#Titanuary ‘Dark Lullaby’ by Polly Ho-Yen

About the book…

For fans of Black Mirror and The Handmaid’s Tale, in Dark Lullaby a mother desperately tries to keep her family together in a society where parenting standards are strictly monitored.

When Kit decides to have a child, she thinks she’s prepared. She knows how demanding Induction is. She’s seen children Extracted. But in a society where parenting is strictly monitored under the watchful gaze of OSIP (The Office of Standards in Parenting), she is forced to ask herself how far she will go to keep her family together..

Huge thanks to the ever awesome Sarah at Titan Books for letting me read this e-arc of ‘‘Dark Lullaby’ by Polly Yo-Hen which is published by Titan Books on February 9th in ebook and paperback formats.

Set in a not too unbelievably far away future, the world’s fertility levels are higher than 98%. Linked to the overuse of microplastics, the population decline has sent the economies around the world into freefall, and the biggest resource becomes women(and in some case,girls) of child bearing age.

Kit and her sister are anomalies, one of the last set of ‘organically’ grown siblings and exist in a society where ‘induction’ into having a child means extensive, potentially fatal IVF procedures and constant monitoring of calorie intake, steps walked, mental health screening and so forth. There are massive benefits handed to those who procreate, those who are known as ‘outs’ are basiclly social pariahs.

Worse than this constant surveillance via next generation Alexas, known as ‘Go Spheres’ which provide you with government mandated news and public information programmes, are the enforcers.

They could be anyone.

They could be anywhere.

After you have your baby, they keep a very , very close eye on you and if you step out of line, you receive a ISP slip. Get 10 and your baby is ‘extracted’. The race is on for Kit and her husband to conceive, deliver and look after baby Mimi until she turns one when the rate of extraction is lowered. But, having seen what her sister has gone through , is she prepared to deal with the ultimate consequence, and how far would she be prepared to go to get her baby back?

This is a brilliant and thoughtful novel which shines a light on the burden of motherhood and the way that society always seems to lay it on the woman’s shoulders. The choice between career and parenthood is a constant source of awkward conversations about over population, personal choice and ‘you’ll change your mind when you are older’.

The falling birth rate and growing elderly population are already threatening to tip the balance and it is not inconceivable(pardon the pun) to envisage a future where abuse of the natural environment comes back with karmic fists swinging for humanity.

It sounds so bleak but honestly, what anchors the story is the relationship between Kit and Mimi. She is a complete badass single woman who is looked down upon and takes her lot in life on both shoulders as those around her are not surviving the induction process, or are facing a future without their child(or children. Post extraction procreation is highly encouraged, up to 8-9 times!)

I really enjoyed this future vision , it was so realistic and rounded, the reveals of family secrets and shocking mic drop moments keep you on your toes as the ‘now’ and the ‘then’ of the narrative , before and after Mimi’s birth begin to dovetail.

It is a really timely subject on which to write, especially given the current climate of attack on the rights of women to have control over their biological process, specifically the outlawing of abortions in Poland, the eradication of Downs Syndrome in Iceland and the limiting of access to Planned Parenthood in the United States.

Access to appropriate support and healthcare seems to have always taken a back seat to the needs of society and in this terrifying vision, the way that women are treated as baby carriers has never seemed so close and realistic. Genuinely chilling and prescient, go read it!

About the author…

Polly Ho-Yen is a writer based in Bristol. Her debut novel, Boy in the Tower, was shortlisted for the Blue Peter Book Award, Waterstones Children’s Book Prize and the Federation of Children’s Book Groups Book Award. All three of her middle-grade novels have been nominated for the Carnegie Medal.

Following her experiences working as a primary school teacher in south London, Polly puts these places and communities centre-stage in her narratives. She aims to create stories firmly rooted in a world that young people will know and recognise, even when a science fiction or fantastical element creeps in. Polly is an Arvon tutor and regularly runs writing workshops in primary and secondary schools across the country as well as working for Bristol libraries, where she set up the Bristol Teen Book Award, a book award for Bristol secondary schools which celebrates inclusivity.

Links-https://www.pollyhoyen.com/

Twitter @TitanBooks @bookhorse