This took me a while to get through. It was a heavy read, especially with what is happening in the US with women’s reproductive rights.
The story takes place in future US where women basically have no rights. Contraceptives are illegal, rape doesn’t exist, women are required to marry the father of their unborn child, and cannot work until child turns 18. Also, you don’t get to take home the child you birth. You give up the child and have to purchase a different one at “the auction.”
The story is told through the POV of 4 complete different women who end up befriending each other when they are sent to a pregnancy prison for breaking insane laws. Jane is sent to prison for continuing to work, Millie for being blind and having a husband in rehab after being in an accident, Angelica for providing urine that is not hers at an OB appt, and Wendy a 15yr old who was on the run from her abusive rapist husband who was imprisoned for hitting a Dr. While in the prison the women team up and work to tear down the system.

In a hellishly plausible dystopian America, four women with four very different stories run afoul of the misogynistic pregnancy laws and find themselves together in pregnancy prison. Reproductive rights and bodily autonomy no longer exist, and women’s only functions are to bear and raise children, and care for home and husband.

Elci North has come up with an excellent premise which, given the state of right-wing politics currently in the US, seems scarily prescient. Unfortunately, the issues raised get dealt with in a somewhat simplistic manner, which leads the reader to made more than a few unrealistic jumps in logic. Ironically, the writing gets better as the storyline degrades, so it never really comes together. An interesting (and worrying) concept, though.

I received a free reading copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley, Elci North and the publisher for the copy of The Auction. The Auction was a beautifully written commentary on the necessity of a woman's right to lead and be heard. The characters were all written in a way that gave them distinct view points on the importance of female empowerment but done in a way that, when viewed together, gave a clear picture female struggles in society. Furthermore, the most interesting aspects of the book were the subtle nods to American exceptionalism and the dangers of arrogance on the world stage. The Auction is a perfect blend of the social and political ideas that show revolution is sometimes the only way to right an institutional wrong. I would highly recommend for anyone that is a fan of The Handmaid's Tale or dystopian novels.

Big thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This book really surprised me. I was immediately drawn in by the cover, a pregnant woman behind bars. I love the Handmaid’s Tale and dystopian books and this did not disappoint. It was sad, emotional, dark, but still hopeful and funny at times. I fell in love with all the characters and the bond they created. The only semi-negative thing I can say is that I felt it could have been a tiny bit shorter, and problems almost felt *too* easily solved, but that did not really take away from the story for me. If you love dystopian books, The Handmaid’s Tale, or are just interested in reading about a future United States that has heightened control over women and their babies… then this book is for you.

I would give this book 4.5 stars.

TRIGGER WARNINGS: suicide, rape

What a book to read during the climate that we live in today. Tha k you net galley for a review copy of this book. I would definitely recommend it to fans of books like the Handmaids Tale. Such a wonderful read.

Fans of The Handmaid's Tale and Vox this one's for you! Creative view of a future manipulated and distorted to the advantage of the rich, and the few that will risk it all to uncover the truth! No spoilers here, a page turning and engaging story that will have you hooked.

Thank you to NetGalley & Elci North for the free copy!

The Auction is a dystopian novel about a future America where birth control is illegal, women are banned from working most jobs, and all babies are sold at The Auction, where families must bid to purchase someone else's baby. The novel switches between four perspectives: Jane, Millie, Wendy, and Angelica. The women, who come from different walks of life, ultimately meet at a pregnancy prison (as they all broke several laws as determined by the dystopian government) and conspire to overthrow The Auction.

I have mixed feelings about this book. On one hand, this book is a terrifying potential reality for Americans. While male leaders in the government attempt to overthrow Roe vs. Wade and eliminate birth control in the name of "pro-life," women are losing their right to bodily autonomy. This novel shows a grim future where Americans feel hopeless and eventually believe the misogynistic propaganda that religious extremists are creating. In this sense, The Auction is almost a predictive horror novel that more people should read to fully understand the power that politicians hold over the country.

I was not a fan of the plot in the novel. Despite this novel being centred on female friendships, feminism, and freedom, I genuinely don't think that this book passes the Bechdel test. While the novel effectively shows how useless women feel in a society that completely controls them, I was so bored. All the women do is sit around, eat jello, and talk about their husbands. The women all just sit around and wait to hear how their men are helping them fix the injustice. It shows the state of the situation, but it just makes for a dull plot.

The characters themselves were pretty flat. Wendy is a 15-year-old girl who is forcibly married to her abuser (note there's some extensive discussion of rape and victim-blaming in the book). Honestly, her state of mind is pretty stagnant throughout the novel, which is so unfortunate because she had so much potential to have a great character arc. Millie is a blind woman whose husband becomes disabled through a work accident. She also allegedly has a super powerful sense of smell and can smell emotions and familiar scents. The joke is that she's part bloodhound, but honestly, it's just a really bizarre plot device that makes no sense. All she talks about is what she smells, which leaves her without much of a personality. I do wish that her seeing-eye dog was more heavily featured in the novel because I loved him. Angelica is a sex-positive drug abuser who wants to marry someone other than the guy that impregnated her. She's a fun character, and honestly had one of the better arcs in the novel. She gained empathy and used her financial privilege to benefit others besides herself, which made me proud of her. Jane was genuinely the only non-passive woman in the story. She is a computer programmer who is genuinely intelligent and has a lovely relationship arc with her husband. Personally, I was only interested in Jane's point of view, but I only really started becoming invested in her character after she got to jail.

I think the story primarily struggled from having four points of view. If there was one narrator, there could be more conflict between not knowing women's ulterior motives or being scared that someone would sell out the group to the authorities. That being said, I did like getting to know the other characters from their chapters, which I don't think could have happened without multiple perspectives.

I finished this book yesterday and I have been trying to come up with the words to describe and review it, and after 24-hours the main word that comes to mind is still wow.

Elci North's The Auction, takes us approximately 150 years into the future of the United States. It is an America that most would not recognize, but also a future that is so terrifyingly possible. American citizen's have been stripped of their rights, women more than men. The US constitution has been abolished as has the ADA. The US Government controls the media, access to the internet requires special permissions and is highly monitored. Women are only allowed to work approved jobs, if they become pregnant it is illegal for them to work. Birth control is illegal, rape is a myth and is always the woman's fault for enticing the man beyond his control. When a woman becomes pregnant, she must marry the man you got her pregnant regardless of how she got pregnant, and she must remain married to him until the child turns 18 or in the case that child get pregnant and marries. If all of that was not bad enough, the American people have been brainwashed into believing in The Auction. Babies are taken from the birth mothers immediately, before they can see them or hear them cry. Once a month The Auction is held. The babies have undergone genetic testing for personality, predisposition of certain traits, intelligence, defects, and disabilities. The wealthy are able to buy designer babies, while the poor get what is left. The minimum bid at auction is $5k and if a couple cannot afford that, they most take out a family loan and pay it back at about 3-4x the amount over 18 years. If a woman breaks the law while pregnant, she goes to pregnancy prison to be monitored and make sure that the baby is brought safely into the world.

It was at that 16% mark that I started recommending this book in all of my reading groups. The four main characters are written and developed so well. Their stories are all so different, yet the same because they are all pregnant women in this misogynistic society. Prior to the 16% mark, I felt like this book was important. It was not one of those books that would fill you with warm fuzzies, or cause you to laugh for hours. It will not keep you on the edge of your eat waiting for the next twist. It is not an epic adventure to go on. It is one that will stick with you. I have put out a call to any and all of my reader friends crossing my fingers that some will read this and discuss it with me.

To say I love this book or that this is a good book sounds terrible. The material is hard. It is dark. There are MANY trigger/content warnings (readers sensitive to certain content should be cautious when picking this one up). However, I would be lying if I did not say that this may be one of the most important reads I have read. Elci North beautifully told this story and I cannot thank her enough for that, but man if she is not going to keep me up wondering who she is and what her normal genre books are, wondering if I have read them and experienced her voice before.

This was a unique and interesting read. It’s set in dystopia and depicts a future America where women are subjugated by the government Office of Reproductive Oversight, which controls every aspect of a pregnant woman's life...

3.5 stars i wanted to give it 4 but the last 20% of the book were really hard to get through without complaining.

MAJOR SPOILERS WARNING!!!


The first 50% of the book were a breeze, I was impatient to get all the answers swimming in my head and even though I did get all the answers but I took major issues to a lot of the things. First was the character pf Wendy. She was superbly done but the ending did that seriously need to happen and also we were never told what happened to the baby? Angelica was talking about adopting Wendy and her baby throughout but at the the end their is no mention of the baby. They started a business called Wendy’s Heart and yet no one cared to even check on the baby??

As for her friend Jocelyn she was just mentioned for the shocking factor and add to all the things that were wrong with the country.

The ending felt rushed and all planning was done by ‘The guys’ and the women were never really exactly what they were doing. If so much was wrong with the country how come there were no revolutionary groups? Wilma the presidential candidate and her traditional party were mentioned in the flash news brief but that wasn’t enough.

Even with all the issues I still enjoyed the book and finished it in 2 days.


I received the ARC from NETGALLEY in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley, Elci North and the publisher for the copy of The Auction. This is a dystopian novel about women with NO rights, forced into both and marriage with extremely strong/tough laws on what women can and cannot do with their bodies while pregnant, it’s in the POV of 4 different women (well I wouldn’t consider Millie a woman she’s quite literally a child) all pregnant with extremely different circumstances.
First off, reading this book made me SICK. With everything going on in the world right now this dystopian novel truly was a hard read for me, but I LOVED it. Seeing Millie, Angelica, Jane and Wendy all end up in the same place despite their back stories and becoming friends made my heart happy. Angelica’s character development was amazing, watching her go from a rich snob to a caring character meant the world to me. I loved watching Jane fall in love with her husband despite their situation, her character was the most relatable to me. I love Dave and Angus, wow what great make characters!! My only fault is the repetition of the girls backstories, I understand every time they’re introduced to another character they share their story but did the author really have to type it out 10 times? We get it Millie was raped, Wendy is blind, Angelica is rich and Jane is smart. Overall I really enjoyed this book 3.5 stars rounded up to 5

🌟🌟🌟.25 stars

*Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.*

I was really excited to get into this debut novel for the pseudonym, Elci North. The concept is about America approximately 100 years or so in the future. Lawmakers have put an emphasis on the “Halcyon Days”, or the 1950s and early 1960s, as they believe that . With this emphasis, women are not able to work until their children are 18; they are limited in the jobs permitted; they are forced to marry the father if they become pregnant out of wedlock, and so much more. Additionally, women who find themselves pregnant, do not actually get to raise the child they carried unless they buy it at “The Auction”. The author does a spectacular job giving the background of this society.

The plot is centered around 4 women who all find themselves in pregnancy prison for various reasons. 3 out of the 4 main characters were enjoyable and with whom were easy to sympathize. Angelica, however, even after her character development, was still just terrible; I don’t know that that was intentional.

In between chapters, there are news reports that detail new laws, election news, and anything related. This was a great inclusion that helps to fully immerse you in their society. It also helped to foreshadow what was going to happen next, so it was a device that I felt helped keep the plot on track.

With this said, it was very obviously self-published. There were multiple typos/grammatical errors (not just in the ARC but in the KU edition as well). At times, the dialogue did not match the overall tone of the setting, but that was also a positive in that it wasn’t all doom and gloom. Some of the dialogue was also just annoying. Additionally, certain details, like Millie’s heightened sense of smell, became overly repetitive.

This is one of the few books that I have wished were less character driven, as the plot felt muddled with all of the redundant inclusions. This book went back and forth from being extremely rushed to being dragged out. I feel that with an editor, this book would become a must read.

Despite all of my criticisms, I did enjoy reading this as it felt like a relevant read for the political climate in which we find ourselves. If you enjoy dystopian novels, I recommend giving this a read! In the future, I am excited to see what Elci North will release next.

Note: this can also be found on Kindle Unlimited.

This was a really cool concept! Loved the plot, loved the whole idea of it and had 1984 dystopian vibes. I found one of the characters a bit annoying but other than that I couldn't fault it. Really enjoyable read and I'm dying to know who the author is!

Thank you so much to NetGalley for giving me and ARC to review

2.5 stars!

I was really interested in reading this given the reviews and the premise of the book. I was excited to see how this world would be written, and how the rules have changed with women’s rights etc. I’m a big fan of books that take on this and give a new look onto such an important matter.

It was a good story, well thought out with the rules and sadly felt shockingly relatable given the current circumstances in the world.

If the story was written just a tad bit different as it felt rushed at some points with some dialogue between characters, and their tone didn’t seem to match the atmosphere of what was happening at some points to me, but at some parts it felt like it was dragging or being repeated a few times. One thing that annoyed me to no end was the constant mention of Millie’s smelling abilities. Like okay, I get it but good god it was mentioned so much that it became annoying and even felt like a main focus of the book. And for these reasons is why I gave it this rating.

But I enjoyed the world building in the book and how things were set out and explained, along with the rule/news announcements after each chapter.

The future of America is not flying cars and robots at every corner. Nope. Instead, it's the Auction - the government's way of taxing Americans and getting more money. President Boyce (basically a dictator) wants America to go back to the "Halycon Days" or the 1950s and 1960s. In those wonderful days, the men worked and the woman stayed home and cooked, cleaned, and cared for the children - all while wearing heels, dresses, and not a hair out of place. According to President Boyce and his laws, if a woman gets pregnant, she must marry the biological father whether or not she knows him. Certain sports are too dangerous for women to play and women can't travel because it all puts too much stress on the woman's body. This book follows four women who live completely different lives but end up in the same pregnancy prison, become friends and begin to question everything they know.

This book really surprised me. I wasn't expecting to find it so interesting and to like all of the characters (normally one always ends up annoying me) but I felt like I knew them all. Elci North does a great job at describing the characters, their backstories, and what's happening in future America. There were some funny spots that I even laughed at. However, it does slow in the middle of the book and some conversations seem repetitive but it definitely picks back up and finishes strong.

Thank you, NetGalley and Independent Book Publishers Association for the opportunity to read this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Love The Handmaid's Tale? This is a great standalone novel for you!!

I'm not much for dystopian literature usually - but The Auction was so well written!! And you get to see the women reclaim their lives/power/faith in humanity I suppose? By the end of this book, I felt like I learned a lot about myself and how I would handle things!

An introspective read is always great to include amidst the romance and fantasy!

This book is amazing and very on-point for the time period we are living in. I've already bought a copy of it for my classroom and I plan to spread word of this book far and wide. Well done!

4 stars

Oh wow this book was so different from what I used to read. The book is set like a hundred years from today and its premise is that the US sell babies in an auction as a form of gaining money. I was really impressed with how the author developed the story and was gladly surprised to get 4 different points of view.
Once again the book surprised me but overall was such a good read. I couldn't stop reading it.


Thanks NetGalley for giving me an ARC in exchange of an honest review.

WOW!! This book had me hooked from the start. This is a book that everyone should read. It may be a work of fiction but it shows the possibility of where things can progress to if we let it.

I received an ARC and this is my unbiased opinion

Thank you to Netgalley And publisher for this incredible ARC!!

This was a chilling and compelling read. My feelings condensed into a single thought. I hope to God this doesn't happen because I know for a fact it ain't that easy. It is as if Elci North reached into my nightmares and all my anxiety about the world today and pulled out this book. It was riveting, and I was unable to sleep until it was finished.

It is in need of a stern and strong handed editor, some of the choices that the characters made were unnecessary and silly (Angelina) and if I heard about Millie's super schnoz one more time...but, ultimately this was a decent, thrilling book with a satisfying ending.

TW: r@pe of ALL KINDS