Cover

”The Chaperone,” by M Hendrix. Naperville, IL: Sourcebooks Fire. June 2023. 448 pages. $11.99 (paperback).

If you’ve read the news lately, in this or any other paper, you’ve probably wondered “Where could all this be taking us?” “The Chaperone,” M Hendrix’s dystopian novel, answers this question with a chilling vision of how things might develop, after a transition to “New America.”

In New America, there’s a lot of fear—and fear-mongering. The Minutemen, the real government of New America, fuel fear to control … everyone, especially young women. Girls in New America are systematically groomed to be wives and mothers, all the better to quickly populate this brave new nation. All kinds of “protections” (we would call them restrictions) claim to assure girls’ safety and suitability for bearing children. Boys don’t get such protections; they are allowed to “just be boys,” no matter how egregious their behavior.

At puberty, every girl is assigned a chaperone – a woman who teaches her to be a “good woman.” A girl’s chaperone oversees everything she does, everywhere she goes. If a family cannot afford a personal chaperone, their daughter goes to a government school, chaperoned there until high school graduation or marriage, whichever comes first. As the book jacket says, “In New America girls are never alone.”

We meet our hero, Stella, on the very first page. Strange noises trigger the paranoia that is constant in New America into full-blown terror. Stella’s dearest friend and chaperone, Sister Helen, has collapsed, violently ill. Within a few tightly wrought pages, Sister Helen dies. Kneeling beside her, Stella tightly grasps one last gift from the wise woman who has lovingly guided her through her teen years.

Stella’s grief is soon complicated by the arrival of a new chaperone, Sister Laura. And many things start changing.

In this carefully crafted novel, M Hendrix exposes how New America works, without sidetracking the story or character development. Readers learn how teens behave (in school and out), how parents interact (or don’t) with their own children, and how institutions operate. New America’s values seem to express those of our America – Old America. But it’s different in New America. Almost everything is different.

That is the charm and intrigue of this book. It is both a fast-paced coming to awareness story and a mirror—a dark crystal ball—of our own time. Ideas are taken to unsettling conclusions: Jane Eyre and Little Women are banned books; no one knows Plato’s Cave Story; girls apply to college, but never actually get to go.

M Hendrix is a local author, and it’s a treat for us Bowling Green folks to find landmarks we recognize in the novel. (Have you had your Great New American Donut this week?) But it’s unnerving to find our town renamed for the first Confederate victory, the battle that presaged how bloody things would become.

This book asks an important question: “If a national divorce were actually to recur, which side would you be on? And, which side would you find yourself living on?”

This book raises other questions about the power of solitude and the effects of societal fear. When Stella loses Sister Helen, it’s the first time she’s ever been alone. When Sister Laura actually does leave her alone briefly, fear is Stella’s reaction. Sister Laura responds, “Are you sure you know that’s what frightened you? Maybe it was something new, something you never experienced before, giving you that rush of adrenaline.”

The characters are rich and complex. Stella’s parents grew up in Old America but are cast into this almost unimaginable future. Sister Laura reveals herself with the discipline of a well-trained soldier, trapped behind enemy lines. Stella’s friends, and the not-so-friendly, are all kiddos we know (or that we’ve been), pushing boundaries as teens do. Stella is a fascination – a bit of Alcott’s Jo March, a dash of Madeleine L’Engle’s Meg, a streak of Anne Frank, and a sprinkle of Jane Austin’s Elizabeth Bennet – the strong young women Sister Helen introduced to Stella.

“The Chaperone” is an exciting, fast read, perfect for a summer road trip. It’s listed as a Young Adult (YA) novel, but readers of every age will find something to savor. Despite the grim premise, it offers a hopeful and slightly optimistic conclusion, with some of the best action scenes I’ve ever read.

In both New America and in ours, each person has a choice – accept the rules, or push back, for themselves and those they care about. What do you imagine the characters in The Chaperone would think of our daily news?

– Reviewed by Julie Ellis, Professor Emerita, WKU