137. The Chaperone

The Chaperone. M. Hendrix. 2023. [June] 448 pages. [Source: Library] [YA Fiction; dystopia]

First sentence: I hear it while I'm in my room getting ready for Sunday Visitation.

Premise/plot: The Chaperone is YA dystopian. The premise is that a 'New America' has arisen and is super strict. (Think SHINY HAPPY PEOPLE documentary-ish). Stella Graham, our protagonist, is a high schooler who has lived under the care and guidance of a chaperone--as most young girls do--from the time she came of age [aka her period started]. This one begins with the death of her first chaperone, Sister Helen. (That's not a spoiler. It's literally the second sentence of the novel.) 

Stella has grown up in New America. She doesn't remember a Before. She has nothing to compare it to. No one talks about it--at least not in a fair, representative way. Perhaps they talk about it in a revisionist way. New America is AWESOME, don't you know. It's so wonderful that young girls, women are respected, valued, cherished, protected. There are rules for women [girls] and rules for men [boys]. The only tiny glimpse of 'before' she's been exposed to are a few books that her chaperone has encouraged her to read. 

Sister Laura is her new chaperone...and under her "care" and "guidance" well Stella becomes an independent thinker. She goes from a rule-follower to rule breaker like in a day. [Okay, perhaps I exaggerate. Let's be fair. Three days.] 

Will Stella submit to all the rules and conform??? Or will she find a way to be independent, expressive, and FREE according to her own definition?

My thoughts: I do have thoughts. First, I don't fault The Chaperone for being written with a hammer instead of a pen. That's the way of many dystopian novels. Exaggerate to the point of absurdity. Take an inkling of a perceived problem and magnify it by ten thousand. Hammer your world view for a couple of hundred pages. So I don't fault it for that. 

It is exactly what you think it will be. Conservative values and views magnified by a million and taken to the point of absurdity so they are unrecognizable. This isn't switch and bait. Again, can't fault it for that. I like it when a book delivers on a premise.

What I don't necessarily enjoy/appreciate about this one is the characterization and timing. I think Stella's coming of age is inevitable. The novel would be very short indeed if it wasn't about Stella's journey from rule-follower to rule-breaker. I think it was too instant to be believable. I don't know that the book takes into account how thoroughly "normal" and "ordinary" Stella's upbringing would have seemed. You can't be raised in something--immersed for sixteen to eighteen years in something--and not have it be a foundational, as natural as breathing, way of life. New America formed before her parents were married. She's known no other way of life. Her friends have not known another way of life. Sneaking a few books over the past few years doesn't seem "enough" to push from committed believer to total skeptic. (Not that the book is a god/religion thing). And the catalyst we're supposed to buy into...is her being left unchaperoned for like five or ten minutes. (I think at a library? some public place?) Sister Laura "hid" from view. She had Stella in view, but Stella could not see her. Stella's response was panic, worry, despair. After this initial "trauma" Stella has a complete and total realization--hey I believe nothing and I want out. Again, I just don't buy it. Too instant. Too fast. Not enough time spent wavering, doubting, considering, reasoning with one self. Just GIRL POWER. MUST RAISE UP AND ROAR. I think I would have found Stella more compelling if there was an actual-actual struggle, a journey--a metamorphosis. 

I also found it a bit shaky on WHY. I'll try to explain. If Stella had been being courted by Mateo (or another boy she found cute, attractive, desirable, ideal), would she have been eager to leave New America? If she had been allowed to 'follow her heart' and get to know the boy of her dreams, would she have ever considered leaving New America? If she hadn't been being courted or pursued by young men [and men] she had NO interest in, no attraction, no desire, just pure yuck factor, would the story have played out differently? Would she have EVER realized that New America was less than ideal if her hormones hadn't been influencing her? That is, if she'd been in control of WHO she dated/courted....if she'd been allowed a say in whether or not she said I do or I don't....would it have been an issue???? 

This wasn't so much about god (or God) or a particular religion or practice of religion. (Again, don't care one way or another. Perhaps it's better that it wasn't so much geared that way). But Stella's idea of freedom mainly consists in freedom to express one's sexuality, to act on sexual desires, to be free to be sexual on one's own term. 

I thought the world-building had potential. I thought it was more often than not shallow and one-dimensional....as opposed to immersive and believable. Again, I thought there could be potential with the premise/concept. Just it felt a little too instant and convenient. 

© 2023 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews