The Chaperone
by M Hendrix
Narrated by Laura Knight Keating

Rating: 4.5/5.0 Stars

I was pleasantly surprised by The Chaperone. It started off a little slowly but quickly sucked me in and didn't let go until the end. With many aspects that remind me of The Handmaid's Tale, without the sex and other heavy parts of Handmaid's, this is the story of New America, where women must listen to the men and where girls are brought up to speak only when spoken to and must be obedient. Stella, our heroine of the story, thankfully is none of these things.

All girls from wealthier families have chaperones to ensure that the girls stay on the righteous path that will lead them to a good marriage and a prosperous life. Stella's chaperone has just died and she is given a new chaperone. What follows, is essentially Stella's awakening. I want to know what happens next and would have gone right into the next book if it was out. I don't want to give anything away, but this book is the perfect setup for a series, and I could see it becoming a movie or television show. The audiobook was narrated well and it was easy to listen to.

Thanks so much to NetGalley, RB Media, and the author for the chance to listen to and review this ARC!

Thank you so much to net galley and the publisher for sending me a copy of this book! I’ll be honest, I was hesitant to start this book just because I was thinking it might not be story I would be interested in. I really ended up like this for entire book. It was like a new handmaids tale for the next gen! I really enjoyed the main character Stella and her chaperone laura!

This book is a YA dystopian novel with hints of female empowerment and dissent. I really enjoyed this plot and was engaged throughout - it’s marketed as similar to The Handmaid’s Tale. I’ve not read or watched The Handmaid’s Tale, but from what I do know about it I would think that is correct.

The Chaperone is a dystopian novel that follows in the footsteps of The Handmaid's Tale. This YA novel gives us a world where women, especially young women, are controlled at every step by the men in their lives. In order to prepare them for their roles when they marry and become wives, they are given Chaperones. A Chaperone is a woman who has dedicated her life to guiding young women to become exactly what society wants them to be. But not everyone wants to be a perfect follower and not all Chaperones are as equally devoted to their task. Stella's newest Chaperone helps her to learn skills to become a strong woman, even when some of those skills require absolute secrecy. A great story about taking responsibility for one's life, even in the face of strong opposition.

So take The Handmaid's Tale and put it in high school and basically you have The Chaperone. Once girls in New America get their period they're assigned a chaperone and Stella is no exception. She's grown super close with her chaperone, Sister Helen until the woman suddenly dies, leaving Stella to be assigned a new chaperone. Sister Laura is unconventional, and with her guidance, Stella starts to think about what's out there and that there may be more to life than being married and having babies.

This book was just, well, it was very uncomfortable at times. I get Hendrix's incredibly vocal social commentary, I do. And imagining a future society where women are simply incubators for men is very easy to grasp (sadly). I didn't really love this book, nor did I hate it. I really didn't like Handmaid's Tale (flat out hated it to be honest), so the fact that I don't hate this book speaks volumes in and of itself. I didn't really like or care about too-privileged-for-her-own-good Stella (which was part of the problem). The story was timely and poignant, but the characters left something to be desired.

Yikes! This story was so haunting and impactful - it definitely covers some difficult topics. I wanted to love this because of it, and do appreciate what it did... but found that it didn't fully wrap up. If you enjoyed the handmaid's tale you'll love this. I just wish the ending wrapped up better at the end.

Going into this book I saw it as having potential to revitalize the tired teen dystopian fiction market. That was, perhaps, too much pressure to put on a single book. It didn't blow me away. Honestly, I think it over-simplifies it's conflict. A truly compelling dystopian novel relies on one of two ideas: either it's impossible to escape or the alternative is too dangerous. That's where this book fails. New America is too obviously "bad" as it strips girls of all agency. When Stella learns about the truth about Old America, it is too obviously "good". She sees only the benefits. There is no true dilemma and not enough explanation as to how New America happened or why people stayed. While the concept is strong there isn't enough nuance to the plot. I applaud Hendrix for recognizing how our current political climate could go horribly awry but I don't fully love this book.

This book definitely has undertones to The Handmaid's Tale, and being a fan of that series, I was immediately intrigued by the premise of The Chaperone. When we are first introduced to Stella, she definitely comes across as sheltered and slightly annoying, I felt like her transition from a rule follower to complete rebellion was far too rushed and I struggled to find sympathy for her journey she went through. I'm not sure why the chapters were so short and broken up, a single scene was sometimes 3-4 chapters which was kind of annoying while listening to the audio version of the book. Annoyed as I was by Stella, I was engaged by the overall plot and kept listening until the very end, I'm glad the author ended it how they did to allow for future stories.

Wow, this one was a bit heavy but also super interesting and I am looking forward to reading more from this author. If you like Handsmaids Tale you will definitely enjoy this book.

"I let out the breath I didnt know I was holding."...three times....lol.

over all i enjoyed this book, the ending seemed a touch rushed, but i did like Hendrix's writing style. i would read more from them

I really wanted to love this book. This dystopian society based on some incredibly conservative ideals, feels like it could be a cautionary tale to Americans. I simply wanted more from the world building, and more background on how this society change came about.

The Chaperone is a very timely story based on the premise of a New America. I enjoyed the strength of the main character, but almost feel like she was almost too juvenile, even for a YA, to be a true heroine. The ending left me deeply unsatisfied and I felt that many character's stories were left unfinished, which may have been intentional. The most annoying aspect to me was the short length of the chapters leading to the book having 116 chapters. This was just unnecessary.
I would give this book 3-3.5 stars.

This book was good. It had an interesting concept, but at times felt very unrealistic for a high school aged girl. It definitely had potential, and could have done more.

This book was something! I have not read The Handmaid’s Tale, but saw the first episode of the tv show and know what it’s about and The Chaperone is definitely a cleaner YA version. (A cleaner as in PG-13 for a few parts.)

In New America women don’t have rights and girls are subjected to even more rules. You can never be alone and once girls become women (ie has their first period) they have to have a chaperone. Stella is in the upper class and has her own private chaperone that lives with her family and Stella’s younger sister will have her own chaperone in a few years. The book starts with the death of Sister Helen and everything changes.

Next comes Sister Laura who is different and she begins teaching Stella things and Stella begins to have experiences that she never would have under Sister Helen. Stella begins to think differently and then the book goes in a direction with Stella that months ago she would have never questioned. A journey of self-discovery, finding out the many truths and more comes with the rest of the novel. Saying anything else would be giving away things.
I really enjoyed this book! This is a society that we would not want to live under at all: Girls are expected to marry and then have many babies. Some girls do get to go to college, some become chaperones. The book is about 450 pages but is an extremely fast read and the shorter chapters help. In addition to having a paperback copy, I was also granted a listening copy from the publisher and was able to listen to it during my hour commute to and from work. I therefore finished this book in just a few days! I could not put it down! I wanted to know what was going to happen next!

This is a book that makes you think a lot about women rights/etc and I was thinking about it for a few days after finishing! I really hope M Hendrix is able to continue the series as I really want to know what is going to happen next in Stella’s world! There is an ending to this book, but there is still so much more for us to experience next! If you enjoy dystopian’s this is one to pick up!

The narrator is Laura Knight Keating and she did a great job portraying Stella. I hope she is brought back for the next book. Many thanks to the publisher for granting me an audio copy which I listened to as I read my paperback copy!

Thank you to the publisher for the ALC. Creepy Ya Handmaids Tale like perfection which is what they want but loved.

Stella is born into a wealth family, in the area known as New America. Ruled by The Minutemen; the landscape is a patriarchal nightmare giving women little to no rights or autonomy even having a chaperone to watch over them from the instant they start their period. Only men allowed to learn science and maths, to wield a gun, or even to speak without being spoken to. Stella is one of the lucky ones, those who cannot afford private chaperones are sent to Government School, a strict boarding school for girls where they are brainwashed to accept this life as the norm.

When Stella’s chaperone, Sister Helen who has been with her since 11 years old is murdered, she know’s something is amiss and believes there has been a cover up. After 5 days of grieving, a new government assigned chaperone will soon be allocated by the constables as a replacement and she could be much, much worse. Stella needs to understand what happened to Sister Helen and why, but to do so she will need to dig far deeper than she ever imagined and find out the truth about her world.

A plausible dystopian contemporary tale, this book is a good introduction to further works of this ilk for teens, however I do feel it leans far too much on A Handmaid’s Tale for inspiration. That being said I really enjoyed the book and I think this would be a good though provoking read for perhaps those 14+.

The narrator was excellent and very believable as Stella. She really does a great job.

3.5 rounded up (0.5 stars removed for lack of originality)

2.5 stars. Overall, this was a good, fast-pasted dystopian YA novel in the spirit of The Handmaid's Tale that kept me interested even though there were flaws. This is a genre I enjoy, mostly for realistic depictions of dystopian environments and societies. There were so many inconsistencies with the New America culture that I feel detracted from the plot. For example, are there food shortages in New America, or not? The daily meals are described as flavorless and monotonous in one scene, yet there's an extravagant graduation party with, I think, salmon puffs. The political and economic system just didn't seem to connect with the characters and their actions. These disconnections also apply to Stella's character and decision-making. Overall, though, Stella and her family and chaperones were interesting and I was drawn in enough to care what happened to them in the end, even if that end seemed very rushed in the second half of the book. I could see this being turned into a movie and just hope that if it gets made more time is put into imagining how a place like New America would truly function.

I was hooked by the premise of this book from the start.
I loved how we got some insight into Stella's mom's life and why she would be with a man who would do such things. And even how her dad started off with good intentions but over time became corrupted.
It gave off cult vibes which I am always down for and reminded me a lot of IBLP practices.


There was however a few things that felt off to me.
I will say that I didn't like how many chapters there was. It was like the author was trying to have short chapters and because of this the endings to the chapters were in weird spots, where multiple chapters could have been combined and it would have flowed better.

The other thing I wasn't a huge fan of was the time jump. It made sense for the story to be propelled further but it just seemed random. If a character was going through intense training wouldn't that be something that readers would want to read about.

I almost think that this book would make an amazing series with this book being able to have been two books and then going more into the future.

This book has so many twists and turns! It was fabulous to see what was going to happen. The chaperoned is full of brave choices, positive women characters, and great surprises. This dystopian novel definitely makes you think about what you should do every day.

The longer I think about it, the less I like this book. The dystopian world of The Chaperone is eerily resonant with the fundamentalist Christian, heteronormative, trad country alt-right US Americans dream of, but there were simply too many plot holes for me to ignore. Let me summarize and give a few examples:

Stella lives in a "New America", where even a trace of unconventional behaviour can lead to being "shunned" - though whether that word holds the same meaning it does in today's Western societies or carries different, legal implications is unclear. Let's start with that. Even though she grew up in a gender-segregated (but explicitly not racist, sure) place, she attends a co-ed school and is forced on government-allotted dates with potential husbands. So she could technically speak to or be alone with or, dear god, even touch a boy, but shouldn't be caught doing that. Tell me, then, why that close-to-theocratic jerk state would even allow such situations to happen in the first place?

To keep an eye on her and ensure Stella is adhering to the expectations of a Stepfort wife, her affluent parents employ a live-in nanny, who belongs to an order of so-called chaperones. When her longtime chaperone and beloved friend Sister Helen dies, the chaperone is quickly replaced by a younger woman, who encourages her to pursue more liberal views. And... of course there are parties where teenagers drink alcohol and make out. There is access to morally reproachable movies and TV shows from "Old America", and even sex education (or a twisted conservative version thereof) constitutes part of the highschool curriculum. Modest clothing is it, but naturally, girls get to dress sexily from time to time, on the right occasion. But why??? Is it so easy to do all that in a dystopy???

Not to mention the many more, spoiler-adjacent things I could list that just made no sense. Yeah, i's my firm belief that when you go dystopian, you have to go all the way. Be extreme. But give me reasons to believe your worldbuilding. In this case I can't, above all, believe I read through all that and managed to retain my rolling eyeballs inside my cranium.