The Quickening is a chilling dystopia set in a future Britain where women are in charge and men are barely tolerated.
While studying at Oxford, Dana Mayer can feel that change is coming and develops a manifesto along with her female friends that they call The Quickening. Thanks to a global pandemic quickly followed by a war (sound familiar anyone?) there is a vacuum in the corridors of power and Dana and her coterie of privileged women are uniquely positioned to fill it.
Anyone who naively thinks that the world would be better off governed by women, take heed. Women aren't intrinsically better or morally superior to men - we are all human, with the same foibles, desires and biases, the same capacity for kindness and cruelty. And these women have no interest in equality - they want revenge.
The story is told in alternating chapters through the eyes of two protagonists, Art and Victoria. Art befriends Dana at Oxford, but he is so blinkered by his white male privilege and his desire to get into Dana's pants that he fails entirely to see what is happening right under his nose. He is a pathetic figure, easily manipulated by the powerful women in his life and smilingly colludes until it is all too late. Victoria, a pop star and the winner of a reality show, is co-opted into the inner circle to be the populist face of the party. Coming from a different background however, she is less comfortable with some of the new regime's diktats.
And so, The Quickening describes a really well thought out terrifying potential future, with a fabulous cast of characters ranging from unlikeable to totally despicable. If you have any lingering misogynistic idea that women are sugar and spice and all things nice, then a) you've clearly never been to an all girl's school and b) this novel should thoroughly disabuse you of that notion.
Thanks to Readers First for the advance copy.
While studying at Oxford, Dana Mayer can feel that change is coming and develops a manifesto along with her female friends that they call The Quickening. Thanks to a global pandemic quickly followed by a war (sound familiar anyone?) there is a vacuum in the corridors of power and Dana and her coterie of privileged women are uniquely positioned to fill it.
Anyone who naively thinks that the world would be better off governed by women, take heed. Women aren't intrinsically better or morally superior to men - we are all human, with the same foibles, desires and biases, the same capacity for kindness and cruelty. And these women have no interest in equality - they want revenge.
The story is told in alternating chapters through the eyes of two protagonists, Art and Victoria. Art befriends Dana at Oxford, but he is so blinkered by his white male privilege and his desire to get into Dana's pants that he fails entirely to see what is happening right under his nose. He is a pathetic figure, easily manipulated by the powerful women in his life and smilingly colludes until it is all too late. Victoria, a pop star and the winner of a reality show, is co-opted into the inner circle to be the populist face of the party. Coming from a different background however, she is less comfortable with some of the new regime's diktats.
And so, The Quickening describes a really well thought out terrifying potential future, with a fabulous cast of characters ranging from unlikeable to totally despicable. If you have any lingering misogynistic idea that women are sugar and spice and all things nice, then a) you've clearly never been to an all girl's school and b) this novel should thoroughly disabuse you of that notion.
Thanks to Readers First for the advance copy.