Reviews tagging 'Transphobia'

The End of Men by Christina Sweeney-Baird

7 reviews

bloodmaarked's review

challenging emotional reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

4.5* rounded up. i picked this book by putting all the books on my tbr available to borrow at the library right at that moment into a randomiser and letting it pick for me, and boy did it pick a good one! the end of men came to me after someone in my book club said they enjoyed this back in october last year, and she was right - it’s brilliant! i started reading this on a quiet poolside day during my holiday and i read 62% of it then and there, that’s how much it pulled me in.

✧ full review on my tumblr ✧

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Grief, Pandemic/Epidemic, Infertility, Murder, and Death

Moderate: Suicide, Terminal illness, and Mass/school shootings

Minor: War, Transphobia, and Trafficking

nanirump's review against another edition

challenging hopeful informative reflective sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

This was a quick read with lots of short chapters. I found the multitude of characters a lot and I wasn't particularly attached to any of them and got them confused more than I didn't. I liked the varied exploration of peoples' experiences and it hit differently after the world actually having gone through a global pandemic. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Infertility, Grief, Pandemic/Epidemic, Medical trauma, Miscarriage, Child death, and Death

Moderate: Sexism, Transphobia, Suicide, War, Violence, and Pregnancy

leannanecdote's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death of parent, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Pregnancy, Medical trauma, Child death, Domestic abuse, Body horror, Chronic illness, Cursing, Infertility, Injury/Injury detail, Death, Gore, Grief, Medical content, War, and Ableism

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Classism, Miscarriage, Racism, and Sexism

Minor: Transphobia, Trafficking, Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, and Sexual assault

brenna2themax's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.25

I really enjoyed reading this book and tore through it in a few days. I actually cried a few times while reading it when getting to the points in the story discussing toddlers and babies dying. I can't remember the last time I cried while reading a book, I'm not a big crier.
Very exciting and fast paced. The characters felt real, but all very similar. Part of this is that we all see them in the same situation of sudden, world-wide devastation and unbearable grief and fear, and there's not a whole lot of character development or exploration beyond that. The story is told from the perspective of many different people throughout the plague, mostly in Scotland and England, but we also hear briefly from a woman in Canada and a Fillipino woman in Singapore and then the Philippines. They all have the same/very similar socioeconomic standing, and all but 2 are white.
Still, I very much enjoyed reading this. A good thriller without a villain.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pregnancy, Death, Sexism, Misogyny, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, and Child death

Minor: Suicide, Trafficking, Homophobia, and Transphobia

cheye13's review against another edition

dark emotional fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.0

It started off well, but lost me around halfway. Ultimately, I'm not sure what... the point... was... 

It's pitched as a feminist dystopia, but only mentions women taking over positions of power in the briefest asides. The real focus is the fallout of losing half the population. All of the recovery is focused on repopulation: protecting surviving men, birthing healthy boys, rationing sperm. Despite the female POVs, all the attention is once more on the men. Counterintuitively, it felt like the story coddled men while women buckled down to helm survival.

The most cohesive and developed theme was not women in positions of power, but fertility.

The book is tidily bookended by Catherine's fertility problems and eventual pregnancy.

All of the grief and fear we see in-depth is for husbands and sons – not fathers or brothers. Fertility stories are important, but this one felt incidental; it was the most coherent throughline, but didn't explore the topic in any meaningful way.

The specific careers (genetics, anthropology, government intelligence) spread the content of the novel too thin. With such intricate professions, there wasn't enough research to provide more than a superficial involvement in the novel's entire premise.

The identity diversity also felt like a hamfisted afterthought rather than a significant facet of the characters that would affect their approach to events. I appreciated the acknowledgement of the trans experience, but it felt extremely shoehorned, and again, not explored in any meaningful way. Sexuality and racial diversity wasn't handled any better, and there was nearly no class diversity.

The writing style was exceedinly readable, and the narrative was generally engaging. But ultimately, I sat down for a dissection of gender in the modern world, and instead got an exceedingly heteronormative narrative that in no way challenged the status quo, skirted gender essentialism, and was also kinda depressing.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pregnancy, Child death, Grief, Infertility, Medical content, Murder, Suicidal thoughts, Death, and Death of parent

Moderate: Abandonment, Gun violence, Domestic abuse, and Miscarriage

Minor: Alcohol, Cancer, Misogyny, Suicide, Transphobia, and War

the transphobia I mention isn't just that inherent in the premise; a trans character mentions how much more difficult life has been for trans people after "the plague," including an increase in general transphobia and transphobic violence

auteaandtales's review against another edition

dark emotional funny reflective fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Death of parent, Grief, Infertility, Medical content, Medical trauma, Miscarriage, and Pregnancy

Moderate: Violence

Minor: Racism, Gun violence, War, Cancer, Car accident, Confinement, Domestic abuse, Hate crime, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Suicide, Trafficking, and Transphobia

lilyharper's review against another edition

dark emotional sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.25

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Grief and Transphobia