The Natural Way Of Things
By Charlotte Wood
Any book with a cover that is overwhelmed with breathless quotes promising the ultimate in shock and horror is going to have a hard time living up to it, and to its credit, The Natural Way Of Things almost gets there.
It does get pretty hardcore, pretty fast, as a group of women find themselves being held prisoner on a remote camp in the Australian outback, where they are being punished for fucking with the patriarchy, with the patriarchy fucking back
All the different levels of misogyny that modern women face are all present and correct - there is the mindless thug, the male ally who turns out to a complete shithead, and a fellow female who subsists on hypocritical disgust.
But it's not really as shocking as those quotes make it out to be - anybody who is actually surprised by the day-to-day bullshit modern women suffer for just existing really haven't been paying attention, and the symbolic punishments the women go through are awfully familiar.
And yet, there is some hope, because some women don't bend, don't break, and don't let these arseholes get away with this crap. Beyond the shock and horror, there is a message of survival that is even a little uplifting as they fight their way through the constant institutional sexism that tries to beat them down.
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