The Quickening by Claire McGowan #thequickening @clairemcgowanwriter @littlebrowngroup_uk #bookreview #dystopian

 

Your body. Their Choice.

The Hope Party's new laws have transformed Great Britain: the countryside rewilded, children's rights prioritised, and births on the rise. But freedom is fading.

Karen has learned to navigate this new world, keeping her head down as her fertility is constantly monitored. As her husband's career thrives, while hers stalls. As her son is drawn into misogynist groups. Like everyone else, she's too frightened to speak up.

Until her teenage daughter reveals a life-changing secret: she's pregnant. With abortion and contraception banned, her future has gone up in flames. But Karen won't let this happen - Charlotte is going to have the life she lost.

Karen turns to her sister Isobel, a doctor who's initially reluctant to help. But when they learn Charlotte's pregnancy is ectopic and life-threatening, the stakes skyrocket. The three women go on the run, getting deeper into danger with every hour that passes. With powerful enemies on their tail, they will risk everything in a desperate fight for freedom, and for life.

The Quickening is a powerful exploration of motherhood, sacrifice, and the terrifying cost of complicity. For fans of Vox, Red Clocks, and The Handmaid's Tale.

The Quickening by Claire McGowan was published on 9 July 2026 by Corsair / Little Brown.  My thanks to the publisher who sent my copy for review. 

When I read the publicist's push for this book and she mentioned how we're living in a time where fertility tracking apps have faced serious questions about how they use personal data, social media platforms have removed accounts sharing abortion information and queer content, and the return of 'trad wife' culture, I was sold. It makes The Quickening feel remarkably close to home, and all the more unsettling because of it. Add on the references to The Handmaid's Tale and I was doubly sold! 

Although set in 2040, this is a novel that feels uncomfortably close to the world we already know.

Great Britain has been transformed under the rule of the Hope Party. Birth rates are increasing, and the government celebrates a return to traditional family values. Yet beneath the surface, personal freedoms have disappeared. Women's bodies are monitored, contraception and abortion are against the law, and fear influences everything that they do.

Karen has spent years trying to protect her family by keeping her head down. Her husband has embraced the opportunities offered by this new society, while Karen has watched her own dreams slowly slip away. When her teenage daughter Charlotte reveals that she is pregnant, Karen knows that everything is about to change. Desperate to help her daughter, she turns to her sister Isobel, a doctor who finds herself facing an impossible decision. Together, the three women are drawn into a race against time where every choice carries enormous consequences.

One of the things I loved most about this novel was its characters. Karen is such a believable woman, someone who has convinced herself that staying quiet is the safest option until silence is no longer possible for her, and her daughter. Charlotte is so determined and hopeful, and Isobel's story highlights the heartbreaking dilemmas faced by those working in such an oppressive system. Their relationships feel real, and it is impossible not to become emotionally involved with each of them.

Claire McGowan keeps the tension high throughout the story. The pace is excellent, the chapters certainly had me thinking  'just one more', and the world she has created feels frighteningly plausible because it stems from issues we are already talking about today.

This is the sort of novel that stays with you long after you have closed the book. It is gripping, emotional and thought provoking, while also delivering all the pace and suspense of an outstanding thriller. I can already imagine The Quickening creating lively discussion in book groups.  Highly recommended.

Claire McGowan published her first novel in 2012 and followed it up with many others in the crime fiction genre, as well as in women's fiction - writing as Eva Woods. 

She has had three radio plays broadcast on Radio 4, and her thrillers, What You Did and The Other Wife both went to number one on Kindle in the US and UK.