Review-Jemma7729

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by plappen

Jemma7729, Phoebe Wray, 2008, ISBN 1894063406


Around the year 2200, everyone in North America lives in domes. They have been told by AGNA (Administrative Government of North America), who controls North America with an iron fist, that the atmosphere is toxic and deadly. Women have had all rights taken away from them, under the guise of protecting them.

Jemma7729 (everyone's name is a group of letters and numbers) is someone who does not act "appropriately." When she is five years old, Jemma gets into a fight with a boy at school. Jemma is the one who must publicly apologize to the whole school. Females are not allowed to show aggression, or express an opinion. While her mother is away for a few days, Jemma's father takes her Outside (there is nothing wrong with the air) and shows her the stars on a clear night. For Jemma, there is no going back.

At ten years old, everyone must go through Choosing Day, where they must choose what they want to do for the rest of their lives. Jemma has few available options, the least awful of which is Woman Who Marries. She is very uninterested in spending the rest of her life pleasing her husband, arranging flowers and being an AGNA spy (like her mother). Jemma refuses to choose, and is immediately hauled to "rehab" (prison), where, after a year of harsh techniques to break her spirit, bordering on torture, she escapes to the outside world. Jemma is eleven years old.

Jemma quickly learns to live on her own and spends her time sabotaging the factories that make the chemicals to keep women "altered" (docile and compliant). After a couple of years, the "underground" catches up to Jemma, and convinces her to join them. She spends the next several years traveling to this small town or that isolated hamlet, letting the people know that they are not alone. Meantime, AGNA has described Jemma as some sort of horrible terrorist who likes killing innocent people, which is totally untrue.

This near future, one person against the system, story, might seem a little basic, but the author does a fine job with it. It's interesting, plausible and it's well worth reading.

Paul Lappen is a freelance book reviewer whose website, www.deadtreesreview.com has over 600 reviews on all subjects, with an emphasis on small press books.

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