Femlandia

August 23, 2021
Dalcher (Vox) puts a delightfully dark dystopian twist on Herland, Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s 1915 feminist utopian novel. In the near-future, America has fallen into chaos after the collapse of its economy. Against a backdrop of failing infrastructure, looted grocery stores, and widespread death, Miranda Reynolds—whose husband recently abandoned her and her 16-year-old daughter, Emma—is homeless and hungry. With nowhere else to go—and facing starvation or worse if attacked by roving gangs of thugs—Miranda reluctantly decides to take herself and Emma to Femlandia, a self-sufficient “womyn’s commune” her estranged mother founded decades earlier. Emma embraces the thriving settlement and its progressive culture, but Miranda finds troubling moral failings in the colony’s pioneering way of life. Exploring speculative responses and remedies to toxic masculinity, objectification, and systemic patriarchal oppression, this wildly provocative glimpse into the future is sure to spark lively discussions about humankind’s past, present, and future. The incendiary epilogue compensates for the relatively superficial worldbuilding. Dalcher remains a writer to watch. Agent: Laura Bradford, Bradford Literary.