Book Review: Tiny Tin House
Tiny Tin House. L. Maristatter, NiffyCat Press, August 24, 2022, Hardback, Paperback, and eBook, 342 pages.
Reviewed by Gail Galvan.
As I sit reading this profoundly disturbing book (on International Women’s Day), I’m thinking, what is wrong with this fictitious story, and what is wrong with the real world? A whole lot, I concluded. With wayward efforts to cultivate a perfected “Christian” morally correct society—all that happens is evil, unfair chaos for the female victims of such unjust laws. Decent citizens could only hope that the story was truly imaginary. Unfortunately, much of the content and horrors acted out toward women are not.
Remarkably, this is the author’s first novel, and she has weaved a provocative, chilling story about a young woman just trying to live her life. That, sadly, 18-year-old Meryn cannot do. She is cursed to live in a society where men rule. It’s as if a man can do no wrong and a woman can do no right. And women, by the way, have very few rights. What they must do is marry. That’s the law in the Christian United States of America! Live at home until married.
Her stepfather, Ray, has picked out her husband, Steffan. But he is not kind; he is controlling and even violent toward Meryn at times. Though Meryn makes it clear that she will not marry him, he won’t give in. He stalks her, calling her a “slut” and “whore” and demanding her for his bride. Even the stepfather and the Minister of the church, as he is called, gets involved to kidnap Meryn, poison her, and condition her so that she is physically sick every time she thinks rebelliously.
But there is a saving grace society out there called the “Liberté.” And a neighborhood with tiny tin houses and people who do believe in true loving Christian values and equal rights. Meryn finds her way there and lives with a family until she can get her tiny tin house ready. There is so much more to the story; you’d just have to read it.
For instance, chips inserted in the right arms are an everyday reality. The definitive caste systems and the names are eerie: Worker Caste, Governance, Exalted. And the lawmakers who rule (Guardian Angels, the RD—Reformation Directorate guardians) are feared and hated by many.
The cover is striking, and the content is intriguing. Just the title made me want to read the book. Also, with phrases like “the clouds played hide-n-seek with the sun,” “the stars winked off and on,” “fear warred with sympathy,” and “my nightmare crystallized before me,” I found the style of writing lovely and unique. Loved the futuristic imagination, too. In one part, especially in the retail store where Meryn works, there are “live quins.” (Very life-like mannequins, it seems—something like straight out of a Twilight Zone episode.)
It’s a biblical kind of story, though, in many ways, so occasionally I felt like the preaching and teaching went on just a tad too long. But it all fell in sync with the story, so I understood the necessity.
This book is an excellent good read with absolutely profound significance in a day and age where most of the atrocities “imagined” in the book tragically actually happen every day in the year 2023, whether in Iran, where girls are poisoned or shot down in the streets, or elsewhere as females are denied rights or silenced all over the world by “MORALITY POLICE.”