The Birth Yard

Such a different storyline from what I'm use to, however -- it kept me hooked the whole time! Didn't expect the ending but was so thankful it turned out how it did.

This debut novel by Canadian novelist Mallory Tater is sure to be a bookclub favorite in the coming months. Or at least it's a book that I would like to propose to our bookclub. It certainly has and will probably continue to draw comparisons to <i>Handmaid's Tale</i> but this is not a dystopian world that Mallory Tater is building. <br /><br />Instead the world of eighteen year old Sable Ursu and her friends is happening in the current contemporary world. The community in which Sable and her family live, is a patriarchal cult called the Den. Young women at the age of 18 can now create life and the novel takes us through the process and Sable's internal struggle to battle the laws of her society and the growing rebellion that she feels. <br /><br /> I REALLY feel that this book grabbed my attention and when I got to the end, I instantly said "Ugh, there better be a sequel!" I need to know what happens to Sable, Ambrose and the rest of the characters I met within these pages. <br /><br /><br />Goodreads review published 01/05/20

I came across this title on a Canadian fiction preview list: <a target="_blank" rel="noopener nofollow" href="https://www.cbc.ca/books/47-works-of-canadian-fiction-to-watch-for-in-spring-2020-1.5426273">https://www.cbc.ca/books/47-works-of-...</a>. I wish I’d skipped this one.<br /><br />Sable Ursu lives in a patriarchal cult known as The Den. Women’s lives are strictly controlled; even girls’ menstrual cycles are regulated and synchronized. Sable turns 18 so her schooling ends and she is paired with a Match in order to conceive. In her second trimester of pregnancy, she is sequestered with other women to a birth yard where they are prepared for giving birth and motherhood. They are also drugged so they will be less prone to hysteria and will be more compliant. Sable breaks some of the rules and she and her friends suffer consequences.<br /><br />Descriptions of the book mention how it echoes <i>The Handmaid’s Tale</i>. No kidding! There’s the misogynistic, male supremacist world where women are expected to “nurture and produce” and are blamed for all of society’s ills: the founder of The Den “believed women and their inability to temper emotion with reason were a primary, key cause of many of society’s problems.” Women are even blamed for any sexual violence committed against them. People in The Den are kept away from the evil influence of Main Stream, the outside world. Of course, the protagonist has a questioning nature which causes her to slowly realize the unfairness of the world she inhabits and to rebel against it.<br /><br />Sable should be a likeable character. She is curious and demonstrates some independent thinking, and she believes in loyalty to friends over loyalty to the community’s ideals. Unfortunately, she is just such a bland person and ever so inconsistent. She thinks, “Maybe I am a bad friend” (156) and “I think I’m a good friend” (230). Sable’s opinion of her midwife Grey is negative and then positive and then negative and then positive. <br /><br />And Sable is not the only inconsistent character. All the young women behave bizarrely: Elspeth “wraps her hand around a table leg” and Dinah “strokes her hand up the table leg.” They are friends and then they are physically attacking each other. At one point, Elspeth lunges at Sable, grabs her throat and squeezes. Dinah intervenes by saying, “’Don’t touch her. Stop touching her.’” That’s the verb she uses to describe an attempt at strangulation? Elspeth’s actions are attributed to the effects of the drugs, though the drugs (DociGens) are supposed to keep them docile! Mamie’s behaviour and comments suggest a lack of intelligence and Dinah even makes a comment about someone being “dumber than Mamie” but then Sable thinks, “Mamie can’t face anything that scares her – she’s too smart for her own good”? On one page, Sable comments, “my Father hasn’t been doing as well. My parents need my good favour to repair their home, to get Lynx’s money and attention” but three pages later she adds, “my Father is in good favour with Lynx”?<br /><br />Reading the book is plodding work. There is definitely a lack of excitement because nothing much happens. Sable complains, “I feel trapped sometimes, fenced in, claustrophobic with routine” and that’s exactly how the reader feels much of the time. A scene involving a pig seems thrown in just to add some action. Then when some suspense is finally created, there’s a <i>deus ex machina</i> ending. <br /><br />The writing style is also tedious. Short, choppy sentences abound: “We walk toward the lake. There is nothing to do but wait, maybe wade. We sit in the sand . . . We sit without thinking of work or life. We sit without any other girls around us. We sit like lepers. The dock ahead is so inviting. We are not permitted to walk along it. I notice a lack of birds here.” The repetitive diction and sentence structure do nothing to enliven the narrative: “She never sits up. She drools on the grass. She has a cut on her lip . . . She says my headscarf glowed . . . She says she kissed my skirt . . . She says she just wanted to serve and help me. She says . . . ” And some of the descriptions make no sense: the midwives wear “long black skirts” so how can Sable know that “Some have more than one pair of socks up to their knees”?<br /><br />I disagree with CBC Books that this is a book “to watch for in spring 2020”. If you see it, move on. <br /><br /><b>Please check out my reader's blog (<a target="_blank" rel="noopener nofollow" href="https://schatjesshelves.blogspot.com/">https://schatjesshelves.blogspot.com/</a>) and follow me on Twitter (@DCYakabuski).</b> <br />

This story is about 18 year old Sable who lives in a totalitarian cult called the Den on the outskirts of society. The Den is governed by Men, they control female fertility, sexuality, matchmaking and more. Upon her 18th birthday Sable is deemed ready to breed. She and other girls her age are then matched with a male in hopes of conceiving a baby. Once pregnant they are sent to "The Birth Yard" to prep for birth and motherhood, but are regularily drugged and punished by their midwives if they disobey. As things become tense Sable starts to question who she can trust and how safe she really is, forcing her to rebel against everything she has ever known!<br /><br />This was dark and intense! I found the whole concept very interesting. With a plot similar to The Handmaids Tale but elevated in many ways. Tater has crafted a scary tyrannical patriarch society here, one I hope never comes to fruition in modern society. <br />•<br />Thank You to the publisher for sending me this book opinions are my own.

The Birth Yard is Mallory Taters debut novel! <br /><br />The story follows Sable Ursu who has just turned eighteen. Eighteen, the age in which girls are deemed ready to breed. Her world, a cult known as the Den, is fully controlled by Men. All decisions in regards to female fertility, sexuality, even a suitable Match are the final decision of Men. <br /><br />Sable along with her friends Mamie and Dinah receive their Match. From there they breed, even successful insemination and confirmed pregnancy are controlled. A timeline for pregnancy means risks, those who conceive after that date are forced to terminate. In their second trimester, girls are sent to The Birth Yard. A place where they prepare for giving birth, are paired with a midwife, monitored as well as drugged. As the story progresses Sables loyalty is in doubt, she faces danger and rises in opposition against the only life she has ever known. <br /><br />I thoroughly enjoyed this story as I am truly fascinated by cults. It was well written and very interesting. I would love to see this story continue with a second book! <br /><br />A huge thank you to Harper Collins Canada for my review copy! <br />

<img src="https://images.gr-assets.com/hostedimages/1441579208ra/16125015.gif" class="gr-hostedUserImg" loading="lazy"><br><br>300 pages of pointlessness driven by a character as boring as she is stupid, waiting for SOME THING to finally happen, and then when it finally does, the book just.... ends.<br><br>Why. Why was this even published. Why was it written. Why did I waste a day of my life finishing it. Just...why.

Similar to The Handmaids Tale. Creepy weird world where women are forced to breed.

(SPOILER ALERT) I picked this up with enthusiasm, it being pitched at fans of The Handmaid’s Tale (which I devoured when it came out in 1985!). Sadly my high hopes were unrealised. Perhaps if I were younger and not already a ‘vintage’ feminist. Perhaps if I hadn’t already read The Handmaid’s Tale. Perhaps so many things.<br /><br />I did not find this to be at all ‘gripping’... indeed, I was quite bored for the first 100 or so pages and had to force myself to keep reading. <br /><br />Part of the problem was the writing style… very simple, short little sentences lacking in any kind of variation, with a tendency to preach, to tell not show. Take for instance: “We need to try for her. Birth yards are unjust. I will miss Mamie like crazy.” (p293) Besides the choppy writing, the reader already well understands this… we don’t need to be told by the author. Given that the novel is written in the first person, I have to assume that it was intentional, and supposed to be in keeping with the character, Sable, herself and her lack of worldly experience and exposure to literature. For me as a reader though it just didn’t work. For this and many other reasons I wish the novel had been written in the third person. <br /><br />Another part of the problem is that the protagonist, Sable, just grates on the reader… and she doesn’t really grow as a character from the start to the finish. Yet, another part of the problem is that really, nothing much happens at all… there is very little action to the story, and much of what action does occur just seems to ramble along. Until the end… when some real action - finally - begins… and just as abruptly ends with the close of the book (clearly a sequel to come?)<br /><br />Then there are the inconsistencies and coincidences. Just far too many to suspend disbelief over. For instance: that Garrison’s father who willingly joined the Den from outside because he was pro-life and condemned abortion would be OK with Feles getting to decide who gets born and commanding abortions (p16); or a scene where they are told about their jobs in the Birth Yard that has them sitting on the grass in the morning frost then leaving directly for their afternoon meal (p 198); or heading off to meet Grey to plan their escape it’s so dark that she can barely see where she’s going yet when she arrives at the meeting point she opens her atlas to look at it (p282); or that Elspeth not jump at the chance to leave (p290); or that Dinah is due easily a full month before Sable yet it’s Sable who goes into labour while they are on the run (p305); and finally that they just happen to reach Bow Lake right as Sable goes into labour and the old man in the park just happens to be Elspeth’s grandfather. There are many, many, many more similar such occurrences.<br />

Lowkey one of the most frightening books I've read -- just imagining being in this situation. <br /><br />Anyway, I recommend this to fans of <a href="https://goodreads.com/book/show/38447.The_Handmaid_s_Tale__The_Handmaid_s_Tale___1_" title="The Handmaid's Tale (The Handmaid's Tale, #1) by Margaret Atwood" rel="noopener">The Handmaid's Tale</a>, especially if you're like me and are a fan of The Handmaid's Tale but was disappointed by <a href="https://goodreads.com/book/show/42975172.The_Testaments__The_Handmaid_s_Tale___2_" title="The Testaments (The Handmaid's Tale, #2) by Margaret Atwood" rel="noopener">The Testaments</a>.

This is my exact niche of dystopian that I absolutely adore. Weird cults based around controlling women's fertility. I pre-ordered this over 2 years ago but never heard anyone talk about it, so I kept putting off reading it.<br /><br />This might be my favorite book of the year (and I've had quite a few amazing 5 star reads). It was perfect for me, and the author is from my home town! Cult stuff, women slowing realizing that something shady is going on, and then becoming empowered enough to change their circumstances. <br /><br />I also think this hits a bit different now that the US government has lost it's mind and started stripping rights away from pregnant people. Highly recommended.