This was a sad and informative look at some dark periods in America’s past you don’t hear much about. I’ve read about the Eugenics program during the 60s and 70s before in NC, and how it targeted poor women for sterilization but had not heard about the even further and more frequent reach with Black women, as well as the lawsuit surrounding it. While the book is not a direct characterization of the real historical girls and the lawsuit, it is inspired by it.

I thought the writing was good and it gave a good glimpse into the abuses and injustices happening at the time, how important education is and how the uneducated were exploited, as well as the disparity between classes.

I did find it an odd and somewhat unfortunate insertion when it came to the comments and storyline regarding abortion. It’s amazing to me that in one part of the book Civil attempted to excuse her decision because she believed a baby and pregnancy were not the same thing, and yet she constantly thought about and referred to it as being a baby later on. It felt very telling how that doesn’t hold up for long. I also thought it put a very authentic and practical spotlight on how the fathers can be affected, and how much emotional trauma it can cause much later.

However, it felt both sad and ironic that the contrast between abortion vs sterilization was that abortion is giving a choice while sterilization is taking the choice away. Except the choice in abortion is really only giving a choice to one party. It’s still taking a choice away from someone else in the end. In Civil’s case it took it away from 2 people - Ty and the baby. It would seem that would put both actions in the same category.