A disturbing and cleverly constructed story about a future we will hopefully never need to live in. I am looking forward to more adult fiction from Polly Ho-Yen.

I read this book in preparation for an interview with the author.

4.5/5

"You can't live your life like that, always imagining that someone is watching you. But do we have to do that now, though? Maybe we do?."

In Dark Lullaby, due to fertility crisis, women must undergo a process called induction to get pregnant, which is quite tortuous. Due to the low birth rate, women are pressured to go through the induction process, degrading them in their work and decreasing their salary if they do not do so as they grow older. In addition, after childbirth, families are continuously monitored by the OSIP (Office of Standards in Parenting), who can extract (that is, take away from their parents) the children in case certain standards are not met.

The book is promoted as ideal for fans of Black Mirror and The Handmaid's Tale, and I can assure you that they definitely reminded me of the series and the book because of the sensations it left me with.

"There's nothing to make you worry like someone saying there's nothing to worry about."

In the book we follow Kim in two temporal lines, then and now. Kim is a woman who didn't want to go through the induction process, but something made her change her mind. When we read the "now" chapters, we realize that something has happened with her daughter, but we don't know what, and we don't know what she is trying to do. I found the interleaving of chapters with different temporal lines interesting, because we understan better the context and we can get to know Kim better. She is a protagonist with whom I empathized instantly. The plot is super interesting and it is very well written and developed, the author definitely captivated me with the story, and she kept me awake all the time. The pace of the story corresponds to what is narrated, although I recognize that the whole tense atmosphere made me want everything to happen faster.

It is a book that I keep thinking about, which made an impact on me, and I really enjoyed reading so I highly recommend it.

"Maybe everyone is hiding how they really feel."

This had a fantastic premise that reminded me of The Handmaid's Tale but it failed to add anything new to the table.

Kit lives in a world where 99.8% of the population is unable to conceive naturally. When she decides to have a child, she thinks she's prepared. She knows how demanding Induction is. She's seen children extracted. But in a society where parenting is strictly monitored under the watchful gaze of OSIP (The Office of Standards In Parenting), she is forced to ask herself how far she will go to keep her family together.

As interesting as the premise was, I really struggled to get into the story. The pacing is on the slower side and I felt that it lacked suspense. Reading the book as a woman was incredibly frustrating as the plot was very troubling at times. I cannot imagine how suffocating it must be to live in a society that holds so much control over your life and your experience as a mother.

It has a great premise that provided an interesting read, but I just expected a little more from the plot.

Many thanks to the author, publisher, and Netgalley for sending me a copy of this book in return for an honest review.

I would rate this book 3.75 out of 5 stars.

I really enjoyed this!

This is a book with a really solid and interesting premise - I was really engaged the whole way through and the ending..... A++

I cannot believe I finished reading this book 8 months ago. I have fallen so behind on my reviews...
This book surprised me with how good it was. Not that I was expecting it to be bad, but I just didn't think I'd like it quite as much as I did. I truly found myself wanting to read on and struggling to put it down, and I got so emotionally invested. And it was actually pretty plausible, which is kind of scary.
It focuses on a woman called Kit. It's set in a world where a massive proportion of the human population is infertile and unable to conceive children naturally. Because of this, the few that are able to have children, through a process called induction, are monitored extremely closely and judged by very high standards. If parents don't meet these standards, they risk having their child(ren) 'extracted'. The narrative shifts between past and present quite frequently, and we slowly uncover more of Kit's story; she's a mother herself, and has experienced this strict parental monitoring in the most horrific ways. While fighting for her daughter, Kit uncovers some terrible secrets about the entire system. She has to decide just how far she'll go for her child.
The reason I wasn't entirely sure I'd enjoy this all that much is that I'm not the most maternal of people. I'm really not the kind of girl who's always dreamed of having kids and being a mother. But this book really got to me at times. Not only did I feel awful for Kit for losing her daughter, not to mention all the other parents who have suffered the same loss, but Kit's other relationships are strained as a result. And the inequality of the entire system, the concept itself... It's messed up. But it's not really that far-fetched if you think about it, which is the scariest bit of all.
I really enjoyed this book and would definitely recommend it. However, now that I've read it once and know some of the exciting twists, I'm not sure I'd enjoy it quite so much. Maybe I'll try reading it again someday and see. 4.5 stars!

There was something deeply personal as I started this book about infertility and being part of the first time parent club, given that and my wife underwent fertility treatments to have our first child in 2020. So I went into this book a bit apprehensive that I may find this triggering in certain aspects, which unfortunately led to be accurate, but I persevered through it.
The premise of Dark Lullaby is dystopian. Where nearly all people have infertility, great is this highest 98%. And society has made changes to pregnancy & parenting to ensure that the population does not die out. The idea of the government makes it akin to 1984 and V for Vendetta. as once the child is born. The family is monitored continuously to meet the highest standards required for parenting or risk losing their child.
I greatly appreciated the switch between the timelines of then and now. Even though the sterilise plague in dystopian fiction is a well-used troop, that is also quite terrifying given its plausibility reality due to the documented fall in fertility rates due to external environmental factors. However, I found myself able to be enough detached from it enjoy the characterisation And the Rich worldbuilding and writing.
Thank you to NetGalley and Titan Books for providing me with an early copy of this book.

Unfortunately, this book didn't quite resonate with me as much as I would like. I ended up not being able to finish it.

this was such a dark story when you think about it, it was a wonderfully done read. The characters were great and I loved the storyline. It was so well done, it had what I was looking for in this type of book.

I am intrigued by how Dark Lullaby is pitched in the marketing material (see, for example, the publisher's website) which draws comparisons with The Handmaid's Tale. There is a similarity in that both are about a near-future, dystopian society that prioritises control of women and their fertility in the face of imploding birth rates. And of course The Handmaid's Tale - the novel, its sequel and the spin-off TV series - are tremendously successful, and who wouldn't want a little bit of that? But as I read it, Dark Lullaby is making rather different points and it would be a shame to judge it by the same dystopian yardstick as Margaret Atwood's book.

In the world of Dark Lullaby, an avowedly authoritarian Government has taken control of the UK, or at least England, where the novel is set. Very little is said about wider political events, so one can't tell where we are in relation to Brexit, say, or whether the UK is intact, and it's not really clear how this government came to power or maintains its power. Surveillance seems pretty universal, although the book only explores this in the context of childcare and tracking parents, and opposition is minimal. It is though a world slightly distinct from ours in the deployment of "spheres" - work-spheres, go-spheres and spheres in public places - as both network access, and by implication, surveillance devices. These seem to resemble the telescreens from Nineteen Eighty Four more than our mobiles, laptops and smart TVs in that they broadcast an endless spew of propaganda, perhaps partly tailored to what is is said and done around them.

Like authoritarian nations regimes the world over, the government in this future prioritises control over womens' fertility and seeks to mobilise them to address the population fall. Due to unspecified and unknown factors, the birthrate has been falling and natural conception is difficult or impossible. Woman are coerced to undergo invasive and dangerous treatments described as "induction" to cause them to conceive. Participation is not (yet) mandatory, although things are moving that way with income, housing and work roles increasing limited for the "outs" who decline to take part.

Kit has been an "out" although since meeting her now-husband Thomas, she has changed her mind and they now have a baby, Mimi. However, that's only the start of the nightmare for the couple. The focus on fertility doesn't end at birth, with an entire department of the government - "OSIP", the Thought Police of this world - devoted to monitoring standards of childcare. Unfortunately, OSIP's role doesn't;t seem to extant to offering any practical support, advice or help to struggling parents struggling mothers, rather it issues judgmental warnings over the slightest infraction and then, when sufficient of these have accumulated, sweeps in to take the child away ("extraction").

The most powerful parts of the novel focus on the feelings of parents (principally mothers, and especially Kit) in light of this situation. This is I think where Dark Lullaby really becomes a different book from its dystopian predecessors. Parenthood is always a series of muddles and mistakes (Philip Larkin's poem on the subject is well known) and new parents - new mothers especially - are under incredible stress. Twenty five years on, I can still remember the panic when the community midwife was due to visit for an inspection and Daughter chose her moment to poo while being changed, creating an awful mess which required an immediate bath.

It already goes with the territory to feel judged (again, this is especially true for new mothers), to be all at sea as to whether what one is doing is right, fearful from moment to moment that the little scrap of humanity you are suddenly responsible for will just... stop. At the same time you're sleep deprived, probably socially isolated and your life has been turned inside out.

Polly Yo-Hen's novel captures the wretchedness of this situation perfectly, showing the stories of not one, not two, but three families sequentially in this plight, on whom the pitiless minions of OSIP prey. Told in alternate sections simply entitled "Now" and "Then" it follows Kit and Thomas in some, initially unexplained, flight (but without baby Mimi) (the "Now") and in their earlier lives, meeting one another, falling in love, agonising over whether to have kids ("Then"). Those earlier sections also show us the agony of the other families featured here, with its inevitable conclusion. The format works well for the most part, although I found it a little frustrating how long we're kept waiting to have the exact situation in the "Now" part explained. It, especially, allows plenty of time to establish the dilemma faced by Kit by showing how things work out - or don't - for those other families. By the time we come to the endgame, we understand the stakes for Kit, Mimi and Thomas only too well and appreciate just how impossible things really are, then giving us an ending that's truly heartbreaking.

As a thriller, the story works very well - perhaps it's a little too dependent on coincidence to smooth things along (but what thriller isn't?) - but as I've suggested above, it really comes into its own as an exploration of the sense of stress, guilt and inadequacy that haunts parents even if they have the best support imaginable. Many in our world have far worse than that, but in Kit's world everything seems set up to undermine and belittle.

Every parent who's thought at one time or another "just take her, take this baby, I can't do this" (and that means every parent I think) will empathise with Kit in her troubles. That gives the story true heart, although it doesn't make it an easy read (and readers whose experiences are simply too raw may simply find it too much).

I would recommend, but do be aware that this isn't, always, a comfortable read.

It was an interesting story. The jumping between the time lines was a bit hard to get used to but I think it was a good way of telling the story with small pieces of past and present being given to you. It did not however make me feel a lot of emotions. I thought it would be more of an emotional read but it just didn't make me feel a lot. It was an easy read and some people might enjoy it more than I did.

I am not a parent, partly because the pressure to be a good is horrendous (and to an extent, necessary) In this novel, parents are tailed and graded by a terrifying government who seem to be searching for any excuse to snatch a newborn child away. Once a child is removed from a household due to 'infractions' (like leaving a crying child for more than 5 minutes) adults must undergo 'retraining' if they ever hope to see them again. Many adults who have undergone retraining become 'child catchers' themselves- there are sinister rewards for those who join the system, utter desolation for those who can't come up to scratch. Society is designed to reward child-rearers- homes in certain areas and jobs in certain fields are off-limits to those who 'opt out'- so those who lose their children lose everything else too. Some rebel in small ways, sneaking baby formula to women who struggle to breastfeed. Others help parents smuggle their children across the channel to France, a risky journey that is frighteningly similar to the one made by hundreds of child refugees. Details about the formation of this dystopian state are scarce, but it's obvious why no-one would stand up for the adults in the early days- who would dare risk the safety of their own child? I would actively recommend that expecting parents and those with very small children avoid this book- I don't have a maternal bone in my body but I found myself regularly flinching at the horrors inflicted on mothers and fathers too. Scary, pacy, hopefully not prescient.

Wow. This book was intense and gripping and heart-wrenching and I enjoyed it so much. It's set in a world where fertility rates are extremely low and it's almost impossible to conceive naturally, so women undergo hormone treatments and receive extensive help if they wish to have a child. However, as there are so few babies being born, the care of each and every baby is closely monitored by OSIP and if the government decrees you unfit to raise your precious infant they're taken away from you

Based on that premise alone you can see how intense of a plot it is! Our main character, Kit, is sure she doesn't want to go through the hassle of having a baby, until she meets Thomas. Even though it's a woman's choice to go through the process or not, life is made more difficult for those women who choose not to: socially, professionally, personally, romantically

As someone who doesn't want children but has seen my sisters become mothers, this book drew so many emotions from me. Even in the current world there's so much pressure on new mums to do certain things, never mind in this dystopian world where babies are so much rarer. Seeing Kit's sister, Evie, desperately trying to breastfeed her baby made me think of my sister and the pressure she put on herself, and that was without the risk of the government taking her baby away, which is a very real possibility for parents in this book!

TW: death of a parent, mention of miscarriage and fertility struggles, mention of suicide

Thank you to the publishers and Netgalley for giving me a review copy in exchange for an honest review.

The world is suffering an infertility crisis, the last natural birth was over twenty years ago and now the only way to conceive is through a painful fertility treatment. Any children born are strictly monitored, and if you are deemed an unfit parent then your child is extracted. Also if you choose to have children you are rewarded with better pay at your jobs, and you are also entitled to better housing.

We follow our main character Kit over two timelines - one titled 'then' which is following her choosing to become and mother, and 'now' her fighting to get her child back.

I loved following the two parallel stories and how they unravelled and joined up.

Watching Kit develop from someone who never wanted kids because of the threat of extraction, into someone that deemed the threat worth it was great. And the pacing of these chapters being sandwiched between her fleeing across quarters and boundaries to get her daughter back was just brilliant.

As a mother, you can understand why and how she would do anything for her daughter, however dangerous it may be for herself.

I did however feel as though it wrapped up so quickly and I would've liked more detail as to how the book ended the way it did.

Children are something that many people love to have in their life and others do not. Our society is geared to saying you grow up; meet someone and are then expected to have the next generation. At this point there are tonnes of guides, families, newspaper articles etc all telling you how to be the perfect parent. It’s safe to say that children can be pressure – how can anyone ever do it all right? In the disturbing dystopian science fiction novel Dark Lullaby Polly Ho-Yen gives us a glimpse of a world where women are expected to do their duty to have children; rear them perfectly or if not face the consequences.

In the near future for reasons not fully understood human fertility is falling fast. In the UK this has led to a government that has made huge policy changes to encourage women to have children. If you are rich then you can afford an XC (a foetus grown in an external laboratory created from a mix of human genetic material) but for anyone else this requires women to go through a process named Induction – the taking of strong medications and hormones to change the body to make it receptive to having a baby. Kit and Evie are two young sisters. Evie has just announced she will be going through Induction with her partner Seb while Kit has always been ambivalent - Induction can be very dangerous to women with fatalities being common. We watch over a few years Eve have her child and Kit meets a partner who makes her want to have a child. But in the UK all parents are subject to OSIP – The Office of Standards in Parenting. This has eyes and ears everywhere in society and a parent felt to be putting their child at any risk even low birth-weight risks a penalty of an ISP (Insufficient parenting standard) enough of these then enforcers will arrive to take your child away and place them in a government child-rearing facility. As the story progresses both sisters face this threat and we then watch how Kit has to desperately try to find her child before it gets too late.

This is a thoroughly unsettling read and I write that as a man who has no desire to ever have children. Ho-Yen has created a dystopia that very much uses that very common prejudice that all women are expected to have children and that all women must be the best parents possible. Society will always be judging you. What impressed me so much was how Ho-Yen creates that society and we see young girls being made to watch videos about Induction; women without children are punished in pay and living standards especially if they want to work themselves and everywhere the government sponsored GoSpheres in every home and street constantly tell people about the benefits of having a child. AS a reader you feel for the sisters that they really aren’t being allowed any choice. Sexism is also clear – for men no such penalties exist and beyond sperm donation little pressure is provided for them to be the perfect fathers. It feels like a UK gone backwards but these days that feels not entirely impossible any more and Ho-Yen makes this feel terribly plausible if the wrong people got in power – you could easily imagine the Daily Mail being in favour of such policies.

Ho-Yen then explores the pressure of a woman who has decided to have a child to then be judged for how she rears them. Ask any mother and they’ll tell you everyone has an opinion on what is right and wrong and here it’s the state itself judging health, morality, care and even family happiness. Let your child cry in a park too long and you can expect a penalty. All of this should be horribly overbearing but the threat of extraction – that you will be judged so bad a parent after only a few mistakes that you must lose the child makes this a truly horrible fear ever present in the novel. Kit and Evie have this 24/7 and we can see the impact on their physical and mental health as the novel progresses. Ho-Yen creates a pressure cooker of a tale where relationships are under constant stress; emotional blackmail and fear making this a discomforting read.

Gelling all this together is Kit’s voice and we see events leading up to her own child Mimi being born and then a near future where she is on a desperate search for Mimi. This Then and Now approach adds tension as we try to piece together what has happened and why Kit is in such a state. That allows us to explore the world and how the sisters have changed with motherhood and societal pressures. This becomes more a thriller and we start to unpick the real truth of this world which is a truly terrible one to reside in. The question is what would you do to keep your head above water? You may not approve of the sister’s choices, but you will understand how they were led to them and how the society they lived in encouraged it.

Dark Lullaby is a disturbing piece of science fiction that verges on the horror which as I read was because it felt incredibly plausible. With lockdown we have already seen plenty of surveys that women have had the burden of childcare placed thon them at home with little support. We know every woman has been asked ‘are you having a child yet?’ and we’ve all heard from parents about people being told this is the right way to be a parent. Ho-Yen has merged those ideas and created a terrifyingly prescient cold world where children are a duty and choice is not allowed. Fans of Claire North and Black Mirror would be well advised to give this your attention…you may feel shivers long after reading it.

⭐⭐⭐⭐

@iambookhorse has created a world that seems so real and possible it is anxiety inducing! As a mother, every page filled me with dread and fear as I hoped for a happy ending in a world that seems devoid of them.

Fans of The Handmaid's Tale will LOVE this book.

Imagine a world where, to have a child, you have to go through a gruelling fertility process called induction that could kill you. Imagine then that once you've had your miracle bundle of joy, you live in fear of them being extracted and taken away. Make a mistake, you will receive an IPS (Insufficient Parenting Standard). Too many IPS...? Your child is taken off you, never to return. That may sound protective and ideal to safeguard children, until you realize you can get an IPS for letting your child cry for 5 minutes, or not supporting their head fully even for a moment.

Kit has decided, after seeing the struggles of her sister's fertility treatment, and witnessing the trauma of extraction, that she doesn't want children...until she falls in love. But when the threat of her child being extracted looms over, how far will she go to keep her family together.

I found this book hard to put down! It’s quite bleak at times but Kit’s story and journey to try and keep her family was compelling and well written.

The world building and sinister aspect of the OSIP was quite scary. I really enjoyed the Then and Now set up that the author used to tell the story and it fed well into furthering the darker tone.

The society the author portrayed doesn’t feel like that far a stretch to one we could see in the future. I found myself wondering how I would have reacted in Kit’s (and her sisters) situation, and what I would do to protect my own children. A gripping and thought provoking read.
 

Thanks to Titan Books for the gifted book in exchange for an honest review.

Dark Lullaby was a tale centred around infertility dystopia and needless to say, this was a story that was mostly impactful on women. The book plunged the reader immediately into a sad and oppressive world where there seemed to be limited hope and expectations for people. This world was very similar to the world we exist in now. As a reader, you did feel the various stages of desperation that the women in this book experienced. I would have liked more from the male characters in the book.

It was a discomforting read as you would imagine, but it was also an unsatisfying read for me. The story was told in ‘then’ and ‘now’ and this element was executed well but I was left wondering about issues all the way through, some of which were never answered. There were conveniences in the plot that I struggled with; the ending felt rushed.

Overall, I was left somewhat unsatisfied throughout the read and in the culmination. The theme of the story had all the potential, the characters were not necessarily likeable but they were robustly developed. I don’t why this just didn’t hit the spot for me considering my enjoyment of dytopia. I’m a huge fan of The Handmaid’s Tale that also tackles this theme of infertility changing the world but that book was so much more, in my opinion.

Thank you to Titan Books for the early review copy. Dark Lullaby is out now.

Dark Lullaby is such an apt title for this novel. There's a constant oppressive and bleak tone for a world where your baby can be taken from you at any moment, never to be seen again.

We switch between present and past timelines from the perspective of Kit as both she and her sister endure the constant monitoring of parenting under OSIP.
They have eyes and ears everywhere, reproduction is at such a low in the future that any parent who cannot maintain the happiness and safety of their child every minute of every day are deemed unworthy.

As someone who doesn't want to bear children, the prospect of a life restricted by that notion is horrifying. Women are valued by their ability and willingness to reproduce, their wages, residence and status depend upon it.

The constant stress and fear I imagine a parent to have is one thousand fold under the unforgiving eyes of OSIP. But wait until you reach the ending, when the secrets of OSIP are revealed and you comprehend the depths of the dark in this story.

I think anybody sensitive to the many trials of motherhood should stay away from this book, it grips your heart and squeezes hard from start to finish. A wonderfully unique thrilling, if difficult, read.

If you like the Handmaid's Tale or Vox, this is the book for you. In fact, if you're a fan of dystopia in general, this is your book.

I loved the premise of this book, worldwide infertility leading to an almost "big brother" style of monitoring parents? Sounds interesting to me!

I think the author followed through with the plot so well, I loved the family dynamics. I felt the effects of the monitoring system was showcased really well especially with Evie.

I loved the characters, who each in their own way had something to offer the story.

I think the book was well paced and my only criticism would be that it was almost too well paced, the reveal at the end seemed to come along in it's own time and I didn't have that "edge of my seat" feeling.

In saying that, I still really enjoyed this. I looked forward to picking it up and I would love to read more stories from the characters set in this world.

4.5 stars for me!

This book is out now!

Thanks to Titan Books, Polly Yo-Hen and NetGalley for an eArc of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Well, shit.
I didn’t like this book. Not because it was bad, but because it feels like it could be a possibility, and that freaks me out. We’re talking about a dystopian future where everything is monitored.

The world is at 98% infertility, and if you weren’t helping to repopulate then you were basically considered a 2nd class citizen. Your life could only improve if you go through their fertility process known as “induction.” This process is described as something that, at best, can make you horrifically sick and, at worst, kill you. After enduring induction, and eventually having your child, your parenting is then monitored and citations are given. When you receive a certain amount of citations the child is “extracted” or taken away to be raised at “compounds.” Or are they? Enter Kit, our MC, who personally witnessed the horrific process of extraction and has sworn off kids. That is until she meets Thomas.

I didn’t particularly like any of the characters, but I think that works for the book. If I were in that situation, I’d be the same; standoffish and wary of all. Dark Lullaby is an easy read that kept me turning page after page until the end.