Reviewed by: The Chaperone by M. Hendrix Natalie Berglind Hendrix, M. The Chaperone. Sourcebooks Fire, 2023 [448p] Trade ed. ISBN 9781728284859 $18.99 Paper ed. ISBN 9781728260006 $11.99 E-book ed. ISBN 9781728260020 $10.99 Reviewed from digital galleys R Gr. 8-12 Stella is a seventeen-year-old girl in New America, so she’s been assigned a chaperone—someone [End Page 326] who raises girls into women prepared for a life of marriage, childbirth, and ultimately serving men. When Stella’s chaperone dies mysteriously, however, she’s assigned a new one who takes her to secret self-defense classes for women and sneaks her forbidden books. Around Sister Laura, Stella’s frustrations with becoming a proper lady come to a boil, and Stella has to decide if it’s worth it to live her cushioned but repressive life or try to escape to Old America. Short scenes keep a clipped, engaging pace, but that is unfortunately at the expense of a choppy reading experience and shallow world building. The bits of New America readers do experience with Stella are chilling for their parallels to current legislation that seeks to take back hard-won advances for gender equality. Additionally, one of the most realistic factors of New America is how it allows teenage boys to run rampant with their desires while punishing girls for being victimized. Hendrix is careful to embed nuanced resistance against this system within the novel, giving even women who appear to be happily ensconced in New America unexpected moments of brilliance and making it clear that Stella is not the only one aware of how constraining their world is. Give this to readers who are a tad young for The Handmaid’s Tale but are concerned about the states of women’s rights and banned books. End matter includes Stella’s library list of banned books. Copyright © 2023 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois