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3.24 AVERAGE
3.24 AVERAGE
This is a tough one for me to write, because I was genuinely looking forward to this book. But honestly, despite all the hype - this just isn’t that good of a novel. (I ended up getting this digitally via the library and am honestly kind of long term glad that I didn’t end up buying a copy.) (Additionally, there will be discussion of transphobic content, that will get it’s own paragraph and CW.)
The actual summary of this book is that it is basically one long chase scene across post apocalyptic America with a flashback scene at least every other chapter. The problem is that for an extended chase scene, it really feels like it just draaaaaaaaaaaaaaags. It feels like it was made with the assumption of a movie with lots of long quiet periods for narration over sad landscapes and a sad indie soundtrack. I had to push myself to read a certain amount of chapters per night in order to get this done. One of the other issues with this book is that we don’t really have characters so much as Cormac McCarthy style archetypes. There is The Mother, The Son, and The Bad Sister. I legitimately can only remember the kid’s name, mainly because of his narration style which features #hashtags. I was way more interested in the incidental characters that they meet on their journey than the people who were supposed to be the focus of the story, which kind of overall contributed to my disappointment. There’s a legitimately solid interlude which features in universe blogs/articles/etc that might have been better located towards the front as a lead in to what happened.
And the problem is that because the narrative and characters can’t hold our attention, details that might otherwise have been given a pass feel that much more glaring. (CW: transphobia!) The core premise is that because the government is quarantining any remaining male, the kid has to be disguised as a girl - his mom doesn’t give him a choice in his name or the decision to disguise himself, and the narration in her sections switches between referring to the kid as one gender or the other, or reminding herself that she needs to think of the kid as a she in order to maintain the disguise, which leads to the feeling of constant misgendering. One of the in-universe blogs says some shitty stuff about the virus (which somehow on the y-chromosome mutates into prostrate cancer) equally effecting trans women too (though it fails to say how it might effect trans men). There’s a character in the random church road trip section who mentions offhandedly that hitting puberty felt like her body betraying her and that she wore her brother’s clothes and asked people to call her by a boy’s name, but supposedly The Jesus took care of that. There’s also off hand mentions of things like gender sniffing dogs (not a thing) that are just... dumb as hell, and an overall obsession with dicks and semen that is just eye rolling. Ana Mardoll over on Twitter is doing a deeper chapter by chapter dive, if you’d like a more thorough dive into how and why this book is transphobic. This doesn’t feel like active transphobia on Beukes’ part, but just genuine cis women cluelessness, and likely could have been solved for with a simple sensitivity read. She lists all the scientists and economists and other people she talked to about this world building in her acknowledgements, but it somehow failed to cross her mind that hey, maybe this is a thing she should’ve thought of and checked. Lumberjanes and Nimona are namechecked in here, and I genuinely hope that Noelle Stevenson never finds that out, because this is the last thing she’d want to be associated with.
On top of this, there’s just lazy and contracting details (does a prosectomy help or not? did only the prepubescent boys survive because they don’t have a sufficient level of testosterone? How would that effect trans women), and some real fucking stretches like trying to call a hostess club by its Japanese name to make it more ~exotic~, and assuming that somehow everyone in the world would agree to not have babies until the scientists can figure out what’s going on with this pandemic (the Catholics alone would throw a huge shitfit guys, and have you seen how people are treating scientists over covid currently??) that are just deeply frustrating and made me roll my eyes constantly.
I’m a fan of Beukes, and this was a huge disappointment to me. This was hyped hard, but it doesn’t live up to it, and there’s just so much that could have been better done that it’s a huge left down. Read it if you’d like, but I’d honestly recommend skipping it.
The actual summary of this book is that it is basically one long chase scene across post apocalyptic America with a flashback scene at least every other chapter. The problem is that for an extended chase scene, it really feels like it just draaaaaaaaaaaaaaags. It feels like it was made with the assumption of a movie with lots of long quiet periods for narration over sad landscapes and a sad indie soundtrack. I had to push myself to read a certain amount of chapters per night in order to get this done. One of the other issues with this book is that we don’t really have characters so much as Cormac McCarthy style archetypes. There is The Mother, The Son, and The Bad Sister. I legitimately can only remember the kid’s name, mainly because of his narration style which features #hashtags. I was way more interested in the incidental characters that they meet on their journey than the people who were supposed to be the focus of the story, which kind of overall contributed to my disappointment. There’s a legitimately solid interlude which features in universe blogs/articles/etc that might have been better located towards the front as a lead in to what happened.
And the problem is that because the narrative and characters can’t hold our attention, details that might otherwise have been given a pass feel that much more glaring. (CW: transphobia!) The core premise is that because the government is quarantining any remaining male, the kid has to be disguised as a girl - his mom doesn’t give him a choice in his name or the decision to disguise himself, and the narration in her sections switches between referring to the kid as one gender or the other, or reminding herself that she needs to think of the kid as a she in order to maintain the disguise, which leads to the feeling of constant misgendering. One of the in-universe blogs says some shitty stuff about the virus (which somehow on the y-chromosome mutates into prostrate cancer) equally effecting trans women too (though it fails to say how it might effect trans men). There’s a character in the random church road trip section who mentions offhandedly that hitting puberty felt like her body betraying her and that she wore her brother’s clothes and asked people to call her by a boy’s name, but supposedly The Jesus took care of that. There’s also off hand mentions of things like gender sniffing dogs (not a thing) that are just... dumb as hell, and an overall obsession with dicks and semen that is just eye rolling. Ana Mardoll over on Twitter is doing a deeper chapter by chapter dive, if you’d like a more thorough dive into how and why this book is transphobic. This doesn’t feel like active transphobia on Beukes’ part, but just genuine cis women cluelessness, and likely could have been solved for with a simple sensitivity read. She lists all the scientists and economists and other people she talked to about this world building in her acknowledgements, but it somehow failed to cross her mind that hey, maybe this is a thing she should’ve thought of and checked. Lumberjanes and Nimona are namechecked in here, and I genuinely hope that Noelle Stevenson never finds that out, because this is the last thing she’d want to be associated with.
On top of this, there’s just lazy and contracting details (does a prosectomy help or not? did only the prepubescent boys survive because they don’t have a sufficient level of testosterone? How would that effect trans women), and some real fucking stretches like trying to call a hostess club by its Japanese name to make it more ~exotic~, and assuming that somehow everyone in the world would agree to not have babies until the scientists can figure out what’s going on with this pandemic (the Catholics alone would throw a huge shitfit guys, and have you seen how people are treating scientists over covid currently??) that are just deeply frustrating and made me roll my eyes constantly.
I’m a fan of Beukes, and this was a huge disappointment to me. This was hyped hard, but it doesn’t live up to it, and there’s just so much that could have been better done that it’s a huge left down. Read it if you’d like, but I’d honestly recommend skipping it.
adventurous
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
This book seemed topical and fascinating, however the writing is abominable. The story is utterly boring. It lacks depth and world building. None of the characters are likable and I didn’t find myself caring about any of their fates. The author latches onto the concept of born-again / evangelical Christianity and whatever commentary she is trying to make falls utterly flat. I hope this book isn’t an indication of what science fiction will become in the post-Covid world.
challenging
mysterious
sad
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:
Yes
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
might reread as I love a gender dystopia but I think the narrator didn't sit well with me
emotional
inspiring
reflective
relaxing
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I was really looking forward to this but found the plot boring and dragging, A disappointment
adventurous
emotional
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
A global pandemic has devastated and wiped out half of the human population and the world continues to move forward as if it didn’t happen.
Deja vu.
Afterland is an apocalyptic novel taking place in a world after a contagious prostate cancer kills off nearly all men, eradicating the possibility of repopulation and leaving the globe to women. Although the majority of men have met their untimely demise, our protagonist Cole is attempting to navigate and find her way back home to South Africa with her son Miles, a boy who is one of the few remaining males to boast an immunity to the contagion. Along the journey, Cole and Miles run into black market deals, enemies, and difficulties proving that a world run by women can be just as dangerous as a world with men.
Within the over saturated dystopian genre, I honestly found Afterland to be a breath of fresh air. This book was entertaining in the sense that I could picture this making a great movie. There was a great balance of drama, action, and reflection which I really appreciated.
I also liked the casual voice, the tie ins with modern pop culture, and the realism of this particular situation. Far too many times I find that dystopian novels either come off as very sterile and Orwellian or go towards complete anarchy and ruin a la Mad Max. In Afterland, the world isn’t a decimated techless wasteland after the men die off, society just continues to try to move on as normal, making small adjustments along the way to make up for the loss. I feel like after living through the COVID 19 pandemic, there is some truth in Cole’s world, which gives readers an interesting perspective.
Afterland wasn’t perfect by any means and some moments just felt a bit unnecessary, but as a whole I was really impressed by this book’s imaginative approach to the apocalypse and how people would realistically act. Definitely recommended for people who love a good apocalypse novel.
Deja vu.
Afterland is an apocalyptic novel taking place in a world after a contagious prostate cancer kills off nearly all men, eradicating the possibility of repopulation and leaving the globe to women. Although the majority of men have met their untimely demise, our protagonist Cole is attempting to navigate and find her way back home to South Africa with her son Miles, a boy who is one of the few remaining males to boast an immunity to the contagion. Along the journey, Cole and Miles run into black market deals, enemies, and difficulties proving that a world run by women can be just as dangerous as a world with men.
Within the over saturated dystopian genre, I honestly found Afterland to be a breath of fresh air. This book was entertaining in the sense that I could picture this making a great movie. There was a great balance of drama, action, and reflection which I really appreciated.
I also liked the casual voice, the tie ins with modern pop culture, and the realism of this particular situation. Far too many times I find that dystopian novels either come off as very sterile and Orwellian or go towards complete anarchy and ruin a la Mad Max. In Afterland, the world isn’t a decimated techless wasteland after the men die off, society just continues to try to move on as normal, making small adjustments along the way to make up for the loss. I feel like after living through the COVID 19 pandemic, there is some truth in Cole’s world, which gives readers an interesting perspective.
Afterland wasn’t perfect by any means and some moments just felt a bit unnecessary, but as a whole I was really impressed by this book’s imaginative approach to the apocalypse and how people would realistically act. Definitely recommended for people who love a good apocalypse novel.
adventurous
emotional
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I just could not bring myself to get interested. The writing was terrible. The story was unimaginable. I really wanted to finish it but it just isn't doing anything for me or my imagination.
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No