I've honestly got no idea what to say to review this so I'm just going to put some emojis.

🤨🤔😶🧐😵🤨🤔🤐😬🤷‍♀️

Thanks to the publisher for granting me an eArc via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Fab ideas, great structure, just a bit hard work and way too many characters spread too thinly.
An interesting read but not really for me. The concept of this book really intrigued me and I did find parts of it fascinating. It certainly opened my eyes to different worlds.

I really enjoyed this book as it had such an interesting narrative and an interesting way to present it. The women were all written really well and they all had distinctive voices. I felt like Alice Albinia made all the characters in this well-rounded with Eva seeming both a positive and negative figure depending on the exact moment in the book. There were moments in this that were a little difficult to read about but I understood why these were included in the book. The writing was beautiful and if Albinia releases other books with this same tone and exploration, i'd definitely pick it up.

Unsure how to rate this one so will go with the majority.

I dont think I was the correct reader for this one. I liked the sounds of it but i didnt connect at all with it and found myself skimming most of it.

Cwen is a powerful feminist alternative future novel in which a group of women explore their past and present whilst presenting their bold visions of the future featuring a storm, a mysterious death, a band of women and a remote island where anything is possible. An archipelago off the east coast of Britain comes under female rule. Using resources traditionally the preserve of men — inspired by ancient British stories of islands where women ran society and controlled the climate — the women quietly take charge of the islands’ education system, laws, money, businesses and civic institutions as well as the way children are to be raised. Eva Levi was the one who founded the community and is at the centre of the revolution, but she has recently disappeared. She was last seen venturing out on the sea with her small boat on a brisk northeasterly wind and has never been seen since. What follows is an investigation into her vanishing act in which witnesses and those who knew Eva are asked to provide evidence. People are rightly concerned. But a revolution by stealth is not enough for Cwen, the mythical spirit of the islands. She has been here longer than the civilisation she has come back to haunt.

Her name has ancient roots, reaching down into the earth and halfway around the world. The clouds are her children, and the waves; and the islands she inhabits have always belonged to women. Now she has returned to hold them to account. Following in Cwen’s wake, young climate activists stage a rebellion against the patriarchy. A grandmother bequeaths her sons’ inheritance to a feminist foundation. And a public inquiry is launched into the archipelago’s outrageous mutiny. This a compelling piece of literary fiction, but I must admit that the format left quite a lot to be desired. It was muddled and difficult to engage with at times, but I was enjoying the actual content of the novel, so I continued and luckily I got used to the way in which it was written. The bulk of the story is in the form of an investigation into the missing Eva and is a portrait of a world on the cusp of change. Exploring female power and female potential, both to hurt and to harm, as well as patriarchal structure, oppression, sexuality and gender, it reaches deep into Britain’s matriarchal past, to ask how radical we might be, if given the chance.

'Cwen' is a novel of female strength, endurance and survival, told in an unusual way. On an anonymous archipelago off the coast of Britain, women have created a feminine utopia, controlling the civic institutions, the businesses, raising their families. Some call this a gynotopia, and it is the creation of Eva Levi. But Eva has disappeared, and all that she has worked for is to be destroyed.

But will it? Cwen is the spirit of the islands, and she has been there longer than anyone, enduring and eternal. Part of the novel is told through Cwen's eyes, and lends a strange, mythical element to the story.

This deeply immersive novel paints a picture of female power and female potential, both to heal and to harm. It raises questions about sexuality, gender, humanity. Powerful and poignant.

I asked for this book as it was recommended as one that I'd like if I'd read other dystopian female-led fiction - unfortunately access to it expired much quicker than expected so I can't say for myself what i thought, but the two reviews I have seen have given it 3 stars, so i'll do the same.

I think maybe I missed something in this book. It sounded intriguing,and what I got just felt a bit muddled.
There were times I just wasn't sure what was happening.
I'm definitely not the right person,for this particular story.

Thank you to the publishers and Netgalley for allowing me access to this book early.

I don’t know how to rate this book. I don’t know whether it’s not the right book for me or that it wasn’t the book I was expecting it to be.

This is the story of an island of women that try to set up life. But it is portrayed after the fact.