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The Quickening

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What to expect

'A white-knuckle ride of a thriller . . . Immersive, enraging and terrifyingly plausible' Erin Kelly, author of The Skeleton Key

Your body. Their Choice.

The Hope Party's new laws have transformed Great Britain: the countryside rewilded, children's rights prioritised, and births on the rise. But freedom is fading.

Karen has learned to navigate this new world, keeping her head down as her fertility is constantly monitored. As her husband's career thrives, while hers stalls. As her son is drawn into misogynist groups. Like everyone else, she's too frightened to speak up.

Until her teenage daughter reveals a life-changing secret: she's pregnant. With abortion and contraception banned, her future has gone up in flames. But Karen won't let this happen - Charlotte is going to have the life she lost.

Karen turns to her sister Isobel, a doctor who's initially reluctant to help. But when they learn Charlotte's pregnancy is ectopic and life-threatening, the stakes skyrocket. The three women go on the run, getting deeper into danger with every hour that passes. With powerful enemies on their tail, they will risk everything in a desperate fight for freedom, and for life.

The Quickening is a powerful exploration of motherhood, sacrifice, and the terrifying cost of complicity. For fans of Vox, Red Clocks, and The Handmaid's Tale.

'[A] gripping, dystopian thriller . . . A timely and frightening take on the age-old battle for women to have rights over their own bodies, The Quickening is an essential - and chilling - read' Heat magazine

'So clever and terrifying and moving and compelling and thought-provoking' Laura Marshall, author of Friend Request

'Amazing premise and so well executed . . . One of my books of the year already' Robyn Delvey, author of The Seven

Critics Review

So clever and terrifying and moving and compelling and thought-provoking
Laura Marshall, author of Friend Request
Amazing premise and so well executed . . . One of my books of the year already
Robyn Delvey, author of The Seven
A white-knuckle ride of a thriller that's also a study of motherhood, power, cowardice and courage. In every chapter I found myself wondering what I would do in the characters' shoes and found no easy answers. Immersive, enraging and terrifyingly plausible.
Erin Kelly, author of The Skeleton Key
The not-so-distant future is a terrifyingly plausible place in The Quickening, but Claire McGowan has a gift for finding the grace and humanity in our darkest corners. A supremely good read
Louise Candlish, author of Our House
Relentlessly fast-paced and gripping, The Quickening is a chilling, high-octane blend of The Handmaid's Tale and 1984. I loved it
Mark Edwards, author of The Magpies
When teenager Charlotte finds she has a life-threatening ectopic pregnancy, she goes on the run with her mum and doctor aunt, and begins a perilous and gripping journey.
Woman and Home, August's Book Club
[A] gripping, dystopian thriller . . . A timely and frightening take on the age-old battle for women to have rights over their own bodies, The Quickening is an essential - and chilling - read.
Heat magazine
Author Claire McGowan
Narrator Tamsin Kennard
Duration 10 hours and 29 minutes
Release Date
ISBN 9781405568630
Format Audiobook
Publisher Little, Brown Book Group
Genre Dystopian and utopian fiction, Modern and contemporary fiction
Availability AU, GB, IE

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