Vessel

“I love reading dystopian post-apocalyptic stories, and ‘Vessel’ is one that is set in a town where everything’s ‘fine’ and all neighbours love one another – but only in a specific cishetmononormative way. New Standard is a town that pretends everything’s fine, but it’s a high-control environment where the religion is all, with the Matriarch, the Civil Servants, and the ‘Statutes of Equality’ ensuring that the 6000 residents – supposedly the only humans left on Earth – believe (and behave), or at least act like they do. Our protagonist Paige, just turned 17, is in love with her neighbour Mott – a love that the Statutes specifically warn against, because same-gender love is not the type of love one is supposed to express. When she’s then selected as the Ritualist: the one who will be impregnated, then sacrificed after giving birth, her anguish increases – and once her younger brother Sol is arrested? She needs to get out, get Sol out, and be with Mott in whatever way she can. “…she saw, now, the Matriarch’s hypocrisy, and if the entire world was being run by hypocrisy, how was it true? How could anyone find truth, give love, feel peace?” I’ve been reading and learning about cults, high control religions, and the ongoing impacts these can have on those who grow up within in, even if they make it out. This book, while a futuristic parable, nonetheless shows the insidiousness of the messaging, and the confusion a person feels when they are starting to question everything they were taught to believe. While the ending of this book feels abrupt to me as a reader, it rings true in the sense that it’s the end of Paige’s story in New Standard. Whatever comes next? Is unknown. A recommended read. I look forward to reading anything Rie Lee publishes in future.”