{Review} Other Bodies by Joel Ohman

I tend to shy away from controversial topics. It's not because I don't have an opinion about them. Trust me. I totally do. However, I really dislike controversy and arguing. It's just not something I enjoy and, honestly, I'm not very good at it. I often have a hard time conveying what I think clearly in that type of situation.

This is why I thought long and hard before asking to be part of this review. Joel Ohman is an author who decided to tackle not only a controversial topic in his newest book, but perhaps one of the most controversial topics, abortion.

Other Bodies follows a young teenage girl named Hattie. The setting is somewhere in the future where the government has failed, the economy has failed, and the environment is so bad that the rivers only have trash floating in them and the sun no longer shines. Hattie is struggling to survive living in the inner city of Philadelphia after her grandfather, who raised her, has passed away. She can barely afford food or rent when she manages to finally land a job at Managed Motherhood (MM). She makes friends there and enjoys her job.

One aspect of her new job is to help the clients who come in to have an abortion. In this time period, there are robots who help with the procedure. In fact, there are so many robots that there have been laws enacted to protect their "human-ness." It's during a tour of the Medical Ring, when Hattie is shown how the Transport and Examination Devices or TEDs work. These robots give the patient a 4-D virtual experience all while scanning and documenting their health.

Hattie learns during her VR experience to help show her what the patient encounters that she is pregnant. Pregnant, broke, and barely surviving even with her new job. The book explores what it is MM does at their facility along with the ramifications of hard choices. Hattie determines that she cannot keep her baby and has an abortion. The book then follows her as she struggles with this decision and struggle she does.

I'm still not sure how I feel about this book. Author, Joel Ohman, is a great writer. I enjoyed the dialogue and the overall story. I'm just feel the end of the book lacked closure, but perhaps that was the point. He uses the story line to explore aspects of abortion that have come in to play recently, namely the selling of body parts. He shares why he felt the need to write this book HERE.

Ultimately the title plays in to the line that continues to roll through my mind "the body inside your body is not your body." The book is definitely thought provoking no matter where you stand on the issue of abortion.




Disclosure (in accordance with the FTC’s 16 CFR, Part 255:  “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising”):  Many thanks to Propeller Consulting, LLC for providing this book for review. I did receive a sample of the product in exchange for this review and post.