Wednesday Writing and Reading - 'Sins of Our Mothers' Review and Blog Tour

I was invited to participate in another book review and blog tour for WOW-Women on Writing for the book, Sins of Our Mothers by Nicole Souza. 

A brief synopsis of the book:

It has been fifteen hundred years since the solar flare devastation of the Global Catastrophe. Due to the radioactivity in the harvesting fields, society dismisses its defective children as nothing more than flawed products of the malfunctioned seeds in the field.

But Lyratelle, a hyper-observant musical prodigy, believes these “defects” are intelligent, particularly her own sibling, the youngest child of her impervious mother. Abandoning her dream career, Lyratelle climbs the bureaucratic ladder to run the Defect Research Center, where she can safeguard the child.

With an underground team of women who share her uncertainties, Lyratelle unearths the Old History truth that womankind’s survival actually hinges on the existence of these defects.

When General Sarah Love, the city’s most powerful advocate against the defects, detects Lyratelle’s sympathy toward the creatures, she threatens the life of Lyratelle’s sibling.

Now Lyratelle’s desperate attempt to save this child endangers everyone she loves—her team, her family, even the existence of the defects themselves.

And about the author:

Nicole Souza minored in Women Studies and continues to take particular interest in both women’s history and their individual stories, and you can find out more information about her here: https://nicolesouzabooks.com

Now...

My view on the book.

I read a lot of science fiction and fantasy. I will also start a series in the middle and catch right onto the whole thing and go back and read the first books in the series. But this book threw out something I couldn't drop to enjoy the book.

It seems in this dystopian future children are born from 'harvested' seeds and incubated in 'pods'. I mean, people have a job, a dangerous job from radiation, to actually go out into fields and harvest 'seeds'. 

And then the child is tested for 'defects' and if there are defects are put into huge 'homes' to be raised, retested and kept until they are about 12 and then...

First, I couldn't follow the whole 'how children are born' idea and, being a parent and grandparent, it was hard to see children as defective and taken from parents and put in these huge children factories almost. 

Did I mention there are no men mentioned? 

Granted I didn't get far into the book. I couldn't wrap my head around the whole premise of the story. Vampires, werewolves, giant space stations and aliens are ok it seems, but I had to give up on the book about halfway through. 

I can see how this would be an interesting read for someone or a book group who wanted to discuss the whole 'peaceful' society with no 'problems' - problems being defined as people with defects. But then again who gets to decide what constitutes a defect?

But please, check out other reviews on this tour and interviews with the author. I may not have been in the right space to read this book as I was in the middle of a move.