**TRIGGER WARNING** This book discusses some VERY UNCOMFORTABLE SUBJECTS. If you aren't comfortable with the handmaid's tale and its ilk, don't read this review.

Author: tranquilstars

Genre: Sci-fi

What I liked about this book:

This is probably one of the best pieces of speculative fiction on Wattpad.

it's skin crawlingly awful, in a visceral way I kept hoping would get better but then it just didn't. It kept getting worse and worse. The premise is a future US where women are stripped to their titles and men, all named Adam, are allowed to have multiple wives. And it is fuuuuucked up.

We're not really treading new ground here--The Handmaid's Tale kind of did the same thing--but it's being done exceptionally, exceptionally well. Every scene was needed. The main character's being gay crept up on me in a way where it was really obvious even from the very beginning once I noticed, and noticing felt like a slap to the face.

This view of the US is disturbing and roiling and this book made me want to vomit but I couldn't stop reading it.

What I did NOT like about this book:

That ending was bullshit. Come on, man. They just let them go, after having them sign paperwork? And the entire rest of the world is just...cool with this? Well I'm not. Grow some spine and let that awfulness sink in, make them *really* escape from this horrible place instead of just getting an 'alright' the second they don't want to be there anymore.

It cheapened the entire book for me. The eastern states are horrific, there is state sanctioned rape everywhere, this perverted view of togetherness, marriage, and everything else...and then we just throw it out the window as a sociology experiment?

No. Nu-uh. I hated it. Give me some teeth behind these fucked up views, not 'lol we just wanted to see how long people would put up with this, bye now!'

The rest of the book was fantastic I just can't with that ending.

I don't really have much else to complain about if I'm gonna be honest.

Overall:

Not treading new ground, but doing a fantastic job up until the last 8 chapters or so, which pissed me right the fuck off.

Rating:

8/10, I took off TWO points because seriously, I can't with the Western States Escape.