STARRED Book Review: To the Woman in the Pink Hat

IndieBookView

Dec 26

To the Woman in the Pink Hat

by LaToya Jordan

Genre: Science Fiction / Feminist

ISBN: 9781619762367

Print Length: 100 pages

Reviewed by Joelene Pynnonen

In the near future, a horrifying organization has risen. Posing as a health center that conducts birth control studies, it instead steals the uteruses of young women of color who seek its services and transplants them into women who are willing to pay. Jada Morris had been leading the SU's, a resistance movement against the company, until she was incarcerated for a violent crime.

Now, she has been transferred to The Center, a rehabilitation program aimed at helping her confront her past and getting her back into society. As The Center's therapy tactics become increasingly confronting, Jada starts to question whether there are darker things happening behind the scenes than she realizes.

To the Woman in the Pink Hat is a feminist sci-fi novella that delves into the possible ramifications of reproductive technology in a world that doesn't value people of color. Speculative fiction has long been a vehicle for exploring cultural and social issues in the world, and Jordan uses it to its full potential here.

This book puts a new, sci-fi spin on the US's past acts of forced sterilization against marginalized groups. The same motives apply here with the added horror of capitalist gains. In a world that has all but forgotten the atrocities of the not-too-distant past, To the Woman in the Pink Hat is an important conversation piece. The fact that it is set so near in the future hits the message home even more. Reading this feels like it could be authentic a decade or two down the line if science and racism continue the trajectory they are on.