige Mahoneys but instead a band of 'difficult women'. Women who don't shut up, give up or throw in the towel. Women who don't forget. Women who have nothing to lose.

Widowland also feels strangely topical. The Leader explained that 'Women are the most important citizens in this land'. These words are even carved into a bridge. And yet everywhere in the novel, women are erased, squashed down and forced to live according to definitions set by men. Their voices are silenced, their individuality effaced. The language around them is carefully managed, their vocabulary policed. It is a truth rarely acknowledged that whenever something claims to put women first, another self-seeking agenda will be found if you scratch at the surface. Yet although the women of Carey's Widowland are all being exploited in their different ways, we cannot excuse ourselves by discounting the story as fiction. Like a literary cousin to The Handmaid's Tale, the novel has pieced together a nightmarish setting out of things that have happened to women in history. But also from that which could befall us in the future.

The end when it came struck like a sucker punch. Utterly immersed in the novel's claustrophobic setting, it was startling to be once more hurled back to the world outside. Yet despite my immediate wave of hope for a sequel, I can also see that returning to the scene would almost certainly lessen the novel's impact. Widowland never sets out to depict yet another ongoing franchise of despair. Its message is far more oblique. It takes no pleasure in depicting atrocities. The enemy here goes beyond Nazism. It is striking that 'the Leader' is never directly named as Hitler, although instead we have the sardonic observation that 'People liked the idea of a strong leader – they didn’t much care what that leader stood for'. The last few years have seen that statement proven to be accurate.

Part thriller, part speculative fiction, Widowland is also a stunning hymn to the power of literature and to the courage of strong women. It was beautiful to read how these literary heroines who have only ever existed on the page were able to inspire Rose and to encourage her freedom of thought.  Widowland is also a novel that encourages its readers to know their history and specifically women's history. It tells us not to accept what we are being told via the mainstream media and social media clickbait. Not to mindlessly parrot the acceptable soundbites of the day. But to read in detail. The full article, not just the headline. Then do your background reading as well. The rapid washing machine cycle of instant news can make it feel that the double-plus-goodthink of Nineteen Eighty Four is already upon us. So this feminist re-imagining of a Big Brother state feels incredibly timely. A rollicking great ride of a novel as well as a feminist cautionary tale, I can already anticipate that I will be purchasing many copies.

I love reading dystopian fiction, however my appetite for it has been completely wiped out this past year or so. Feeling as if you're living the opening chapters makes the genre far less of an escape.

That being said, when I read the blurb for Widowland, the old spark was ignited and I found myself diving in enthusiastically.

Widowland is based in an alternate timeline, one where Winston Churchill never became Prime Minister and Britain joined in Alliance with Germany. After the fighting, women outnumber men two to one and their existence is arranged into a caste system, organised by their perceived worth to the oppressive patriarchy. Rose Ransom is an elite woman, a Geli, afforded privilege the other castes can only dream of. Working at the Ministry of Culture, she is exposed to the classics, tasked with rewriting them in line with party ideals. She is then handed a special task - to help locate the resistance who are daubing forbidden lines of literature on public buildings. As part of her investigation she is sent to the Widowland, slums where childless women over the age of 50 reside.

I love alternate histories, especially ones which stem from the Second World War, it really was such a defining moment in time that had the power to alter everything we know today.

Expected with the genre, Widowland is an unsettling read, and I often felt little shivers of recognition in the behaviours of the government in place. The caste system is horrendous. Women (although some are revered but this is only limited to their looks and ability to have children) are seen only in terms of their use. Their caste dictating their rations, where they live and how they live. The picture painted is vivid in its bleakness and I felt that the backstory and narrative around this was some of the best storytelling I've seen in terms of world building and clarity.


Equally excellent is the character of Rose, her journey throughout was really well told and I really connected to her as a character. My only complaint would be that perhaps her time in the Widowland wasn't as impactful as I thought it would be. With so much at stake with the task she was given, I didn't quite feel her urgency until much later on. That said, latterly, as events coincide and the story picks up speed I literally could not put my Kindle down. My eyes were glued to the screen for the last two hours and I absolutely loved being swept along!

The feminist message throughout was loud and clear, and that the threat to topple everything came from the women cast aside by this new society was cheer-invoking. Although I'm still clinging on to my thirties, I've already noticed a shift in how I'm treated, I've heard from other women that there is an aura of invisibility that settles on you as get older. And why is this? This book proves the worth of women of any age, quite literally, with echoes of the words of female writers long since passed reverberating throughout.

Widowland is the book that has re-hooked me on the dystopian genre. Strong, feminist and I absolutely loved the ending.

What would have happened had Germany taken control of the United Kingdom during the Second World War and allowed their monstrous practices to blossom into a regime of segregation and elitism? An interesting idea for a book, but coincidence after coincidence, peppered with an extravagant amount of cliches, we were drawn to an inconclusive finale. I was very underwhelmed.

Widowland is a fantastical alternative historical dystopian, but with a strong female twist. Said to be perfect for fans of Margaret Atwood! They want to control the future... so they edit literature to do so! It is based in 1953 - Coronation Year - but not the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II... Its been thirteen years since the Grand Alliance of Britain and Germany, George VI was murdered, and now Edward VIII is king!

The story focuses on how women are divided into categories based on their age, heritage, reproductive status and characteristics. Rose is an elite Gelis, and works with the Ministry of Culture - and it is her job to rewrite literature. Making problematic texts, less problematic. Making the women less bold, and more submissive and insignificant...

When a resistance begins to Graffiti public buildings, there are outbreaks of insurgency throughout the country... Widowland is then assumed to be the home and source of the resistance! Rose has been tasked to infiltrate Widowland in search of answers... But by reading so much of feminist literature, Rose starts to question everything, and she comes across information that could change everything!

This book is absolutely phenomenal! It had me hooked from the beginning and I’m so grateful to have been sent a copy by the lovely team at Quercus!

I wasn’t sure if I would enjoy the book to be completely honest, I don’t read much historical fiction BUT I loved the idea of an alternative history/dystopian story. And it did not disappoint! I know I’ve given in four stars but that’s due my knowledge and understanding of parts of the book - but that’s down to me and not the author! I thoroughly enjoyed it - what an amazing way to completely flip the turn of events of history. An insight of how a Nazi-ruled Britain could have been like for us, particularly for women. It’s quite scary to think about to be honest! Being punished for so much as reading a book... it’s almost unbearable to think about!

Reading this book immediately draws similarities to the Handmaid’s Tale, 1984 and other dystopian/alternate realities. The concept itself I thought was really interesting, even if it is similar to other stories, and I was intrigued about the editing of literature and separation of women into castes. The world-building was done extremely well, there was so much detail, and it was clear how and why this type of society had come into existence.

If anything, at times there was too much detail. I was often confused about the names of the different castes and found the first half of the book quite slow as the society was explained, meaning that it took a while to get to the main plot. This meant elements, such as the romance and Rose’s change in character, felt rushed.

I did enjoy reading this book, but my biggest issue was that the blurb felt somewhat misleading. The story didn’t get to the insurgency until the second half by which point there was not enough time to fully explore the subversive behaviour and how it impacted Rose’s outlook on life. I personally was expecting this to be the driving force of the plot and it was not given the importance I feel it should have been.

Because of this, the ending lost some of its impact. I still thought it was an interesting and fitting way the end the story, but it would have had more excitement if Rose’s character arc was more fully developed.

Overall, a really interesting premise but the story sometimes got lost in all the detail of the world-building.

A dystopian view of a futuristic period where an alliance had replaced the Second World War. A caste system in place as a control mechanism and women’s role in society , to breed future generations then exiled to the wilderness of the widow lands. Here older females with no further use to society were prisoners to the lowest caste system, with meagre rations , slum housing, and no voice. Rose the protagonist works for the alliance, the mistress of a high ranking officer yet intelligent enough to question the status quo, driven to participate in illegal activities, and becomes slowly aware that each individual , once aware of political machinations, must decide where they stand and what actions they must take. Although explanations of the status of the country and the various echelons of society take up a large section of the book the story only gathers wings when Rose is imprisoned, interrogated and then decides to fight back. In conclusion a not unique idea of changing history to develop women’s role in a future with scarcity of men, imprisonments of personal freedom and intellectual thinking with the only choices left to intelligent and strong women to rebel against the system or to conform and die. The character of Rose is strongly written whereas the majority of other characters are shadowy players with little sense of presence other than menacing ambience in the overall plot. This in no way detracted from the ultimately successful conclusion which brought our tentative and reluctant protagonist to the ultimate act of valour. Many thanks to author, publisher and NetGalley for ARC.

Widowland takes us back in time to the 1950s yet into a very different London than the one we think we know. Britain is now allied with Germany and is in many ways a poor relation of the mainland. There are shortages of many previously readily available commodities and a new social structure. Since the allegiance, women have had their roles reviewed and reassigned. They are given a ‘class’ which affects every aspect of their life – this is based on physical attributes and perceived contribution to society. Their assigned class then determines if they work, and if so what their job can be, how and where they live and what they can buy from shops. Women are no longer allowed to be educated in the same way as men and for many their new purpose in life is to reproduce and be good wives for their husbands. Entertainment is curtailed and strictly censored – most of the activities previously enjoyed by all are now forbidden or so heavily edited that there is little joy to be had. Anything with a potentially subversive message or which might give women ideas above their stations has to go. Deviation from this is punished severely. But yet, there are pockets of rebellion springing up and this is worrying to the powers that be. Rose, our heroine, finds herself in an odd position. Not only is she tasked with editing classical literature to a more palatable and socially acceptable form, she also has been pushed into trying to identify the source of rebellion and turn them in.

I have been really enjoying dystopian fiction over the last few years and what I particularly liked about Widowland was that it wasn’t futuristic but actually look us back a few decades into a bit of a ‘what could have been’ world. This is quite different to other books I have been reading and I liked the fresh perspective. I thought the scene was really well set and I had a clear idea of what London might have looked like at this time. Stratifying women into different groups and assigning each particular roles was really interesting but depressing too as aspects felt a little too realistic at times. I liked Rose as a central character because she had a bit of spirit and quite clever. She understood the game that had to be played in this strange world and was able to behave in a way that allowed her to retain her independent thoughts but ‘toe the line’ in public. I liked the literary flavour running through the story and how books and reading retained their power even in this imagined world.

Widowland is an addictive read which immerses you in a strange version of a familiar city. I found it to be quite tense in parts and held my interest right from the start. Definitely one for fans of dystopia and historical fiction but really should be enjoyed by anyone who loves books and a cracking story!