It had strong elements of similarity to with the overblown religious fanaticism, subjugation of women and restrictions around pregnancy, but also many unique aspects.
I thought the dystopian science of this, with the premise of evolution going backwards, was unclear and confusing, but the story was still really interesting and gripping. Fair warning though, if you are like me and very sensitive to close-to-home political shit, this might be a hard read - even though this was written ahead of the Trump presidency, a lot of Erdich's predictions are so spot-on that I had to set the book down and walk around a few times to calm down before continuing. Evolution is going backwards, and as pregnancy becomes a government concern and organized society falls apart, Cedar is faced with a series of defeats and tests of faith (as a Catholic, as a woman, as an American) that culminate in a very shattering and heart-wrenching odyssey. What makes a mother, biological birth or maternal love? Who does a baby "belong" to? How much of motherhood is truly a choice, in the end? When is motherhood an imperative, or should it always be a choice? Louise Erdich deftly explores these questions and more, taking them to their logical extreme by placing her main character Cedar Songmaker, a pregnant adopted Ojibwe woman, in the midst of a biological apocalypse. I've unintentionally been on a "motherhood" kick when it comes to media I'm into - in addition to binging the Handmaid's Tale, the last three books I polished off (History of Wolves, Stay with Me, and now FHOTLG) all deal with the myriad facets of motherhood as a social and biological construct.
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