Choice by Jodi Picoult audiobook review: A thought-provoking short listen
If you’ve got Audible, this is completely free — and you should listen to it.
Choice by Jodi Picoult: Key details
- Publish date: 18th May 2022
- Genre: Dystopian drama
- Publisher: Audible Originals
- Series/standalone: Standalone
- Length: 38 minutes
- Narrated by: Therese Plummer
Blurb: Margot and James are broken up — for good this time. James made sure of it when he dropped the bomb on Margot: that he doesn’t want kids, ever.
Then, on the biggest morning of his life, James — an ambitious lawyer at a high-powered firm — wakes up pregnant. He realizes with dread that he is part of a recent epidemic of men suddenly and inexplicably becoming pregnant. His condition obvious to the higher-ups, James is denied the promotion he was expecting, sending him reeling.
Meanwhile, Margot, a social worker, must handle the influx of desperate, pregnant teenage boys suddenly seeking her help. When she receives a call from James with the same problem, the challenge of navigating post-Roe America hits even closer to home.
Choice by Jodi Picoult: The review
If you’ve got an Audible membership, you need to listen to Choice. My god, this is powerful: at just over half an hour in length, Jodi Picoult packs a punch so strong that I’ll be thinking of this short audiobook for weeks.
Choice was written in 2022, in the cold light of the aftermath of Roe v Wade being overturned in the US, an act which means in many situations women no longer have a right to abortion. Something that I still can’t believe is real, in the 21st century, in a country as “free” as America.
Choice is dystopian, but only just; only because in this glimpse into Picoult’s strange, alternative world, an epidemic breaks out that sees men get pregnant instead of women. Overnight, hundreds of thousands of men wake up in various states of pregnancy. Some are months along, their bellies suddenly round and bloated. Others are unknowingly feeling nauseous and wondering why.
All of a sudden, men are the ones who can’t get the medical help they need. They’re the ones being looked down upon, made to feel ashamed. They’re being turned over for the job promotions they thought they were destined to have, all because they might need to take time off to birth their babies. And suddenly, it’s women who can feel lighter, unburdened from the risk and worry of an unwanted pregnancy.
Choice is dystopian, darkly satirical even, and yet it still manages to shine a very real lens on the world. Picoult talks about a 14-year-old who accidentally gets pregnant the first time they have sex when the condom breaks. Someone who has tried IVF for so long suddenly finds themselves in a high-risk pregnancy with five babies: only a reduction could save them and some of their babies, but it’s not allowed. Then there are the victims who have to deal with the threat of getting pregnant as a result of an assault. It’s a dark tale of a very dark time in our human history, and everyone needs to hear this, to spread the message that it’s not okay. Women’s lives matter, and they should be protected at all costs.
Well done, Jodi. This is a listen I won’t forget in a while. As amazed as I am that she’s been able to pack in such an emotive story in a short space of time, I’m left wishing there was more. I’d love to see this premise explored in a full-length novel.
I reviewed Choice as part of an Audiobook tour organised by Love Books Tours. It’s free to download on Audible.
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