In a near-future existence, Hazel Hayes, a young grad student living in New York City, witnesses firsthand that a terrifying malady is afflicting both naturally and bleached-blonde women worldwide. They are transmitting amongst themselves a strange illness of unknown origins, one that causes them to perform acts of extreme violence. While wrestling with the physical and emotional difficulties of an unwanted pregnancy, the result of an affair with her married professor, Hazel shares her thoughts on the rapidly changing world with her unborn child, and she navigates their now treacherous environment, in which blonde women can suddenly go crazy, killing and maiming those nearby, and passing the infection to others like them.
Fast-paced drama, punctuated with humor, leads readers through the bizarre events of Emily Schultz's The Blondes. This is an odd world where all women with hair even remotely resembling blonde--including those with shades closer to red--are soon harassed, persecuted and interned by governments around the world. By using this strange disease, which appears rapidly in otherwise visibly healthy women, Schultz (Heaven Is Small) writes a subtle commentary on how discrimination operates around the globe. She has masterfully twisted the known with the unknown into a disconcerting story, together with Hazel's deep personal reflections on her unplanned pregnancy. Schultz plays on fears that lurk inside people when confronted with something alien and dangerous, and shows how the powerful might respond to such a global threat. --Lee E. Cart, freelance writer and book reviewer