When Hannah Payne wakes up, she is Red. In a not-too-distant future United States where church and state are no longer separate, convicted felons are no longer incarcerated, but melachromed - injected with a virus that color-codes their skin depending on their crime - and then set free to live in a society that hates and fears them. Hannah has been convicted of murder. Her victim? Her unborn child. Hannah's refusal to reveal the father - United States Secretary of Faith, and married man, Aiden Dale - is an act of fierce love and devotion and results in an unusually harsh sentence of 16 years as a Chrome. A dystopian retelling of Nathaniel Hawthorne's classic novel
The Scarlet Letter,
When She Woke is a heart-wrenching tale that unflinchingly explores faith, spirituality, love and the deepest reserves of human strength, kindness, and compassion.
