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sleepytimebooks's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
4.5
redd91's review against another edition
4.0
Really good post-apocalyptic story with a strong female lead (my fave).
This was dark, disturbing, bleak but also powerful & hopeful. This book really makes you understand why women will always choose the bear!
Story takes place in a world where a new strain of flu has run rampant with pregnant women and newborn babies seeming to be most vulnerable. As the female population dwindles and hope of new babies being born is lost, the story becomes very bleak for the remaining (few) females left in a world now over populated with men. We follow our main fmc, a midwife, before the flu outbreak as she tries to survive this new world.
I particularly loved all the journal entries, which gave detailed insight into the mind of the different people and their experiences. I did find it very similar to the walking dead, infact it felt exactly like the walking dead just without zombies. However, there are some really interesting characters, and the story is so bleak at times that you find yourself having to keep reading to see how this could possibly end.
For such a short story, it certainly packs a punch. If you like dystopian/ post-apocalyptic worlds this is definitely one to check out!
This was dark, disturbing, bleak but also powerful & hopeful. This book really makes you understand why women will always choose the bear!
Story takes place in a world where a new strain of flu has run rampant with pregnant women and newborn babies seeming to be most vulnerable. As the female population dwindles and hope of new babies being born is lost, the story becomes very bleak for the remaining (few) females left in a world now over populated with men. We follow our main fmc, a midwife, before the flu outbreak as she tries to survive this new world.
I particularly loved all the journal entries, which gave detailed insight into the mind of the different people and their experiences. I did find it very similar to the walking dead, infact it felt exactly like the walking dead just without zombies. However, there are some really interesting characters, and the story is so bleak at times that you find yourself having to keep reading to see how this could possibly end.
For such a short story, it certainly packs a punch. If you like dystopian/ post-apocalyptic worlds this is definitely one to check out!
oblivione's review against another edition
dark
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
elenser's review against another edition
4.0
Unique take on the post apocalyptic theme, a bit incoherent in spots but overall worth the read and going to give the series a chance.
tball333's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.75
tofu2019's review against another edition
5.0
There were a few chapters in this books that were quite slow, but overall this book really did it for me. At the core, it's a standard -pandemic has ended civilization as we know it- story. But this one is really unique in that it explores what would happen if instead of everyone dying, the pandemic only killed mostly women and children. What would the men do? What would happen to the few women in the world that were left? How would society recover? The answers to these questions aren't always pretty and this book doesn't shy away from what that reality would look like. But it also highlights the goodness in humanity, the desires, the wishes and dreams humans have even in the face of devastation. The good and the bad and the complicated.
There's also an exploration of sexuality and gender expression in a post-pandemic world, which I've certainly never seen included in an apocalyptic novel. I loved this inclusion because these kinds of things are part of the core of what makes us human and they certainly would still be present even if much of the population perished.
The structure and story telling was compelling, moving back and forth through journal entries, a current narrative and then ultimately the future. I was invested from start to finish, even when it was uncomfy.
There's also an exploration of sexuality and gender expression in a post-pandemic world, which I've certainly never seen included in an apocalyptic novel. I loved this inclusion because these kinds of things are part of the core of what makes us human and they certainly would still be present even if much of the population perished.
The structure and story telling was compelling, moving back and forth through journal entries, a current narrative and then ultimately the future. I was invested from start to finish, even when it was uncomfy.
jpustka's review against another edition
4.0
I enjoyed this story about a woman's survival after the apocalypse wipes out most of humanity. The book moved along at a nice pace and I enjoyed the combination of the narrative voice mixed with journal writing. Would recommend to readers who like apocalyptic stories.
tigerlipgloss's review against another edition
3.25
I think would have been better in print/digital instead of audio. It wasn’t bad, but parts were unclear and I was left with many more questions. Maybe the rest of the series will answer those.
aziraphale2000's review against another edition
3.0
I adore post-apocalyptic books. And this book explored what most books in the post-apocalyptic genre ignore: female and queer perspectives. So much of post-apocalyptic literature is heterosexual, Western, male fantasy (stock piling weapons, women, and power). Our unnamed, female protagonist spends time finding birth control, Plan B, and tampons. She dresses in drag to protect herself from the male gaze. I was struck by how similar her choices are to women's choices *now*: trying to access increasingly limited health choices and avoid the dangerous male gaze.
The pacing of the book just killed it for me.
Spoilers ahead.
The author spent pages and pages on this Mormon settlement. I thought she captures the culty Mormon ideology perfectly. Members of this Mormon sect are so blinded by religious dogma that they cannot see the world falling apart around them. All the time spent on the Mormons felt off balance with the rest of the book... at the end, there are these little stories tacked in from other survivors. They feel like an afterthought.
And some of the ideas fell flat to me. Small boys are put to the task of scribing new copies of "The Book of the Unnamed Midwife." There's a religious aura floating around how they're treating the text... this brave new testimony of the midwife feels just as culty as the Mormons.
The author says that the midwife is birthing a new world, but I never felt like the midwife was doing that. She was just reacting to what happened to her... and in the new world, women are treated like commodities with little agency... doesn't feel new.
I didn't understand the wooden belly symbolism.
And I have to confess, my personal experiences make me skeptical of lauding midwives as greater than or better than doctors. I think I was supposed to feel lots of Big Emotions in the last paragraphs of the novel. It just felt like I was being told what to feel.
The pacing of the book just killed it for me.
Spoilers ahead.
The author spent pages and pages on this Mormon settlement. I thought she captures the culty Mormon ideology perfectly. Members of this Mormon sect are so blinded by religious dogma that they cannot see the world falling apart around them. All the time spent on the Mormons felt off balance with the rest of the book... at the end, there are these little stories tacked in from other survivors. They feel like an afterthought.
And some of the ideas fell flat to me. Small boys are put to the task of scribing new copies of "The Book of the Unnamed Midwife." There's a religious aura floating around how they're treating the text... this brave new testimony of the midwife feels just as culty as the Mormons.
The author says that the midwife is birthing a new world, but I never felt like the midwife was doing that. She was just reacting to what happened to her... and in the new world, women are treated like commodities with little agency... doesn't feel new.
I didn't understand the wooden belly symbolism.
And I have to confess, my personal experiences make me skeptical of lauding midwives as greater than or better than doctors. I think I was supposed to feel lots of Big Emotions in the last paragraphs of the novel. It just felt like I was being told what to feel.