Angela Chadwick's debut novel XX completely drew me in from the tagline on the cover, "How far would you go for a child of your own."

Juliet and girlfriend Rosie were looking into sperm donor options when the government approves clinic trials for ovum to ovum conception, as a journalist, Juliet knows all too well that they need to keep their involvement and identities confidential for as long as possible however the news is leaked early on making their lives a lot more difficult; now as well as coming to terms with having a baby, their suddenly faced with a barrage of reporter, photographers and protestors. This adds an element of 'whodunit' to the story as it can only be one of their close friends or family who've told the media.

The concept behind this is fascinating, it's not an entirely unplausible possibility and while (I don't think) its specified in the book this is written as if it could be set in the present day so its massively thought-provoking as well. The characters and their relationships are pretty relatable and believable; as the book is written in the first person you hear everything from Jules' perspective as she's dubbed the world's first 'lesbian father'.

I gave this four stars just because I thought the ending was a little cliche, but would definitely recommend!

A brilliant, highly probable storyline and extremely controversial storyline. This is the future in science, two women being able to have a baby without the need of a man!
Jules and Rosie a couple in a loving lesbian relationship decide to volunteer for this groundbreaking experimental procedure, making them both biologically related to their baby, the story really touches on not only the ethics behind this type of experimental science but also the dynamics of their relationship when faced with the backlash and negativity from their decision.

Excellently written, I was totally sucked into this future that in reality isn’t all that far away.

A very clever and enjoyable read.

A fantastic book that takes a clever idea and runs with it , using it cleverly to examine the complex dynamics of several relationships. In a version of our world that is not so very different scientists have discovered a way to fuse two ova to create a female embryo, meaning that two women can now choose to have a baby together, where they are both genetic parents. The story follows Rosie and Jules, a couple who become part of the clinical trial . At first everything is perfect, they are happily planning a future for their family, buying a larger home etc, but when their details are leaked and they are forced into the public eye they become the focus of vitriol, bullying and even a political campaign to have the procedure banned. As the stress builds, putting an inevitable strain on their relationship, Jules begins to have second thoughts about the whole idea.
Aside from the clever conceit on which the plot of the book is based, the real strength of this story is the characters at the heart of it, particularly Jules, and her struggle and journey as the book unfolds. It is impossible not to feel a degree of empathy for her, and it is this emotional connection that kept me completely engaged as a reader, The author looks at a number of family relationships, particularly parental ones, and the story of Jules fractured relationship with her father adds yet another layer of emotional depth to an already compelling book.
Thought provoking and memorable, this is one that kept me thinking long after I turned the last page.
I read and reviewed an ARC courtesy of NetGalley and the publisher, all opinions are my own,

A really interesting book that makes you question what and why and whether you would want to have a baby without any male involvement. But doing so opens up a whole set of questions... and would be a brilliant bookclub read.

The writing is a little slow and sadly I found that I struggled to engage with the characters. An interesting read but unfortunately this book is not as engaging as the debate and dilemmas that ensue.

A taut, focused story of two women joining a medical trial of a new fertilisation treatment to create a baby (necessarily female - hence the title, XX) without the need for a sperm donor. They are a lesbian couple but in theory the procedure could be rolled out to any two women choosing to create a family together, rather than involving a man. The very idea of this causes consternation and is taken up by the press and politicians, both of which have their own agendas. What starts as an intriguing discussion of the ethics of experimental programmes like this also soon gives us an emotionally engaging portrayal of the effect its controversy has on one couple. Jules and Rosie are hounded at home and at work, their relationships with family, friends and neighbours become increasingly strained and inevitably this extends to their relationship with each other. In their different ways, they are both complicated and sympathetic characters, though we follow their story through just Jules’ narration. Emotions run high, indignation alternates with doubt. All this is very well paced, my interest didn’t flag at all and the result is a satisfyingly thought-provoking book that I’d recommend highly.

I was intrigued by the blurb of this book and it didn’t disappoint, an emotional read. Highly recommend.

An amazing novel about the advances in fertility treatment, specifically ovum to ovum feritilisation. Rosie and Jules are the first couple to conceive this way. However, it means any children born this way will only ever be female- which is a threat to the existence of males. This was such an original but completely plausible narrative with brilliant arguments for and against contained within.

This read us very different from anything that I have read before and really interesting. It pit's a moral dilemma in the backdrop of a story, and looks at different views of the dilemma from different charcaters points of view. It is a dynamic story,:well written and the characters are very likeable. I thoroughly enjoyed the book and would read another from this author. It made me think what would my view be, what would my fears be. .. very interesting. .

This is a controversial and thought provoking topic. This story is beautifully written and has been really well thought out. Rosie and Jules are in love and want a baby of their own. That love is evident throughout this book. The hate campaign against Jules and Rosie was well written. This is a topic that would have people vehemently against it.

Thank you to Netgalley for my copy.

👍

Well written, convincing setting (once I'd gotten past the discrepancies between Fictional Portsmouth and Actual Portsmouth)

Shies away from the bigger picture at almost every opportunity, but that's actually okay, I think. It works as a close up portrait of this couple, and I'm wary of expecting every LGBT novel to have to teach us something or extrapolate to its full extent. It's a look at the effect this kind of fertility treatment has on this particular family, and it's a good one, and that's fine.

👎
The writing was good, but a bit dry, because Jules is a bit dry; would've liked to have maybe had Rosie's POV to break that up/provide a bit of excitement. Jules is very anxious, and basically responds exactly how I would, but she isn't the most sympathetic character.

All in all though, an interesting work of speculative fiction, and very timely; worth a look.

I remember years ago reading about the potential for a baby to be produced using two women's eggs, bypassing the need for sperm. So when I saw that this book followed what could happen if/when this becomes a genuine option for women I knew I had to read. The most interesting part for me was around the media attention and speculation. As much as I would like to think in today's world it would not be so nasty and scathing, I know that is just wishful thinking. The political point-scoring and the impact on couples' personal relationships is also covered in detail.

The downside for me is the book felt a lot longer than it actually was. The writing was very dry and as interesting as it was following the journey, nothing much really seemed to happen. I found I didn't particularly care for the characters because I didn't feel I really got to know them. I understand it's a sensitive subject, and not one that needs or deserves any cheap twists, but I did find myself struggling to keep going at times.

Regardless this book deserves to get a lot of attention and I look forward to reading more from this author.

My thanks to Dialogue Books/Little Brown for an ARC via NetGalley. I found it hard to put down this innovative work of speculative fiction and I am recommending it without reservation.

Written in the first person the narrative has a strong sense of immediacy and intimacy as Juliet (Jules) shares her thoughts and experiences. The premise of ovum-to-ovum fertilisation seems credible as do the negative responses to it by the media and various conservative voices.

While common sense indicates that such pregnancies would hardly threaten the conventional way of reproduction or create a world where males become the minority, there are scaremongering voices in the press and social media inciting harassment and threats of violence that feel all too plausible. Spot on that The Guardian, one of the non-fictional newspapers included in the novel, struggle in vain to be a voice of reason.

Chadwick does not allow the issues to swamp her story and Jules and Rosie remain at its heart. It is a stunning debut. A novel bound to stimulate discussion and be an excellent choice for reading groups given its accessibility and the issues raised.

Wow!!!

A very interesting debut novel by Angela Chadwick. Not something that I would normally pick up to read but after reading the description on NetGalley I knew I had to request it.  

The book covers an interesting topic of lesbian couples who could become pregnant and have a biological baby which would always be a girl with the help of scientists who can use eggs from the two women without the need of  sperm donors, an interesting concept that could be all too real in the future.

The book takes us on a journey with a couple who take part in this new trial. It focuses on the couple and what’s it like for them along with what they are feeling and experiencing and how they are coping with the events that unfold while taking part with the trial.

I found the story very intriguing. I did struggle with it a little at the very beginning but the story picks up and from then on I was so gripped. I thought it was well written and the characters felt so real and believable. I felt I could empathise with some of the characters in this book.  

An overall enjoyable book that is thought provoking, while at the same a little challenging. I can just imagine the topic covered in this book becoming possible in the future. I look forward to reading more books by this author in the near future I hope. I highly recommend this book.

I would like to thank NetGalley and Little, Brown Book Group UK/Dialogue Books for my eARC in return for an honest and unbiased review.

A Scottish journalist volunteers to become the first woman to be impregnated with an ovum to ovum baby with her female partner as the other biological parent. This is politically and ethically engaging, as well as a very personal read. It shows a world that is only a few years away, and it left me with a lot of thoughts about gender and science. Excellent.

I couldn’t put this book down. I found it to be utterly heart-wrenching.
The characters were written so realistically - the reader feels like they know them, are part of their circle. I really felt for Jules and Rosie, and although they both annoyed me at times, at the same time their actions were completely understandable.

The plot was an interesting insight into what the world could be like if female same-sex couples could procreate, and it was well thought out and researched. I could completely believe all the processes that they went through, and all the politics they faced.

Now I just want the experiment to be realised (sans angry homophobic backlash) and implemented. I want real-life Emmelines.

This is an incredibly important and timely book, and a fantastic study of society. Thanks to Little Brown and Netgalley for the ARC ☺️

I'd heard a lot about this book and so was very excited to be accepted to read via netgalley!

This book, Chadwick's debut, is a highly original and thought-provoking concept. Jules and Rosie are a couple who get accepted on to a clinical trial at a university for 'ovum to ovum fertilisation' - IVF without the need for a donor and a way for lesbian couples to conceive a child made up of their DNA.

When the press gets hold of their story, there's a media frenzy. The couple are stalked by photographers, they aren't sure who they can trust and become the subject of a politician's bid to power. A bit of a slow burner at first but by the end I was gripped, as things just seemed to go from bad to worse. (Did not see the great plot twist coming either!)

A stark reminder that women's bodies and choices will always come under scrutiny in the public eye. Though it's possible this book can be described as speculative fiction, it's a concept that could be a possibility in the near distant future. Will definitely be recommending!

I loved this book. Imagine that XX fertilisation is possible, using 2 female eggs which are fused.
This work is proceeding at a University and has got to the stage where they are ready to test the science out on live couples.
Quite a few couples attend the selection process to try and be accepted- but invariably, there is press intrusion and interest and also quite a few
dissenters.
Jules and Rosie are one of the couples selected and Jules is actually a journalist. Another couple are also selected. Both couples conceive and are trying to just go about their business but there is inevitable press interest and Jules gets asked to keep reporting - one of the Editors really has it in for her.
The pregnancies progress but things take a sinister turn when the other couple lose their baby. The tests on the foetus reveal that there was a mix up with the collected eggs and that the child is not the biological child of both parents.
Jules and Rosie go through tough times- Jules keeps trying to deal with things but can't trust Rosie with her doubts. They take time apart but when the press get even more interested,they are sent to a 'safe house' and wait until the birth.
Things slowly resolve. The baby is born and called Emmeline. Eventually, they find their own path and move abroad and make a new life.

XY makes male, XX makes female; in vivo, in vitro, the rules are the same, the basic principles which govern human reproduction and embryology however it is arranged, through natural conception, through a donor or a surrogate. But what if there was another way, ovum to ovum fertilisation, a process whereby endangered species who have low reproductive rates could have their numbers increased?

By default rather than by design, such offspring would invariably be female, an X chromosome inherited from each of their mothers, but for some couples this would also be an ideal if unexpected and unsought realisation of their desires, a child of their own without need for the genetic contribution of an outsider, be it an anonymous stranger or a family friend.

Juliet Curtis never wanted children in the same way her girlfriend Rosie Barcombe did; on holiday with strangers’ children, in her work at the bookshop, it was always Rosie who was at ease at making young friends, but neither of them expected the question to come into their lives so directly or suddenly.

The human trials announced at Portsmouth University’s Centre for Reproductive Medicine, it is on their doorstep, and Rosie wants to apply; pages of questions on them and their families to ascertain their suitability and the possibility of inherited diseases, the interviews, the tests, the possibility they will not be accepted, the chance that, as with many IVF cycles, Rosie will not become pregnant; all this they are aware of and understand.

What they are not prepared for is the barrage of hatred, abuse, disinformation and distortion of truth, betrayal by those closest to them and the invasion of their privacy as their identity is leaked to the press and they become the bête noire of a local politicial aiming for the big time who needs a cause upon which he can pin his ambition to stir up national outrage.

The debut novel of Angela Chadwick, like Jules she trained as a journalist and worked as a reporter and conveys the sense of how the drive to be honest and truthful is compromised by the demands of big media and editors whose goal is selling papers, irrespective of who is hurt or defamed.

Like Chadwick, Jules has a voice and has chosen to tell her story in her way, awkward, disappointed, exhausted but determined and hopeful despite the forces arrayed against her and Rosie and their unborn daughter, the screaming headlines proclaiming the trial as unnatural, a strike against men who will become obsolete if the scientists and the lesbians have their way.

The representation of science in the media notorious for unsupported and alarmist prognostications, rational debate is sidelined, the self-evident fact ignored that even if the trial is successful and the process approved it will only represent a fraction of IVF births which are a fraction of natural births, that the shape of the world will not change to a dominant matriarchy; all that matters is fanning the flames.

An informed and measured work of slipstream science fiction, Chadwick does not make her characters superhuman; Jules is flawed, apprehensive about the process and her part in it, subjected to taunts at work and feeling marginalised even as her girlfriend carries their child, and XX is easy to read and relate to despite the apparent strangeness of the situation, the focus always on the characters rather than medical terminology or genetics.

Isolated from her few friends Jules has no one to assure her that it is entirely normal for any prospective parent to have doubts during a huge adjustment in priorities and responsibilities, and despite their portrayal by the Alliance for Natural Reproduction she and Rosie have more in common with those who “honour God’s way and trust in him to create our children” than sets them apart, all of them prospective parents who want health and happiness for their child; fortunately, Chadwick’s firstborn is a winner.

Jules, a journalist and her partner Rosie are given the opportunity to become the biological parents of a baby. New technology and research from a university means that o-o (ovum to ovum) fertilisation is now possible meaning women in relation would no longer need to rely on sperm donations in order to have children. Unfortunately Rosie and Jules are faced with hatred and vitriol from the public and press and their relationship is tested to the limit. XX is actually an extremely powerful novel, obviously the science at this point yet but the social media intrusion and the way that women are perceived and treated is very relevant in this current climate.

XX imagines a world where two women are able to have their own biological child - who will always be a girl - through ovum-to-ovum fertilisation. Jules and Rosie, a lesbian couple, jump at the chance to have a baby who is related to both of them. But as the medical trial proceeds, their situation becomes increasingly dangerous as protest mounts. While it's still all too rare to see lesbians represented in fiction, and I enjoyed the refreshing depiction of Jules and Rosie's happy, normal relationship, this didn't mesh very well with the premise of the book. The wider, more interesting implications of this technology are barely mentioned. As one of the characters points out, the reason people are afraid of ovum-to-ovum is not really because of lesbians - who already live lives without men - but because of the suggestion, however small, that heterosexual women might turn away from their male partners to mother children with more reliable female friends. How far are women staying with men under patriarchy so they can have children? The close focus on Jules and Rosie means that these intriguing feminist questions are sidelined, and the issues at hand are reduced to 'giving women more choice'. Chadwick's clunky, journalistic writing also keeps the story very simplistic. A shame, because this is readable and potentially interesting.

Fuller review to come nearer the publication date.