Stevie‘s review of Curfew by Jayne Cowie
Dystopian Fiction published by Berkley 22 Mar 22
I approached this book with more than a little trepidation; while I have some sympathy for the idea that – in specific circumstances, such as during the search for a serial killer – it may be preferable to restrict the movements of those fitting the suspect’s demographic group than to place restrictions on those fitting that of the victims, there is no biological attribute that can be used to divide people along strict binary criteria, and so any such move would be imperfect and thus unsustainable. So on the one hand, I was hoping that this book about a curfew for men would examine those grey areas, and on the other hand I was terrified that the story would completely ignore trans and non-binary people like me, not to mention intersex individuals and gender nonconforming people.
And oh boy, but it was worse than I feared. Not only are there no mentions of trans people in the story at all, but we see nothing of how the restrictions on men affect those men who were already in committed partnerships with each other before the curfew laws restricted their ability to move around and make a living, or on how a near-upending of gender roles for heterosexual couples might affect the relationships of lesbian and bisexual women. I think there was a passing comment about one minor character being in a relationship with another woman, while two of the main characters live in a female-only multi-occupant household, but the latter is presented more as a means of avoiding men, than as a way of forging bonds between the residents.
The story itself is set around a murder investigation – said by the characters to be a rare occurrence since the curfew was imposed on men – and follows the various women impacted by the crime, as well as holding up the various men in their lives as potential perpetrators. While history, and some very recent trials, has shown us that women can also be guilty of the most heinous crimes, this reality is glossed over here. As far as the characters in the book are concerned, men have been restrained, and crime has gone down in the years since the laws were imposed. Women are successful in their careers, which is good, yet schools teach that girls are physically weaker than boys. That scene really annoyed me. Based on the description of the two teen characters, I would have expected the girl character to be more than equal to the boy in any fair comparison of strength.
The investigation itself is carried out by two police officers from different generations and with different opinions on the benefits and drawbacks of curfew. While their suspicions centre around both who had a motive and whether any of their suspects could have disabled the electronic tag that is supposed to prevent men evading their curfew, I was disappointed that no other possibility – such as the killer being female – was given more than a passing consideration, if it was mentioned at all. The book even gives some page time to the concept that women can be just as cruel as men (sticking to binaries here, only because that’s what the book does), and yet this is never really explored – I’m not entirely sure the author realised they were even covering that possibility, to be honest.
All in all, I still think this is a great concept for a book and makes me ponder whether – in the unlikely event I were given a choice in this world – I would pick the restrictions placed on the men over the hypocrisy displayed by the women, but the execution in this case completely failed from my point of view.
Grade: F
Summary:
Think The Handmaid’s Tale but with the women in charge, set in a world where all men are electronically tagged and placed under strict curfew, and the murder investigation threatening to undo it all.
Imagine a near-future Britain in which women dominate workplaces, public spaces, and government. Where the gender pay gap no longer exists and motherhood opens doors instead of closing them. Where women are no longer afraid to walk home alone, to cross a dark parking lot, or to catch the last train.
Where all men are electronically tagged and not allowed out after 7 p.m.
But the curfew hasn’t made life easy for all women. Sarah is a single mother who happily rebuilt her life after her husband, Greg, was sent to prison for breaking curfew. Now he’s about to be released, and Sarah isn’t expecting a happy reunion, given that she’s the reason he was sent there.
Her teenage daughter, Cass, hates living in a world that restricts boys like her best friend, Billy. Billy would never hurt anyone, and she’s determined to prove it. Somehow.
Helen is a teacher at the local school. Secretly desperate for a baby, she’s applied for a cohab certificate with her boyfriend, Tom, and is terrified that they won’t get it. The last thing she wants is to have a baby on her own.
These women don’t know it yet, but one of them is about to be violently murdered. Evidence will suggest that she died late at night and that she knew her attacker. It couldn’t have been a man because a CURFEW tag is a solid alibi.
Isn’t it?
Read an excerpt.
