Thank you so much to NetGalley and PENGUIN GROUP Penguin Young Readers Group for allowing me an ARC!
3.5/5
“The ocean could sneak up on a person there, surging unexpectedly through blowholes in the pocked surface. You had to listen. You had to be always on guard.”
I have to admit, this has to be my least favorite read so far. I was very excited to read more new dystopians. I did like the LGBT romance and how the dystopian took inspiration from the 1940s era were women were meant to be seen and not heard. The only reason why I felt disappointed was because I had read a book similar to this one, and I was hoping for there to be a more broader area in this genre. Even though I say this having read books like Hunger Games and Divergent, as well as The Maze Runner.

Imagine that But I'm a Cheerleader takes place in the world of Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale, and you'll have a good idea what you're in for with The Meadows. This is a light spoiler, admittedly—the protagonist, Eleanor, doesn't understand why she's been selected for The Meadows until halfway through the novel—but attentive readers will catch onto the school's purpose within the first few chapters: to reform queer young women into "proper" wives and mothers. This skewering of societal anxiety around gender and sexuality isn't new, especially in dystopian literature, but Oakes' novel benefits from solid world-building and genuinely excellent characterization and seems well-positioned to bring these ideas to a new generation.

In the world of The Meadows, devastating climate change has led to upheaval in the social order and a rejection of difference of any kind: racial, gendered, or sexual. Women have been forced out of positions of power and are expected to find satisfaction in heterosexual marriage and motherhood, and everyone is subject to the kind of oppressive surveillance that would make Big Brother envious. The horrors of our world are turned up to eleven in The Meadows, but Eleanor's adolescent angst feels familiar: she's crushing on her best friend, unsure of where she belongs, and desperate for the acceptance that seems within reach if only she can change everything about herself that matters. Sometimes dystopian novels prioritize ideas to the detriment of character, but Oakes' portrayal of the young people growing up in this world is rich and complex. Eleanor is a compelling main character, and she has not one but two crushable love interests(!). I really loved the beginning of the novel, which centers on the social dynamics of The Meadows and the slow unveiling of its secrets. The end, which takes place once Eleanor reenters the world, felt somewhat less focused in comparison. Even so, I flew through this book in two days and am excited to put it on my school shelves this fall. Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Teen for the ARC!

I feel like the author played off the handmaid‘s tale very well because I could see the similarities but Stephanie did a good job in making the story her own and I feel like a lot of the parts in this book can be related to society today, so overall it was a solid book

The books premise is given to us as handmaids tale but make it gay. This premise works of course but felt forced and contradictory in the world building since it was made as a dystopian.

We begin in a facility where the best of girls are sent. Early on we find out it’s all the girls found to even have a hint at being gay that are sent here to be reformed as refined housewives and then forced to marry or have a job snitching on others, which is the job our main character has.

My main complaint is that I wish the past and present were specified at the start of each chapter. I had to reorient myself every time and read ahead to see which POV I was reading before actually diving in. Especially since it wouldn’t be an exact back and forth every chapter.

Now on to my world building complaint. This dystopian world just felt so forced to me. For example: this world got rid of discrimination based on race but then went on to suggest a character be more “black” to get the job? How is that not job discrimination? And yet in a world where religion is no longer a thing (good luck getting rid of Christianity unless they were the ones who died out) they are forced to suffer under the gender binary in yet another patriarchal society.

I found the main character to be quite plain and not likeable. The Meadows was probably the worst reform house Ive ever seen because they just suck at their job. It’s conversion therapy disguised as a private school. Every girl is supposedly sent to this place because they like girls but they are never even told that this is a bad thing! Multiple times girls are caught kissing and yeah they will split the couples up but then they just ignore it. Hell one of the matrons offers Eleanor to randomly come live with her?? Why?? Who the heck knows! Everyone needs to be fired and this whole world just needs redone again

The ending was good as well! This is not a kill your gays book thank god and I did love the ending turn I guess bc I didn’t like [REDACTED] LOL! We love a gay happy ending for once!

Altogether if you’re a dystopian fan then this is definitely the book for you but if the premise is what enticed you, I would say take it with a grain of salt. Be sure to check out other reviews as well as I am just one lonely reviewer in a sea of many!

* Thank you NetGalley and Penguin for this ARC in exchange for an honest review. *

“Angry girls. The only ones I’ve ever loved. Brimming with a fire they could barely contain. Hurt flying from their mouths, screaming at the sky.”

The Meadows hurt. This book is so sad and so beautiful and so utterly painful. I loved every second of it.

Eleanor goes to The Meadows as one of the best and brightest, but quickly learns that the Meadows and it’s matrons are there to refine her and the others. Not just refine them, but change them.

This is a queer dystopian novel set in a scary but not so surprising world, and it hurt but it was so good. Please read it and cry with me.

For once, I actually agree with a title comparison! The Meadows combines Never Let Me Go's creeping-horror of a sci-fi school story with Handmaid's Tale near-future gender and culture dystopia, quashing individuality and anything that could threaten the Quorum's hold to highlight all of the various subtle ways that those in power can use to turn people against themselves and each other.

There are a number of things it does well - Oakes' writing fits the setting perfectly, with a slightly chilling, removed tone that keeps the horrors of what is truly happening at the Meadows from being felt until later. With the varied cast of characters, the books also highlights how the same trauma affects people in different ways and how broad a spectrum of "abnormal" is. It also does a painfully good job of digging into that ache of want for love, especially after living thinking that you weren't enough, that if you were just "better", the ways we twist ourselves to attempt to grasp that, and how ground down people can become after being isolated and told they're "wrong" for so long.

It doesn't quite hit all of its notes, though. In trying to keep memories of the time Before alive, the timeline feels off - if Eleanor's and Sheila's parents remember and know of it, everything about the Quorum and its systems feel too established for only having been in place for a couple decades, for the rebellions to be so small, for people to already be thinking of it in terms of empires falling. It also doesn't quite fit with the very 50's housewife/Stepford finishing school vibe, with hollandaise sauce and aspic dishes. The discordance feels both intentionally jarring but too accepted at the same time.

In the end though, it does pull off its haunting air and the horrors of what a near-future we could be careening to, trying to erase differences and cultures instead of respecting them and letting them enrich us.

I love a good dystopian and this is shades of The Handmaid’s Tale and a dash of Scored (Lauren McLaughlin) with an LGBTQIA focus. Set in the future after some cataclysmic event, children are chosen to attend facilities under the guise of being the best and the brightest, but they are actually conversion camps in disguise. We follow Eleanor’s journey in the present and through flashbacks during her time at The Meadows. It’s an interesting story and I wish there was more information about how the society got to this point. It’s heartbreaking to watch the girls learn to hide an essential part of themselves and to live in fear. It’s also heartbreaking to realize that this book won’t make it to the shelves of so many libraries which makes this read more poignant and important right now.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a digital copy and a chance to read this early. All opinions are my own.

Wow.

I almost have no words for how much I loved this book.

I've been waiting for a resurgence in YA Dystopian for a long time, and The Meadows is a brilliant example of what I want in a 2023 dystopian novel. The Meadows jumps back and forth between the present day story where Eleanor, the MC, is an adjudicator, checking on the allegedly reformed former residents of schools such as the one she attended, and her time as a student at one of them.

So much of this book is an achingly quiet heartbreak -- watching Eleanor and the fellow girls at her school arrive with such hope for their futures, and watching the ways in which they are guided to change, sacrifice, & hide parts of themselves is sometimes hard to witness. But it also makes each moment of rebellion, quiet, or otherwise, so much more beautiful.

Something that Stephanie Oakes does incredibly well is create multiple fully realized characters, whose stories are just as compelling as Eleanor's. This is a book that will stay with me for a long time, and Stephanie Oakes is now a must read author.

What worked: YA meets Handmaid's Tale set in a futuristic world where teens are sent to camps to 'better' themselves. Only in these camps, there is an ugly truth. A truth the matrons try to suppress by using gentle coaching methods to force out any differences.

While reading this novel I instantly thought of the horrific practice of conversion-places that try to force GLBTQ teens/YA to not be themselves. These places unfortunately still are around but like the author mentions at the back of this novel, are given different titles. The harm they cause are the same though.

Eleanor wants so much to belong and to be loved. She shares a forbidden kiss and then is summoned to the Meadows. She's excited thinking this will lead to wonderful things. The dystopian backdrop with hints of The Handmaid's Tale is chilling. But more so is how the matrons who run the place come off as caring and gentle. Though in a way it's almost passive-aggressive in how they interact with the girls with the subtle and not-so-subtle comments if one of them doesn't follow their directions.

The characters are multi-complex and there are surprises that turn up throughout this engaging story. The truth about Eleanor's parents and Matron Maureen shows the complexity of this world. Nothing is what it appears. Secrets and truths aren't as hidden as one might believe.

I love a good dystopia novel and this one didn't disappoint. The world-building is intriguing with the 'new' world and how far the caretakers go to have their so-called perfect society. A society that is more traditional and frowns on anyone who questions them.

Queer dystopian where any difference is suppressed by 'gentle' but horrific ramifications and the girl who fights to find her way back to the girl she left behind.

The Meadows follows the main character in a dystopian future (reminiscent of The Handmaid’s Tale) where a traditional nuclear family is the only option for all members of society and all other deviants and subversives are exiled unless they can be reformed in seemingly utopian facilities with dark secrets. The catch? The residents of the facilities with names like The Glades and The Meadows don’t know that they’re there to be reshaped into model members of polite society.

I love books like this, but they also scare me because it really seems like politicians are using materials like this as literal playbooks to directly script our own dystopian future.

As a parent of an LGBTQ+ child this book hit hard. While this is a dystopian novel it does highlight many fears I have for my own child. The constant monitoring of what is being done and said and using that to try to make everyone fit into this "box". I think this book tackles really great topics in a way that is easy for YA to understand. It also puts real names and people to these harmful practices. I think this book was spot on!

I enjoyed reading this! The story was fast-paced and entertaining, the characters were likable, and the dystopian genre was refreshing to read. The writing was nothing special, but it didn’t take away from the story. Also, that cover is so pretty! Though I enjoyed the book, it didn’t stand out to me as anything memorable.

Many thanks to NetGalley for the complimentary ebook in exchange for my honest opinion.

The Meadows by Stephanie Oakes is a breathtaking work of speculative fiction. She draws the reader into a world created after massive environmental catastrophes. A world where a shadowy cabal of leaders determined that the only way to appease nature is to reestablish a “natural” order. With that goal in mind, young people are selected by an algorithm to go to decidedly unnatural facilities to teach them how to live out the “natural” roles expected of them.

The story that unfolds is a queer love story, a story of quiet revolution, and a cautionary tale for anyone who thinks queerness can (or should) be changed. Eleanor attends the Meadows thinking it will model her into “the best and brightest” only to find that is simply wants to to force her into a mold. She and her classmates each struggle to be who they truly are in a world that wants them to be anything but that.

This book contains difficult subjects such as conversion therapy, suicide, prejudice against LGBTQ+ people, and animal deaths.

"Handmaid's Tale meets Never Let Me Go" was a great tagline for this book, it had everything that was promised. It had a great dystopian feel to it and I really felt like it was a ruff place. The characters were written perfectly for the setting. I enjoyed how Stephanie Oakes wrote this and can’t wait to read more from the author.

The Meadows is a fantastic YA book about a dystopian society that wants everyone to abide by what they consider normal. The main character Eleanor gets accepted to the Meadows and comes to find out that things are not what they seem. I really enjoyed the plot and found it disturbing and thrilling. It really comes close to how awful people are currently in our society and that really hit a nerve with me. I kept thinking is this where we are headed? The writing is top notch and the story flows easily back and forth between present and past. The characters were very well written, they all were strong individuals that had a lot of dimensions. I loved Eleanor, Rose, and June. This is such a great story! I look forward to reading more by this author.

One girl's mission is to save herself and those she loves in the face of a government hellbent on conformity.

Summary:
Eleanor awaits a letter that guarantees her spot as one of the best and brightest at elusive places. When Eleanor is accepted to The Meadows, she finds herself among girls who she has more in common than she knows. However, The Meadows and its matrons have dark secrets and plan to reform the girls to battle and overcome their deepest desires. Eleanor begins accepting this change when she meets Rose, an enigmatic girl who questions and defies the matrons. Eleanor secures a job in the city four years later but cannot escape the memories and regrets surrounding her relationship with Rose. She must tread carefully as she struggles to uncover the secrets and the truth behind The Meadows, for The Algorithm is always watching and listening. Can Eleanor disclose the facts about herself and her society, or will she suffer the same fate as Rose?

Review:
Many aspects of this novel work: the writing, the story, and the plot; however, there are some issues. Let's start with what I enjoyed.
Stephanie Oaks's writing is fantastic and beautiful. There are many moments in the novel where the style just enamored me. Honestly, the writing style is my favorite part of the novel. Oaks has a raw and unapologetic style that demands the reader's attention. Her world-building and descriptions are hauntingly beautiful.
The story is incredible and timeless. In this day and age, where gender identity is often demeaned and ignored, the level of The Meadows and its girls reflect the conflicting desires of queer people. Often, people in the LGBTQ+ community face internal conflicts when told to ignore parts of themselves in favor of the "traditional" roles of men and women. There's a line in the novel that directly reflects this idea: "If everyone was expected to be the same, anyone different ha[s] the burden of conforming, or cutting away the parts of themselves that didn't fit." As a YA novel, I believe this commentary is hopeful and inspiring.
While the story's plot is similar to many YA dystopian novels, The Meadows offers new and exciting plot points. Of course, as most dystopian novels center on the theme of conformity versus individuality, Oaks's novel narrows this idea down to the conversion of non-normative people. I thought this was an exciting idea and something that I had not read before. Stephanie Oaks considered every part of her story to develop a fascinating world that intriguingly uses technology. Through a blend of Big Brother and Never Let Me Go, Oaks creates a compelling plot that is twisty and riveting.
My issues with the novel are minor and likely based on my age. While I enjoyed the social commentary, I often found it a little heavy-handed. As I mentioned above, most dystopian novels focus on individuality in the face of a demanding government, so I have read this idea many times before. However, I enjoyed what Oaks said and think many young adult readers would benefit from such commentary. In perhaps the most obvious bit of writing, one of the girls argues that she doesn't "think nature cares about girls kissing girls or boys kissing boys." If there is any doubt about what Oaks is discussing, she ensures readers understand the novel's point. As an adult reader, I enjoy books with something to say without mentioning it. However, as a high school English teacher, I know how my students read, and they often miss the nuances of a text, so I understand why Oaks lays out her ideas in such clear terms. As a YA novel, I think Oaks nails the plot and the commentary.

I struggled to rate the novel because I realized I was not the target audience. While I may have had some issues with the book, I don't think young adult readers will find the same areas of concern. I had to consider my role as an English teacher and think about my typical reader. As such, I give this novel four stars. I believe many teenage readers would find the story and the characters fascinating.

This was SO SO SO GOOD. The plot, premise, vibe, writing, world building was all on point. This really made you think as well.

I received this Arc from netgalley and the publisher to read and I am soo very happy I get the chance to be one of the first to review this book.

I suppose I will start with what I didn't like first, then I'll get to the good stuff.

First off there was a little bit of bouncing back and forth from present time to past time and in the past, we were building up to something. Building up to a meeting of someone: Rose. It took me a while to get the handle on when and where I was in the timeline, but once I got it down it worked. I only wish that at the top of the chapter there was a little note that said, five years ago....or present...etc...

The other thing was it was very reminiscent of the handmaiden's tale, the stories were very similar, but I'd say it was more of a handmaiden's tale meets stepford wives.

I did feel a little let down when we finally meet up with Rose and when the mystery is answered. It took me til the end of the story to understand that everyone has their own journey.

Ok so now on to what I liked.

The story was written so well. It had this way that made you think you knew what was happening or where the story was going and then it surprised you. The whole time I was trying to figure it out. It kept me reading this book straight through and I didn't even realize how much time had passed I was so engrossed in the story.

It also captured the turmoil and heartbreak of what conversion therapy could be, was and is. How heartbreaking it is for kids, and young adults and adults to feel as though they should be ashamed of themselves for being different, for having culture for embracing themselves. It was a hard thing to read at times and this book touched on many many hard themes.

I think that's what makes this book so good, so real, is that looking in as the reader you know what the meadows is before the character (Eleanor) and all the others know what it is. You see the way the meadows is rewiring their brains, you see the inner workings of Eleanor as she becomes acceptant of what is happening. And your heart breaks for them.

The ending is surprising, I didn't know it would go the way it did. But I very much was happy with it. This is my first book by this author, but I definitely plan to read more (even though I didn't find much more)

So, I'll be following for more books.!

I think even with the hard themes this book is a good book for teens, especially those that feel like they don't belong, or that something is wrong with them.

this was a really good! I liked the characters, and they were super well-developed. the plot was super cool and fun to read, and the writing was also smooth and easy to understand
highly recommendthis was a really good! I liked the characters, and they were super well-developed. the plot was super cool and fun to read, and the writing was also smooth and easy to understand
highly recommend

Finally some good dystopian stuff! I really enjoyed this, it was a solid effort by the author. I was truly invested in the characters and their story. Recommended to young adults especially.