Plot: In a not too distant future, ovum-to-ovum reproduction, allowing two women to conceive without the need for a man, is a reality. Rosie and Jules are among the first couples to trial it, but are up against fierce opposition from people all over the country and the world. While they try to keep their involvement under wraps to protect themselves and their unborn daughter, someone has leaked the news – it can only be someone close to them.

My thoughts: Books like this are a tricky topic – they can so easily be mistaken for a feminist rant or manifesto while people forget to look at the storyline behind it. I personally really enjoyed it on both levels. Understanding how the world might react to news like this was fascinating, but the plotline beneath it, with the well-developed and easily relatable characters of Jules and Rosie, was just as powerful. It delves deep into their relationship and how it’s affected by not only this as a new technology, but simply by pregnancy itself. Reading it while pregnant wasn’t exactly the easiest thing, but it was fascinating. It’s one I’d definitely recommend.

A really interesting concept, delicately told. This is an issue that, given current scientific developments, may actually be a reality in the not-too-distant future so it's really important to explore how society might react. The characters were very well-rounded with good motivations, though as I'm interested in science I'd have loved to dig deeper into how this might have really worked.

I read XX by Angela Chadwick in a matter of hours as I couldn't put it down. Scientists at Portsmouth University have developed an IVF technique to take genetic material from two women to make an embryo, so male DNA is no longer needed. The story follows Rosie and Jules as they embark on participating in the first clinical trial of this technique with humans, and the repercussions it has on their families, friends, and society. It questions what is socially acceptable with regards to assisted reproduction, and moves along at a great pace.

This book was about an all female couple who decide to start a family, Rosie and Jules initially discuss finding a male donor until technological findings at a nearby university enables them to be part of a new trial, Ovum-to-Ovum technology. This breakthrough not only enables them the opportunity to have the right to reproduce their own child, but has lead to a high level of media coverage and controversey.

When their participation is leaked to the media that Rosie is one of only two women to become pregnant from the treatment, her relationship with Jules is put under a microscope.

This book not only delves into the strength of relationship required of Jules and Rosie but also the impact on their professional careers and the sometimes stark and cruel reality of being the brunt of the media circus.

I cannot recommend this book highly enough, it kept me gripped to the end just purely with the style of the prose and the close to reality feeling of the plot.

A very interesting and thought provoking topic for a book. I was really looking forward to reading it because of all the hype. It didn't quite hit the mark for me. I think it's because I personally, didn't warm to either Jules or Rosie and that was very necessary to get the most out of this tale. The entire concept was done very well, and all the detractors and the manipulation of media etc. was thoroughly believable but as I wasn't invested in Jules and Rosie, I didn't really worry about the ultimate outcome. Although this wasn't for me, I can see why it's a big hit.

5 * loved this book. It was such a breath of fresh air to read something different. The topic was believable and I really enjoyed getting to know the couple and the problems they face with the decision to have a baby if thier own as a lesbian couple. I felt like I was reading a real life study, it was that good with medical information. Would highly recommend this book, in fact I have to several people since I finished it. Brilliant, couldn’t put it down!

Jules and Rosie are part of a brand new clinical trial which allows two women to have a child using their own DNA without needing a male donor. But their loyalty is tested as politicians, the press and the public begin to circle on their private lives.

I always know the makings of a great book when I sit down to review it and don’t write any notes, just find myself lost in the plot and enjoy reading the story. XX is a great premise, set in a future perhaps not too distant from our own but very much grounded in human relationships and struggles. I am straight and have never had children but I found the story relatable and moving non-the-less. The book covers a wide range of issues, from freedom of press, family loyalty, homophobia and politics but it never felt ‘preachy’ or over the top and the reactions to the characters felt real, if heart breaking.

Jules is a great character to lead us into the story – a pioneer in terms of being part of the study but it was nice to see her also being unsure of herself and what she wants which I think added to the reality of the plot. She’s also a journalist so that brings a new perspective and is an interesting way to introduce politics and debate without feeling intrusive.

Overall XX is an important read and is well crafted – it’s moving and relatable and thoroughly interesting – highly recommended. Thank you to NetGalley & Little Brown Group UK – Dialogue Books for a copy of the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I really liked the concept of this book but it fell a bit flat for me and I found myself making time to read it at first rather than being gripped from the beginning.

The first half I found slow and I struggled as I couldn't get on with the characters. The second half really picked up and I liked how we got to understand a little bit more background. I don't have children but I can imagine there are times you doubt yourself and fear giving up all that has gone before so some readers might find comfort in this honest portrayal. I wish we had also got to go a bit more in depth about the report that she was going to write on the main mp - that was fascinating but was merely skimmed over.

I also felt the tag line of how far would you go for a child of your own is a little misleading in that the main narrator doubts that she wants the baby.

Thank you to netgalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

A scientist called Becca has successfully created ovum to ovum fertilisation. Journalist Jules and her partner Rosie are selected to take part in the trials where their baby will be made from both of their eggs.

The story focuses on the media frenzy surrounding the controversial trials and follows how the couple cope with the media attention, speculation and criticism.

I found the story initially fascinating. The concept was unique. However I felt it did focus a lot of time of how the media reacted and how Jules was affected at work. I would have preferred more details about Rosie who was carrying the baby.

It was a good read but could have been so much more with better character depth.

An interesting premise but it read more like a piece of journalism than a novel. Neither the prose nor the characters were fresh or original enough to hold my interest. DNF

There’s an interesting tradition of feminist utopian novels which speculate about futures or alternative societies that feature populations dominated by or entirely composed of women. These range from Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “Herland Trilogy” to Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain’s witty parody “Sultana’s Dream” to Marge Piercy’s science fiction classic “Woman on the Edge of Time” to Mary E. Bradley’s “Mizora” where women can reproduce through parthenogenesis (reproduction from an ovum without fertilization.) These imaginative works radically envision places where men are of secondary importance or become entirely irrelevant. These idealistic visions offer a breath of fresh air and a welcome counter-reality to the patriarchy which has dominated society for centuries.

Given enormous recent advances in science, it’s not hard to imagine the prospect of a technology which enables women to reproduce without men. That’s exactly the premise of Angela Chadwick’s enthralling debut novel “XX” which tells the story of lesbian couple Rosie and Jules who enrol in the trial stage of a ground-breaking new Ovum-to-Ovum treatment. It allows them to become pregnant through an IVF technique using two eggs rather than needing a sperm-donor. Since there is no XY sex-determination system at play in this method of reproduction it means the child will always be born with the sex chromosome XX and must be female. But Chadwick doesn’t posit this advancement as an opportunity for a world-dominating matriarchy; it’s exactly the opposite. The great drama of the novel comes from the wide-scale social resistance to such an advancement which will enable a small group of isolated individuals a unique opportunity to reproduce together. A conservative backlash perceives this technology as a threat to the status quo as they assert all children need a mother and father. They also fear boys will be phased out of the species. Rosie and Jules find themselves at the centre of a horrific and politically-contentious media storm. It’s a vivid story of personal struggle reflecting how any advancement with society is sadly met with reactionary politics.

It’s a difficult fact for many same-sex couples who wish to have children that some alternative method is currently required to assist them in becoming parents. This can be very painful and complicated because it means both people in the relationship don’t have an equal genetic stake in their child. I admire how Chadwick addresses this issue in her novel by offering a solution and exploring the challenges that would arise from this. In doing so, she addresses how pregnancy, relationships and family life are filled with infinite complexities so the road to becoming parents is never simple or easy. But, in the case of this couple it’s particularly complicated given how they become the focus of media scrutiny from becoming pregnant with the first O-O child. The story is told through the perspective of Jules whose partner Rosie becomes pregnant from the treatment. As a journalist at a local newspaper, she finds herself in a unique position of being a reporter who is herself the top news story.

Jules strives to keep her personal life and work separate, but this sadly becomes impossible. The novel serves as an interesting commentary on our sensational media system which exploits individuals for the sake of broader attention-grabbing contentious issues. A local Tory politician named Richard Prior emerges as a spokesman and campaigner for an organization called the Alliance for Natural Reproduction. He’s recognizable as a composite of right-wing figures who develop platforms to rile up the public with paranoias and fears about threats to the “natural” order of things. The story meaningfully reflects how such cases have become more and more common in recent years regarding a whole range of issues including marriage rights, health care, education and immigration. It also comments on how a large section of the population now consumes such news stories by “flick-throughs and social media posts” and form opinions about issues without engaging with their full complexity or considering the real facts. It’s striking how Chadwick realistically envisions how an optimistic advancement such as this would be blown up into a much larger political issue with a vicious backlash.

“XX” is one of the debut titles from an exciting new imprint called Dialogue Books. The imprint’s goal is to publish writers and reach audiences from areas and groups of people currently under-represented by the mainstream publishing industry. It aims to spark a dialogue across different communities about subjects we ought to be talking about. This novel certainly touches on a number of subjects that feel relevant today and takes a refreshing perspective. It does this through a well-plotted story and characters that I grew increasingly attached to. There’s nothing flashy about the prose, but this feels completely appropriate for a story about a normal couple that find themselves swept into an extraordinary situation. It also feels positive how we might no longer need stories of extravagant extremes that envision all female societies as a correction for the gender imbalances in our world. Instead, Chadwick offers a very rational and practical vision of how incremental steps can be taken to create more inclusive communities and dynamic families for everyone.

This book certainly had a Eve of Man vibe about it although they came out during the same year so not sure how influenced this was by that. It was a great read. I think it would really appeal to other young women and fans of dystopia novels.

A provoking and interesting read, not so far removed (in fact, not far removed at all) from current political and scientific controversies when it comes to embryo research, LGBTQ+ rights, and rising intolerance.

Juliet and Rosie apply to a newly approved research program that will allow them to conceive a child “ovum to ovum”. The point: having THEIR child, of course, and not needing to rely on a stranger’s sperm. Huge uproar ensues throughout the UK and the rest of the world, led, it seems, not so much by fears for the children thus conceived (although some characters do voice concerns about potential genetic flaws), but by the fear of men being made redundant. Which didn’t surprise me at all, and was, I think, spot on: should such research be developed in our world, I bet that we’d face this very kind of arguments. (It’s like all that rage against abortions, really: so many anti-choicers are all about Saving The Embryos, but you don’t see them holding out helping hands to take care of the unwanted babies once they’re born. Anyway.)

Most of the opposition to the main characters and their unborn baby also comes from sources that don’t surprise me, including a politician who’s riding the wave of Family Values because that will garner votes. It doesn’t help that the incriminated research has been unveiled by a woman, because this adds fuel to the fire, in a “feminist agenda to get rid of men” way. So we can see that from the start, the whole research and its outcome is not going to get only friends.

I did enjoy the characters’ evolution, when faced with certain choices that forced them to question their own values. On top of the obvious scientific, political and social angle, the story also raises valid questions about conceiving vs. adopting, about what it means to want a child, and why one would love (or not) said child.

I had a little trouble to get into the story at first (also because, silly me, I grabbed too many books from the library at the same time, and had to read before they expired, so it’s not just the story’s fault). I think that was because of the somewhat dry narrative style and a repetitive feeling, with Jules (the narrator) doubting her motives, then trying to convince herself that it would pass, rinse and repeat. Things picked up after a while, though, and made this book in general a worthwhile read.

The other thing that I didn’t like here was, well, the negativity. On the one hand, as mentioned previously, it didn’t surprise me, and I would totally expect harsh reactions to such research in reality. On the other hand, it also felt like 99% of the world was against Becca, Scott, Jules, Rosie, and the other people involved in this. And it made me wonder, would there be -no- support at all for something like this? It was like every newspaper, every magazine, every website only had criticism to share, and there was no blogger out there encouraging these women, approving of the research. So, it was “realistic”, but I would’ve have appreciated seeing more support for Jules and Rosie, for lesbian couples trying to have a child, etc. Seeing a story where LGBTQ+ people get nice things, too, and not mostly negative ones. (In contrast, too, when some things went well, they did so all at once, without that many consequences, which felt strange, and lacking a proper middle ground.)

Conclusion: 3.5 stars. A slow beginning, with a pace that fortunately picked up, and a tackling of issues that was both very realistic but a little too pessimistic to my liking, too.

A great idea for a book with lots of ideas and ethics to discuss but at times I felt that the book was too explained and didn't flow like a novel.
I think I would have preferred this to have been shorter, either a short story or a novella rather than the long read it was.
I wonder how long before some of the science becomes fact...

This political, feminist thriller will stay with you long after you've finished reading it! It's a truly important book exploring the trials of a lesbian couple starting a family through a controversial and experimental procedure. The characters are well rounded and while it deals with many prevalent issues these do not overrun the slick narrative.

This book has an incredibly interesting premise and I wanted it to make me feel so much more.
The problem was that the story seemed to jgraze the surface not completely unlike the stories in the tabloid newspapers that hound and harass these women throughout the book.
The women’s character’s are underdeveloped and not quite 3 dimensional and there is little introspection or discussion of the wider implications and consequences of the procedure.

Another problem is that the narrative is limited to Jules who is an anxious, cautious and reactive – something happens and Jules reacts she rarely initiates.
Jules doesn’t seem willing or able to learn and develop according to the circumstance and instead is always convinced she knows what is right even when the reality is proving her wrong. After a while she just becomes repetitive and a more than a little boring.
Rosie on the other hand is incredibly capricious and almost childlike in her naivety such that I never quite understood where the middle ground was between them on which they built their relationship.

While I expected the book to be about this new science and technology ovum-to-ovum just became a McGuffin to add tension into Jules and Rosie’s relationship.

I quite enjoyed reading this book but felt it was less than it could have been.

Is it SciFi? Is it really? Are we sure? Because, despite the hardships shown in the novel, I really want this to be a reality.

This is a sharp, smart and highly timely novel which I have since recommended to at least a dozen of my female friends. It would be an excellent Book Club book - what WOULD happen if this technology was developed (and I have heard that it's already in testing in mice)? Would you want to form a parental partnership with a romantic interest, or would you rather form a lifelong partnership with a female friend? Who would make the better parent? Who do you want on your team?

Chadwick is very smart to not over romanticise the idea (which, clearly and evidently, I am doing) and to show the struggle the first few parents would face (kudos to that epilogue). But... Despite all of that... I am still game.

I read this during the Ford testimonials and honestly it gave me hope for the future, because that was a very bleak week.

One of the best books i’ve Read this year.
The truly realistic story of how a female only conception story could come about. A thrilling read that pulls you wanting to know more. Relatable characters and dialogue. I fully recommend

The premise of this book is really quite unique and very interesting to me. Rosie and Jules are a lesbian couple who participate in an experimental trial whereby they create a baby using only their own eggs; no men involved. Unsurprisingly, many people have strong feelings about this and it's all over the news. The couple are hounded. Jules is a reporter and her career starts to become affected. The book follows their journey and how they are affected by the public reaction and that of those close to them.

The book is quite well written, but not as poignant or memorable as I feel it could have been. I didn't really like or connect with any of the characters, and on an emotional level I felt there was an element of disconnect between the reader and the characters. I think this was down to the writing, although possibly someone a bit softer, or perhaps a mother, reading the book would feel more of a close connection.

To me the story was interesting from a political and sociological point of view. On this side of things the author has it exactly right - I think things would happen more or less exactly how she described them, at best. I think if this idea was really possible it would cause an awful lot of controversy, and who knows whether it would be accepted at all? Personally I wouldn't have a problem with women conceiving in this way, but I'm sure a lot of people would be very strongly against it. The book was interesting in the way the characters reacted and what happened within the press, and even the experiment itself. I think it was very well thought out and very realistic.

Overall I enjoyed this book because it was a novel premise and the storyline did progress at a steady rate. However I think I was expecting more of a futuristic or sci-fi element which was not present; this is much more of a contemporary or women's fiction novel.

I really liked the concept of this book—though it's not the first time I've read a novel with ovum-to-ovum IVF featuring in the plot. It's also in a 1990s Val McDermid book called Blue Genes (*looks to camera*), which was a lot more campy and dramatic than XX. Interestingly, the procedure is being carried out in secret by scientists in Blue Genes, while XX starts with it being made legal by the government.

Despite the concept, this book got off to a bit of a slow start for me. The writing felt a bit clunky and awkward as Juliet and Rosie applied for the trial and got approved. Also they kept defrosting risotto to have for dinner, which I'm sure you're not meant to do? Jules is quite a closed-off character and it takes a while for her narration to really warm up. I kept wondering what the book would be like had it been narrated by Rosie.

However, after the point when [their identities are revealed in a tabloid paper (hide spoiler)] it really started to get going. The pace picked up and I started to become really invested in the characters and their baby. Jules' privacy and inwardness against standing up for what she believed in was fascinating, and though I loved the ending, it was a little disappointing [that we never got to see her dramatically expose Prior in real time (hide spoiler)].

This is one of those books that has so many underlying themes, not just about science and the sanctity of life, and what a mother or a father actually is, but also the media's handling of controversial topics and fake news (I loved the bit where Jules started to wonder how much the average person had absorbed about o-o from the papers), politicians jumping on bandwagons for their own gain, protecting your own private life against becoming a martyr for your cause. [It was also one of those that you pray for a happy ending, because you can't bear to leave the characters on a sad note—and you get one. I was also so glad they chose not to DNA test their daughter, it made me feel all warm and gooey inside.