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The Natural Way of Things

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The Natural Way of Things

By: Charlotte Wood
Narrated by: Ailsa Piper
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About this listen

Two women awaken from a drugged sleep to find themselves imprisoned in an abandoned property in the middle of a desert. The Natural Way of Things is a gripping, starkly imaginative exploration of contemporary misogyny and corporate control, and of what it means to hunt and be hunted. But most of all, it is the story of two friends, their sisterly love and courage.

©2015 Charlotte Wood (P)2016 W.F. Howes Ltd Dystopian Fiction Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Science Fiction Women's Fiction

Critic Reviews

"One hell of a novel by one of our most original and provocative writers." ( The Weekend Australian)
All stars
Most relevant
makes you question your morals, your survival techniques, would people miss you and really is this possible. whole way through I was rechallenged with thoughts every chapter.

not what you expect

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Charlotte Woods dystopian story set in the unforgiving Australian outback is not a stretch. The Australian governments cruelty to refugees on Manus and Naru clearly illustrating just how easy and convenient it would be to remove and quarantine women with stories of sexual assault - to allow the perpetrators of these crimes against women to thrive and to punish their victims afresh. The story is deeply disturbing but Woods writing is irresistible. Her teasing reveal of the women’s experiences and the building of their survivors skills is cloaked in exquisite tenderness and black humour, blood and compassion. What an absolute gem of a book. And narrated to perfection by Ailisa Piper. I can’t want in sink into more books by this author and read by Piper.

An unforgettable brilliant work

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I found this abit hard to follow and some of the scenes were very gruesome.

A bit hard to follow

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I'm not sure if I hated this or loved it. The concept behind the story is interesting, but I think it should have been further refined. In my opinion there should have been more of a focus on character development. But perhaps that would of taken away from the general mystique of the book. Parts of this book were pure genius, but the rest left me scratching my head. Really undecided.

I really can't decide...

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I loved the premise... Women wake up from a drugged sleep in the middle of the Australian outback, and soon realise they have been abducted and kept captive because they each publicly opened up about their intimate relationships with various public figures. On the property are two guards and one nurse who really isn't a nurse. The women are shaved bold, shown around the property (which is surrounded by live electric wire fences), insulted, humiliated, threatened, beaten, fed inedible foods and locked in dog kennels at night.
From now on, I will be spoiling the plot!!!
Then one day (I guess the day that was supposed to be change-over day for the crew or food stock filling, or whatever...) That day, nobody comes. So both the crew and the imprisoned women start to realise that they have been brought here to die and to die with their secrets.
Luckily, the women are resourceful, especially two of them who the plot is following, and they manage to hunt rabbits, etc.
The book wasn't bad. It was actually pretty good, until the end.
The end of the book is where I felt let down. There was no sense of conclusion. I felt like Charlotte Wood started to be tired of writing it and decided she would just give it an open-ending.
I imagine it was a calculation on her part to let things in suspend, but for me, it left me with a taste of unfinished business.
The book is coined a "contemporary feminist masterpiece" by The Guardian... While I agree that Charlotte Wood's prose and lyricism deserve praise, and that the themes explored and hinted at throughout the novel are indeed thought-provoking and an advocation for feminism, I cannot call it a masterpiece...

Haunting and a bit confusing

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