Reviews tagging 'Abortion'

The Future of Another Timeline by Annalee Newitz

50 reviews

bookwormbi's review

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adventurous dark tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

I wanted like an intensely homoerotic tale about friends driven apart by murder, sort of a Jennifer’s Body with time travel type deal, but unfortunately this was more Handmaid’s Tale with a lot of physics thrown in. Also as a nonbinary person this book is so “cis woman learned about trans people yesterday and is trying to be inclusive so props for that but…yikes” and nowhere does it show more than in the phrase “women and new genders”
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hamstringy's review against another edition

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dark tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.5

This is really another book for the pile of books that should have been something I enjoyed. I was left soooo disappointed and really annoyed at the end of the book. Parts of the book are incredibly cool to me, like the science of time travel, the concept of political struggle over a timeline instead of just over linear moments.
I also did really enjoy one scene where the MC gouges a man's eyeballs out and calls his eye sockets "another hole to penetrate";
I think that was both really baller and genuinely an example of an idea I wish Newitz had committed to more.

Let's sort my criticisms into petty and conceptual:

Petty Nitpicks: 
  • Women in the 1890s wearing "lacy bras"
  • A character predicting she'd graduate from UCLA in the 90s with $50k in debt (which there is no way to do in 4-5 years)
  • People using modern slang while time traveling while having people of the times understand them (okay sure, we're ignoring historical linguistics, that is a valid choice), but they catch enemy time travelers because they use modern slang??

Actual Beef: 
  • I find this book to be quite bioessentialist--a lot of it is focused on an expanded Comstock act and the legality of abortion, which does most obviously affect people with uteruses (often women). This is fine, but the narrative keeps harping on the fact that the Sisters of Harriet are for women and nonbinary people. What about trans men? Are they not central to the underlying themes of autonomy, particularly with people obsessed with "female" fertility? What does the Comstock act do to affect nonbinary people and trans women? Why are all but one of the main characters women if there is gender diversity? It takes a lot of wind out of this book's sails, and, honestly, part of me wished the author just chose to make the Sisters of Harriet focused on abortion for women, because that's all they seemed equipped to handle. 
  • I find the constant pacifism of the Sisters to be incredibly annoying. I think this is in large part because I'm not a staunch interpersonal pacifist myself, but it also doesn't really make sense in-book: what is one man versus the global health of all women? No one ever seems to express a very "sanctity of all life" sentiment, so it feels really disappointing a choice to shy away from the conflict between violence and autonomy. 
  • I wish the Comstockers weren't made out to be these cartoonish villains. People who are anti-abortion can seem that way, but I think it's a generally more interesting and more compelling struggle if the Comstockers have complexity and nuance--this is hinted at in the very first scene, where a Comstocker is anti-college because of its establishment roots, but their politics quickly devolve into calling all women sluts and wanting them dead. 
  • A riot grrl band never exists because the main character and her friend succeed and legalize abortion in the 21st century, but the riot grrl movement (and in particular this Latina-fronted band) was never just focused on abortion. Did men suddenly stop raping, harrassing, and objectifying musicians?
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allisonplus's review against another edition

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challenging informative mysterious medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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joypouros's review against another edition

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adventurous dark medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

In this alternate history, time travel has been always been possible, and it is a geological phenomenon. This means it is a field of study and the reality is people are constantly changing history. I loved how this was baked into the book's world. 

The bulk of the plot revolves around an edit war for women's rights. Progress isn't just fought for in the current political stage, but in changing history. 

The world has generally figured out that killing evil people in the past does not work because the social environment that allowed them to succeed still exists and someone just as bad will take their place. Change requires a more grassroots approach. 

Our main character alternates between trying to make positive change in the late 1800s that will have a positive effect on women centuries later and trying to stop something terrible from happening in her personal life in 1992. But edits have unintended consequences. 

Plus, there is a group of incels who are trying to break time travel to freeze edits in a timeline when women have no rights. 

The book is very unexpectedly political and feminist. But it was very interesting and I loved the take on time travel origins.
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podanotherjessi's review against another edition

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challenging inspiring medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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alsoapples's review

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adventurous inspiring mysterious medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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sabrinahughes's review against another edition

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3.0

idk it had a lot of problems but I finished it so.
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emilliampere's review

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adventurous hopeful informative mysterious reflective medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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jhbandcats's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Creating a believable time travel story is bound to be difficult because it never makes sense once you start to analyze it. This story is so good that it was believable throughout - I wasn’t even tempted to try to analyze it because the plot fit together so perfectly. 

This book is topical, having been published in 2019, three years before the Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade. It describes a 1993 and a 2022 where abortion has never been legalized, and time travelers work to edit the timeline in favor of women’s rights. Of course, the people who deny rights to women are just as busy trying to edit the timeline to crush women and turn them into breeders. (It feels all too real in that sense.)

Engaging story, valiant characters, salient topic - an excellent book. 
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rafaelsampaio's review against another edition

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adventurous dark hopeful informative reflective medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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