Shelf Awareness--The Chaperone

YA Review: The Chaperone

The Chaperone by M Hendrix (Sourcebooks Fire, 448p., ages 13-up, 9781728260006)

In M Hendrix's compelling, vivid dystopia, The Chaperone, 17-year-old Stella struggles with the near-total domination of women in a society where the Minutemen party controls everything, "from the top branches of government--liberty and security--all the way down to the military constables."

In New America, unmarried females who reach puberty must be supervised by a chaperone at all times; they are not allowed romantic relationships, a college education, or careers--only marriage and "babies right away." When "golden-brown"-haired Stella's beloved chaperone, Sister Helen, dies suddenly and mysteriously, she leaves Stella a cryptic message: "Angel." Her new chaperone, Sister Laura, is unusual: Stella is allowed to jog with her usually off-limits dad, take self-defense lessons, and read banned books. These freedoms at first feel terrifying but quickly become liberating. Sister Laura even allows her to spend time alone in public, which Stella and her female classmates are told is exceptionally dangerous due to supposed kidnappings of unchaperoned young women in public. The more independence Stella gains, the more she questions--by the time she figures out "Angel," she knows it is essential she escape.

Hendrix's first work of fiction presents an infuriating, nonsensical diminishment of women that turns them into helpless children and baby-bearers. With its shades of Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale, The Chaperone depicts a New America that feels all too real. Hendrix's storytelling is first rate: characters develop believably, and the action builds dramatically to a satisfying conclusion. A strong, rewarding contemporary vision of oppression. --Lynn Becker, reviewer, blogger, and children's book author.