Bodger, Holly
Entry updated 12 September 2022. Tagged: Author.
(? - ) Canadian editor and author whose first novel, the Young Adult Near Future 5 to 1 (2015), sidesteps some of the pitfalls normally encountered in tales of this description set in Dystopian environments. In this case, the tale is set in the Indian subcontinent, in the breakaway matriarchal enclave of Koyanagar (see Feminism; Women in SF) where the historical gender imbalance between in India between male and female births has been countered through a matriarchal government where young females are valued very much more highly than young males, who outnumber them five to one. There are two young protagonists; an adolescent girl who narrates her portions in accessible free verse; and the adolescent boy who seems destined to come first in the Tests that males must undergo, a mild form of the games so often featured in young adult dystopias. Together they manage to avoid the arranged marriage neither of them wishes. The book is crisply told, though lacking in closure. [JC]
Holly Bodger
born
works
- 5 to 1 (New York: Alfred A Knopf, 2015) [hb/Jennifer Heuer]
links
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