Held under guard by the power hungry and brutal Boncer, laid back hippy Teddy and their ditzy, unqualified nurse Nancy, the girls are treated like dogs, verbally and physically abused and worked hard to prepare for the coming of the mysterious Hardings. Verla and Yolanda are to become our eyes in a strange tale as they slowly discover they and the other girls being held have something in common, they have all been involved in a well publicised sex scandal. They find they are being held in a run down compound surrounded by a heavily electrified fence.
Vera and Yolanda are indeed prisoners in a place more sinister than any modern asylum, quickly finding themselves with shaved heads, tied to a line of other similarly shaved and attired women and forced under threat of violence to march across a stretch of dry dusty outback. As Yolanda is pushed into the room Verla feels a flicker of recognition she can’t place. In another room Verla waits, mind groggy with sedatives unsure of where she is and apprehensive about what is happening. Her instant assumption is that she has been placed in an asylum. Waking in darkness in a small, gritty, unfamiliar room wearing clothes which aren’t hers Yolanda knows she is a prisoner. The Natural Way of Things | Charlotte Wood | Salty Popcorn Book Review | Book Cover ImageĬharlotte Wood’s THE NATURAL WAY OF THINGS is an exploration of human character and societal values framed within a bleak dystopian tale set against the fitting background of the Australian outback. THE NATURAL WAY OF THINGS is out now from the folks at Allen and Unwin – you can obtain the book in most bookstores or you can grab it from HERE.
Think an echoed female prison LORD OF THE FLIES mixed with THE MAZE RUNNER (less YA) styled piece of literature. A clever and brutal look at modern misogyny, power and shifting balance. Kernel Kate reviews Australian dystopian literature THE NATURAL WAY OF THINGS from Charlotte Wood.
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