3.5/5 Stars

Since she was a little girl, Eleanor has been told The Meadow is a prestigious academy for "the best and brightest" After Eleanor receives her letter to The Meadow, she is ecstatic to leave her town at The Cove, but quickly discovers things aren't as they seem. Four years later, she has a government job, but is dealing with the trauma she endured in The Meadow as she tries to find the friend who disappeared.

I liked this for the most part, but do think it ended up dragging in the second half. It did pick up again in the end, but that middle portion was difficult to get through as the pacing felt very off. There is an alternating timeline between Eleanor's time at The Meadow along with after her graduation, in her first year after exiting. These switches could be a bit confusing at times. I did listen to it on audio, which made the switches a little bit easier to catch onto. It was terrifying to think about what Eleanor and the other girls went through, and to think that places like this still exist in our world today.

The Meadows by Stephanie Oakes is a captivating YA dystopian novel that will stay with you long after you finish reading. The story follows Eleanor, a young woman who escapes her harsh reality by attending The Meadows, a prestigious institution known for nurturing the "best and brightest." However, the idyllic facade of The Meadows soon crumbles as Eleanor uncovers its dark secrets.

Oakes does an excellent job of building a suspenseful atmosphere, leaving you questioning everything you thought you knew. The story tackles relevant themes like identity, societal control, and the fight for individuality. Eleanor is a relatable protagonist, and the romance between her and another student adds a layer of hope to the bleak setting.

While The Meadows might not be a light read due to its subject matter, it's a rewarding one. If you're looking for a dystopian novel with a strong female lead, a touch of romance, and a thought-provoking plot, then The Meadows is a great choice. Just be prepared for a cliffhanger ending that will leave you eager for the next book.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for granting me free access to the advanced digital copy of this book.

Thoughts and Themes: I don't know why I waited so long to read this one since I really enjoy dystopian books. For a while those books were all that I was reading. I am very glad that I decided to listen to this one since I think that it adds to the story. This is one that I really enjoyed reading during this rainy and gloomy season because that weather added to my experience.

Something that I really enjoyed from this book is the way that it makes commentary on conversion therapy. I didn't know that it was inspired by that until reading other reviews but that was something I just got from the first few minutes into the story. I thought that the author handles this topic really well and handles many of the sensitive topics throughout this story well.

Characters: In this book you get to meet our main character, Eleanor, and several of the other girls in The Meadows. I liked getting to know each of the characters better through their interactions with each other. I also really liked how some of the characters remained mysterious to us because they were mysteries to each other.

I also really liked how different the girls were from each other even when The Meadows was trying to make them carbon copies of what a women should be. I liked that a lot of the girls kept their individuality through that experience and the ways in which they managed to do this.

Writing Style: This book is written in first person through the perspective of our main character, Eleanor. I really enjoyed that we got to see everything through Eleanor's perspective. I think not hearing other people's perspectives helps to add to the story. I liked that we got to hear what Eleanor was thinking in all of the moments happening throughout the story. I also liked that when Eleanor was in the dark about things so were we.

I have not read a dystopian novel in a very long time. Once upon a time it was all I read. I was obsessed. And I’m actually sad that I stopped.

This book was really interesting and disturbing. It’s scary when you start to realize that some of this already happens.

The Meadows is truly beautiful and so heartbreaking all at once. This book is so important. While this is YA, I think it could be read by older folks too. Please look up the triggers if you need them.

I highly recommend reading this one. The audiobook was also fantastic.

The Meadows is a YA queer dystopian tale that follows Eleanor and her journey for being chosen to go The Meadows, which is one of the three schools that students are sent to for the best and brightest students. She's so thrilled to be accepted into the Meadows only to later realize that it's not what it seems.

The author explains that this story is inspired by the atrocities of conversion therapy and this book certainly highlights that with the Meadows and what they are doing with the young girls who are sent there. (trigger warnings - homophobia, biphobia, transphobia, racism, sexism, conversion therapy, murder, death of a parent)

Without giving much away with the plot, the Meadows explores so many elements of deprogramming, deconstructing, and handles sensitive topics with care while also being super engaging. The book is told in two time lines - Eleanor while she's at The Meadows and 4 years later when she is working for the Government. 👀

There is so much to packed in this story that I found it to be so thought provoking and such a great read.

This is definitely the kind of book we need right now. To see the kind of future we are headed towards, told through the perspective of a cast of relatable characters.

"The Meadows" is like a rollercoaster of emotions in book form. It's a gripping dystopian story that makes you question everything. Eleanor's journey to break free from a society obsessed with conformity is both heartbreaking and inspiring. And her love for Rose adds a layer of depth to the narrative that tugs at your heartstrings. This book is a must-read for anyone who loves thought-provoking, timely stories with a touch of romance. Trust me; it's one you won't want to miss.

Thanks so much to NetGalley and Dial Books for access to an eARC in exchange for my honest review!

Only the best and the brightest have a chance of receiving a letter, of being invited to study at one of the facilities. So when a letter arrives for Eleanor from the Meadows, she's as surprised as she is elated for the chance to leave home and to forge her own path. The Meadows follows Eleanor in a timeline that switches back and forth between her years in the Meadows and in her first year outside of the facility living in the city as an adjudicator monitoring other facility graduates like herself to see that they have remained on the right path.

I want to keep it brief for the summary of the book, because this book is something that both needs and deserves to be experienced the way it is written. The relationships between Eleanor and the other girls at the Meadows as well as with her neighbors, friends, and the other graduates she looks in on for work breathed so much life into the story, because at the root of it, the characters are the heart and soul of this story. They're just little girls (and boys when we meet boys from other facilities) with strong, brave hearts living in a world that wants to mold them into something they are not, into something that society expects them to be. They are Eleanor and Rose and June and Sheila and Jo and Penelope and Marina and Betty. And they are all of us, too. A world of people trying to find who we really are--who our different paper dolls are, all stacked together from past to present, and who they all come together to make when we stop trying to bury them.

The use of a dystopian setting to tell this story was perfect, in my opinion, and honestly, despite a short period in the middle of the book when the story moved a little more slowly than I would have liked, this is one of my favorite reads of the year simply for the heavy, beautiful, heartbreaking topics it tackles and how beautifully Stephanie Oakes wrote out each step of those tackles.

As a note, there are quite a few CONTENT WARNINGS to be aware of going into this one: conversion therapy, suicide, homophobia, transphobia, sexism, gaslighting, racism, cultural erasure, emotional and physical abuse, parental death, and mention of violence against peaceful protest.

"If you're not angry at the people who deserve it, you get angry at yourself."

Don't ever be angry at yourself. Direct that anger somewhere more useful. And know you're never alone. I hope that this book finds its way to everyone who needs it, and that it forces us to talk about our world and the ways that we can make it a better place to live for everyone.

The Meadows by Stephanie Oakes

Eleanor looks forward to nothing more than her invitation to The Meadows, it’s meant for the best most promising of youth. In these times of peril, it’s an honor to attend.

When Eleanor gets there, it’s everything she dreamed; beautiful and full of girls just like her but the longer she’s there, the more she realizes that The Meadows isn’t what she thought.

This is an emotionally wrought story that felt a bit like conversion therapy meets The Handmaids Tale.

My thanks to Penguin Teen for this gifted copy.

"Friendship is really just a decision, one you make over and over again."
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This was so interesting and disturbing. It is like programming teens to be perfect housewives. They are only good as wives. Females are only accessories to better men, it feels like 100 years ago.

But there's a pattern with who they've chosen for these facilities. Also the reasoning for the downfall of the society is blaming it on race and lgbtq peoples. So now they are one race but still it doesn't seem like they are from the way they talk. They still are colonizing those that don't have white features and changing them to be more like that instead of everyone being their own.

This branched off in a few different ways that I didn't expect but was surprised by. There were so many surprises and revelations of this dystopian reality and how not everyone can just assimilate.

Reading the authors note this book was a dystopian worst case scenario about conversion therapy and although now it seems that lgbtq+ lives are being embraced and accepted. There is still a lot of hate, misinformation, and lies being told based on nothing. It seems to be easy to be brainwashed these days. Look for more than one source, look through them all and see what they are trying to tell you. Choose love and kindness. Anger and uninformed opinions are not helping anyone, especially the person who has them.

Thank you pengiun for the e-ARC for my honest and voluntary opinion.

The Meadows By Stephanie Oakes was beautifully written! A must read for anyone honestly. I would reccomend this to anyone that asks me about it.

3.5 stars rounded up

The Meadows is a queer dystopian sci-fi novel that deftly navigates difficult topics surrounding queerness, gender identity, intersectionality, and state oversight in a story reminiscent of The Handmaid's Tale where the goal is to flatten everyone into being the same and where cis, straight, whiteness is the norm. There was a lot that I liked about this conceptually, but I did think it was quite a bit longer than it needed to be and some of the sci-fi elements seem cool in theory but don't necessarily make a lot of sense. Similarly some of the specifics of how this society that is somehow anti-religion while also being deeply conservative don't make a ton of sense to me. The author discusses how this novel was inspired by what she learned about the realities of "conversion therapy" and the harm it does- that element was definitely the strongest one in the book. It does a good job of showing the different ways people might respond to this kind of attempted deprogramming and how the gaslighting might be effective in getting people to suppress who they really are. Ultimately I liked what this book was trying to do and thought it had some real strengths, but it's definitely not perfect. I received a copy of this book for review via NetGalley, all opinions are my own.

What an interesting take on a YA dystopian novel! I really loved the way this book tackled so many ideas, such as conversion therapy, mental health, queer identities, and gaslighting. While a YA novel, it also read more mature at times and I can see it being enjoyed by people of all ages. The only reason I'm not giving it five stars is because there are some minor things about the world I wish had been fleshed out a big more.

I wanted to like this book. The premise was intriguing a society that praises conformity above all but it comes at a cost. It gave very good gothic vibes and even some Big Brother is always watching. My biggest issue was with the time jumps. They felt forced and hard to follow. This caused me to have a hard time following the plot and really understand the characters motives. Just wasn’t for me.

Be careful what you wish for, because you may just get it. This is a lesson that Eleanor, unfortunately, is forced to learn the hard way. She, like every young girl, anxiously waits to see if she will receive her letter; an invitation to attend the Estuary, the Glades, or the Meadows. These are places where only the best and the brightest are invited to attend, but Eleanor soon learns that sometimes things aren’t always as they seem from the outside, and the Meadows has some secrets of its own, including its actual mission in relation to the young girls that grace its halls.
Four years later Eleanor is working as an adjudicator, traveling to the homes of her former classmates to see if they are following the paths laid out for them or whether they are straying from that path and falling into old habits, habits that Eleanor herself is having a hard time staying away from. Forced to choose from what is expected of her and what she actually wants in life, Eleanor must decide what, and who, is important, and what she is willing to do to live the life she wants as the person she is.

While this novel started out quite slow, it definitely built itself up into an intriguing tale that greatly applies to the world today. Oakes jumps between the two different timelines to tell the story, revealing relevant details and events in a way that creates wonder and a bit of suspense. It was extremely effective at revealing Eleanor’s journey throughout her time at the Meadows and as an adjudicator, along with those individuals that have played a part in her life. There are so many themes and character traits found in The Meadows that are prevalent in today’s society, making it a very relevant young adult novel. I really enjoyed the characters and found them to be well developed and relatable, as well as diverse in their personalities and desires. There were aspects of the ending that truly took me by surprise and I loved seeing those characters that persevered and ultimately lived their truths find themselves where they did.

This was so so so good, but in a sad way. The constant mellow, sorrowful feel, impending doom kind of book.

The world is different from what we know. Mother nature has wrecked havoc, and has destroyed most of the humanity. For those who are left, a new society has emerged that is trying to build a better, better, "back to the nature", but we will follow you and the algorithm will determine what and who is deemed to be the best of the best. It sounds so promising on the paper, but it is definitely not as imagined.

Our MC, Eleanor is chosen to be sent to a school for the brightest and best girls. And she wants to get away from her cold, aloof, not real mother, and the fishing town she lives in. Where she runs free, living and loving. But maybe no other opportunity like this will ever be available - to get out, and be set in her own future. Except, the school isn't really for the best of the best. And Eleanor, along with the other girls soon learns what their reality actually is.

It was heartbreaking to read about the past, the time Eleanor lived in The Meadows, as well as the Now, where she works for the government and what she does for those she knew in the program. I was heartbroken over Rose, and Eleanor's constant need to figure out what did happen to Rose. There's a lot not shown and not explained about the society, algorithm and The Meadows as well, that it left me wanting to know more. But the focus of this story was on the pain of being forced to be someone you're not on all kinds of levels, as well as living with the choices made.

It was great book about conversion camps, about the survival of trauma, about figuring out who you are, and actually learning/understanding more about where you come from. It was beautiful in a poetic kind of way, though very painful to read.

Definitely recommend it - though don't expect much of world building, just ride the emotional wave that this book is.

Thank you to Penguin Teen for my gifted review copy. All opinions are my own.

The Meadows is a book that I cannot prise out of my head. This is one spilling over with emotions: anger, sadness, and a tiny kernel of hope. It is a quietly devastating book that hits almost too close to home. I have seen this described as a queer YA Handmaid’s Tale and I will say it captures that social commentary within a dystopian narrative. It has that same ferocity beneath a shimmering façade of respectability politics and an oppressive system that forces one to conform.

Stephanie Oakes’ particular target is that of the abhorrent practice of conversion therapy. This is ripped straight from the headlines, both in the US, UK, and beyond. You hear so many stories of this—particularly with the explosion of social media. The wilderness “therapy” camps and “treatments” come to mind instantly. These are horrific tales of abuse, power trips, and a fundamental attack on identity. They deserve no place in our modern culture and yet they persist. Oakes’ story is a rallying cry against this—in place, we have a quietly gorgeous love story that perseveres against the odds. However, this is definitively Eleanor’s story of learning to love and accept herself. That is the primary focus, with the other relationships weaved in. It is a defiant celebration of loving who you are in the faces of those who see you as a monster.

Eleanor is a protagonist like no other. She has a fierce passion and desire to be loved and accepted, but it is veiled beneath years of programming and a paranoia from a world determined to squash her. The acts of resistance she carries out are initially low level and only indicate an awareness of the flaws of the system, rather than full fledged attacks. What she experiences in the Meadows is beyond sickening. You can see the layers of gaslighting and manipulation; the way events are twisted and devised is nothing short of heart-wrenching. Yet, you too fall into the strange monotony of this world. You can see exactly what Oakes is trying to achieve and it is played out so well. Coupled with this, the narrative structure of moving between then and now—within the Meadows and outside allows for some interesting world-building and hints beyond this dystopian reality. Oakes weaves in some timely warning about the dangers of climate change. This adds another layer to the poignant social commentary, without feeling too laboured or over-explained.

Oakes’ writing is incredibly captivating. Every page carries a keen sense of urgency and suspense, as you follow Eleanor through her narrative. There is a sense of paranoia manifested through the eyes you can practically feel peering over your shoulder. This society has a continual sense of judgement, making every movement feel scrutinised. For me, this heightened the tension immeasurably. Every act of defiance has to be sugar coated and veiled beneath the mask of an extremified femininity. To break the system, you have to face it from inside. For Eleanor, that also means facing and unlearning everything she has been conditioned to believe. It also means facing some more personal histories that she would rather keep buried. There are some excellent twists in here, mostly tied to these introspective developments and are often an internal devastation, rather than a shocking bombshell.

Sometimes a book just makes you ache. The Meadows is one of those very books, leaving an ache deep in your bones and your heart. How you cope with that ache is up to you, but hopefully it spurs you to act in the defence of love.

The Meadows is the hauntingly heartbreaking tale of Eleanor, a girl taken from her life to a facility to be reformed. Behind the glitz and glam of what has been presented as a finishing school for the best and brightest, instead she finds an institution intent on forcing her into a societal cookie cutter. This book has been called reminiscent of The Handmaid's Tale and I couldn't agree more. It also reminded me in some ways of The Honeys by Ryan La Sala.

This book is powerful in its handling of sensitive topics. Eleanor is a very likeable, relatable character. Strap in because this book will take you through pain, grief, love, and doubt, among other intense emotions. This is not an easy book to read, and it will hurt you. But it is a story that needs to be told. There were some rather large lulls in the book, as well as some unanswered questions that resulted in this book being a 4 instead of a 5 star. Oakes has written an emotional tour de force and I can't wait to see what she comes up with next.

Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Random House for the ARC. I am leaving this review voluntarily and all views expressed are my own.

2.5 stars

I enjoyed the comparison books, so I had high hopes for this one. Sadly, things fell flat for me. It was a bit confusing with the past/present flip without there being something specified ahead of time. For a dystopian, the worldbuilding was lacking, and it felt forced. I never connected with the main character, which made it hard to stay engaged or be invested in the outcome. The ending was okay (probably the best part of the book). Overall, it was meh, but I did feel very misled by the comparisons that just weren't accurate.