Summary and Reviews of When She Woke by Hillary Jordan

One
The Scaffold

When she woke, she was red. Not flushed, not sunburned, but the solid, declarative red of a stop sign.

She saw her hands first. She held them in front of her eyes, squinting up at them. For a few seconds, shadowed by her eyelashes and backlit by the hard white light emanating from the ceiling, they appeared black. Then her eyes adjusted, and the illusion faded. She examined the backs, the palms. They floated above her, as starkly alien as starfish. She'd known what to expect - she'd seen Reds many times before, of course, on the street and on the vid - but still, she wasn't prepared for the sight of her own changed flesh. For the twenty-six years she'd been alive, her hands had been a honey-toned pink, deepening to golden brown in the summertime. Now, they were the color of newly shed blood.

She felt panic rising, felt her throat constrict and her limbs begin to quiver. She shut her eyes and forced herself to lie still, slowing her breathing and focusing ...

Please be aware that this discussion guide will contain spoilers!

An Interview with Hillary Jordan about When She Woke and Questions for Discussion

When She Woke is, to say the least, a very different book from your debut novel, Mudbound. What inspired you to go in such a radically different direction?

I actually wrote the first pages of When She Woke in the spring of 2000, in the same workshop where I started Mudbound. And I didn't know what to do with When She Woke, so I wrote Mudbound instead. I didn't return to it until the summer of 2007, after I'd finished Mudbound. By then, we'd seen profound and disturbing changes in America: a rise in religious fundamentalism, the muddying of the line between church and state, infringements on civil rights in the ...

Please be aware that this discussion may contain spoilers!

Here are some of the comments posted about When She Woke in our legacy forum.
You can see the full discussion here.


Are there similarities between the way Chromes are treated to the way some in our own society have been treated, both historically and in the present day?
I think that the focus might have been on "color" since that is the obvious sign of difference between Hannah and the others who have been chromed. I remember once what my former father-in- law said who was an amputee as a result of being injured ... - jknapp

Could you feel sympathy for Aiden? Were any of the characters completely unsympathetic?
I didn't like Aiden and never felt sorry for him. He should have left Hannah alone in the first place. He finally owned up to what he did wrong, but I still didn't like him. I thought he was slimy, the kind of person who makes your skin crawl. - mariannes

Did you feel the author was advocating a particular point of view?
Yes, I felt the author was clearly pro-choice and clearly saw problems with extreme religions. I think she disliked extreme religion, not religion itself, as she showed Hannah developing some spiritual life apart from her extremist upbringing. - mariannes

Do you think there should be a sequel, or perhaps a prequel?
A sequel would be interesting, but only if the author really felt like she had something to say and wasn't writing just to make money. I realize authors need to make money, but I'd rather see her write something else if she doesn't feel strongly ... - mariannes

Do you think women pay a higher price than men for breaking society's rules?
I think women have more societal rules to follow than men, although I really see a lot of changes since I was young. However, women are still expected to be less assertive than men. Since men still fill the majority of positions in law enforcement ... - mariannes