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  • Mending Bodies by Lai Chu Hon book cover
  • Mending Bodies by Lai Chu Hon book cover
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Mending Bodies

by Lai Chu Hon

The body as public policy

$18.54 USD
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AlbakiReads Editorial

The body as public policy

In a failing city, surgical conjoining is promoted as a route to economic, ecological, and personal renewal. The program’s history becomes the subject of a student’s dissertation just as insomnia and social pressure unsettle her confidence in resisting it. Lai Chu Hon combines body horror with political allegory to examine how an intimate decision can be framed as a civic obligation—and how expectations from loved ones may echo broader systems of power. The novel’s speculative premise links physical transformation to questions of autonomy, sacrifice, and the demands a society places on individuals.

Good fit for readers who enjoy

  • Readers interested in speculative fiction that uses body horror to examine social and political pressures.
  • Those seeking feminist fiction centered on autonomy, bodily transformation, and sacrifice.
  • Readers drawn to stories connecting personal relationships with wider systems of power.

Themes

Bodily autonomyPolitical pressure and social conformitySacrifice and personal fulfillmentLove and power

Based on publisher information and book metadata.

Book overview

In a failing city, a government program incentivizes couples to "conjoin"-surgically attach themselves to one another-promising a flourishing economy, ecological revitalization, and personal fulfillment. A student writing her dissertation on the program's history begins to suffer from insomnia. As her world unravels and under the weight of expectations by both society and her close friends, she worries that maybe they are all right when they tell her it would be better-for the good of another person and for the good of the country-to sacrifice everything that she is and get conjoined. Mending Bodies blends body horror and political allegory to explore a world where even the motives of those you love most are shaped by larger forces.

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