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3.24 AVERAGE
3.24 AVERAGE
adventurous
dark
funny
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
adventurous
dark
fast-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:
Yes
adventurous
dark
medium-paced
I'm a sucker for dystopian fiction, but I didn't love this as much as the reviewers do or as much as I loved Beukes' prior work. Her writing is choppy, and I didn't buy one of her central conceits ("Reprohibition"). Also, most of her characters tend to sound the same. I found it hard to get into, and I tended to set the book down and not pick it back up again for a day or more until I made myself continue. When I was halfway through, I finally got into the book; a cult she introduced was the one thing I found engrossing.
I like a bit of dystopian fiction, and this looked right up my rubble strewn street...but alas it is just dull and the characters just merge into on another. I constantly had to track back and forth to find out who someone was and by half halfway I should know who the main characters were. In the end I just read in the forlorn hope that it would just come together. It never did and I have almost instantly forgotten the book.
The story felt strangely familiar and then I remembered that I read the exact same story in comic book form (The Last Man Alive IIRC). The comics are much, much better and really zing and this felt just so...boring. I could not get invested at all.
The story felt strangely familiar and then I remembered that I read the exact same story in comic book form (The Last Man Alive IIRC). The comics are much, much better and really zing and this felt just so...boring. I could not get invested at all.
this was an interesting one! i think the concept was super cool; a mother on the run with her son, who is one of the last men alive, while their aunt hunts them down after teaming up with traffickers. really great idea, but it just didn’t hit as hard as i wanted.
i liked the characters, i think miles’ pov was my favorite. i also thought billie’s chapters were interesting- the writing really read like the internal monologue of someone who was suffering from a significant head injury, was desperate for self preservation, was incredibly angry about the world and her circumstances, and just overall kinda crazy. the different pov chapters were really well done because they each read with a different voice and i really liked that!
i do with there was more context though. yeah, we get that there’s a virus that target’s biological males by giving them a fast acting and debilitating form of cancer that doesn’t effect cis women. it caused an apocalypse situation and everything went to craziness. but i wanted more details!! i wanted more background info, more description on what the new dynamics were. i know the focus of the story was cole and miles being on the run, but still.
i liked the whole religious cult thing that was cool and definitely super interesting.
lots of cool ideas but just not as strong as i wanted! like a 3.5
i liked the characters, i think miles’ pov was my favorite. i also thought billie’s chapters were interesting- the writing really read like the internal monologue of someone who was suffering from a significant head injury, was desperate for self preservation, was incredibly angry about the world and her circumstances, and just overall kinda crazy. the different pov chapters were really well done because they each read with a different voice and i really liked that!
i do with there was more context though. yeah, we get that there’s a virus that target’s biological males by giving them a fast acting and debilitating form of cancer that doesn’t effect cis women. it caused an apocalypse situation and everything went to craziness. but i wanted more details!! i wanted more background info, more description on what the new dynamics were. i know the focus of the story was cole and miles being on the run, but still.
i liked the whole religious cult thing that was cool and definitely super interesting.
lots of cool ideas but just not as strong as i wanted! like a 3.5
“Repentance is my jam” ? No no no. This reads like a cliche young adult book. 2/5 antibodies
Not as good as the others I've read, because I prefer more elements of magical realism, sci-fi, speculative fiction. A good thriller, though. She's a great writer.
Summary: After a pandemic (known as The Manfall) takes the lives of the majority of men in the world, Cole goes to great lengths to protect her son, Miles, who for genetic reasons was unaffected by the pandemic. Although he's safe from the illness, is he safe from the surviving women who want power over him because of his ability to procreate?
My take: I picked this one up randomly at the library, but I ended up switching to an audiobook shortly after starting. The general storyline is good, but the story was a bit slow at parts and lengthy overall. I didn't have a strong reaction for or against this book! To me it was just OK.
My take: I picked this one up randomly at the library, but I ended up switching to an audiobook shortly after starting. The general storyline is good, but the story was a bit slow at parts and lengthy overall. I didn't have a strong reaction for or against this book! To me it was just OK.