Talulah Riley

Beware the Matriarchy

The world has changed.
No longer do men have dominance, no longer are women second class citizens. Now the tables have turned.

Equality was never an option, superiority was always the aim.

The Quickening is a dystopian novel which flips the real world on it's head, showing what society would be like if women took control, and made the matriarchy as powerful and all consuming as the patriarchy ever was.
Although caricaturised in parts, the simple reversal of roles described in this book create a powerful image. The things which happen every day to women in our world suddenly seem ridiculous, criminal and unlikely when they are shown to happen to men instead.
The ludicrous nature of those things throws into sharp relief how desperately certain changes of the last few centuries were in fact needed, and how equally necessary further change still is.

Although the storytelling is sloppy and this book screams first novel (although its the author's second), I appreciate how this book made me think. The characters were almost all fairly uninteresting to me, and out of everyone I was really only drawn with curiosity to Dana. There must have been millions of Dana's over the centuries, filled with subversive ideals and swimming in privilege - it's scary to have a look at what it might be like when one of them is in the right place at the right time, and is given the opportunity to realise those ideals.

The end of the story felt so silly to me, the scenes in The Nest clearly came from a good idea yet they just didn't work for me.
I think that Riley uses more crass imagery than her writing talent has scope for.

Overall I am happy to have read this inflammatory, provocative book. I enjoyed the general concept a great deal, and I would recommend it to specific people. Strong parallels exist with between The Quickening and Brave New World, 1984 and Fahrenheit 451. That's not to say that if you loved those books then you should read this one - it is certainly not of their class.… (more)