Hannah Payne has grown up in a world despite its justice system, very similar to our own, with the same technologies and advances in medicine that most Americans are accustomed to. The biggest difference is politics: a religious sector "The Trinity" cabinet has been added to congress to provide new faith elements to the law and criminals are no longer jailed for crimes but undergo a new procedure called Chroming, a process that dyes the skin a color to match the severity of their crime. Yellows are misdemeanors, Reds are murder and Blues- the sexual deviant- rapists and child molesters. After Chroming, the individual is held for 30-60 days under the constant scrutiny of video cameras that air everything to the national public and then released into society to survive on their own. Many of the Chromes once out face brutality in many forms, from racial slurs and no service, to being beaten and raped. Yellows can get by pretty easy, Red women face daily danger of rape and being trafficked as their skin is a kinky commodity....Blues however have it the worst, most of them do not survive very long- they are found dead, discarded and thrown in trash cans.

Raised under the religious fist of her parents, Hannah has accepted the rules, the faith and the world as it is, with her only sin being a few hidden desires to be a dress maker, Hannah seriously lives in an isolated perfect bubble...that is until Aiden Dale changes her life.

In her twenties, when Hannah begins working at a local church, she meets Pastor Aiden Dale-a beloved, popular televangelist who sparks hope in the people and makes the eyes of his wife shine. He's handsome, charismatic and young and Hannah is hopelessly in love with him. During the months of working together and the ridiculous charged sexual tension between them, Aiden avoids being alone with Hannah at all costs, until the inevitable catches up with him and leads them into to a scorching, torrid affair. The affair eventually leads to a pregnancy, one that Hannah knows cant happen. Aiden has made it clear he will never leave his wife and Hannah being an unwed mother knows she will be abandoned by her family and church, facing this all alone, she decides to have an abortion, an illegal practice in Hannah's world due to the overturned Roe Vs. Wade. After the abortion Hannah gets caught and is charged with the murder of her unborn child, during the trail she refuses to name the father or the abortionist, which only further makes her look guilty to the jury and in the end adds to her sentence: 16 years as a Red, the punishment shadowing the original idea of a woman scorned from Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter.

The story begins with her awakening and as she walks the reader back through her affair and the choices she made, we also get to journey with her into a hostile and unknown future. From the shelter she is sent to by her parents who use techniques called "Enlightenment" to reform women, to the people who want to hurt Chromes, to the group who wants to protect them, Hannah embarks on a journey that will test everything she knows about faith and freedom and will bring her face to face with evil, racism, religion and self-discovery in a heart pounding journey of hope.

I was a tangled, absolute mess of emotion when I read When She Woke. I found the content provocative and charged with political and intense religious commentary. A story that made me think, gasp, unnerve and piss me off. The whole issue with the Chroming was in itself brutal, as a reader I was disturbed that this type of procedure would be a punishment, yet at the same time I have no compassion for rapists and child molesters and while I know that was the angle the author wanted me to see, I still even in the end never felt bad for the Blue people, hence my tangled web of emotion. I also had a queasy time getting though Hannah's Enlightenment phase, that was horrendous and very hard to read, the evil and therapy masked by scripture and the person doing it was surely a spawn of Satan.

What was compelling about this novel was Hannah herself and seeing the world through her eyes, as Hannah grew, I grew with her, questioning the same things she did, making her a fascinating character to me, not only because of her incredible strength but her honest and raw vulnerabilities. Even struggling with her faith after the Chroming, her immediate reaction is to defend that which she was raised in without seeing the other side clearly. But these are the things that help Hannah grow and not until much later in the story does she discover what her faith and what religion will be like in her life. Hannah doesn't see her courage at first, as readers we see how that courage transforms her and brings to the surface the Hannah she always was and the woman she will become.

Despite its -insert lesbian scene for added shock value so we can touch on every social commentary possible- I found the story brilliant and unlike anything I've read before. I don't think an author has ever conveyed such deep religious stereotypes and presented them in a way to me that did not offend or make me have a knee-jerk reaction to defend my own faith. Jordan wrote about it in a way that blamed the people and not the religion and she also gave glimmers of light to counteract the zealots and nut bags using religion for the evil they were doing. Even though the strongest positive came through an Episcopal to counteract the Evangelical negatives, I saw tiny threads of genuine goodness through the use of Hannah's father, through a woman who saves Hannah and the maturity both Hannah and Aiden glean about God by the end. An absolute must read for lovers of Dystopia or readers who long for thought provoking, blood boiling emotion, sure to result in powerful discussion and after thought.

Narration

When She Woke was narrated by Heather Corrigan, who did an amazing job bringing Hannah's story to life. Her voice was perfect tone and pitch for the drama and changing themes in the novel. Her accents were fabulous and I found myself completely awed by the story and spent most of the ten hours hiding in my car, the bathroom and listening at night when the kids went to bed. One of those cant stop listening its so good audios.

Rating

Recommended to adult readers only. I've seen this mistaken for YA and please note it is not for young readers. When She Woke touches on mature topics including: Infidelity, adultery, sexuality (mild-graphic) strong language, abortion, social commentaries, freedom issues, rape, human trafficking, racism, hate crimes, homosexuality and a huge emphases on religion-Christianity being the main focus and shown in a negative and positive light.

5/5- Dystopian

Thanks to publisher and Audio Jukebox for Review Copy

Whisper Stories in My Ear Challenge~ 103/300