You need to sign in or sign up before continuing.
Take a photo of a barcode or cover
athenameilahn 's review for:
Afterland
by Lauren Beukes
The book centers on 3 main characters in a world where most of the world's male population has been killed by a pandemic. The remaining boys and men are so precious they must be rounded up and protected at all costs. No one is allowed to reproduce until the world has figured out how to contain the pandemic. Cole, a mother protecting her son who pretends to be her daughter, Miles/Mila that son/daughter, and Billie, Cole's sister who's determined to exploit her nephew for what amounts to human trafficking because even a small amount of his sperm would net a huge fortune.
I really, really liked the premise. The women of the world become mechanics and soldiers, roles few did before because they didn't have to. Suddenly it's not just accepted for women to be sexual partners, but is widely practiced because there are few alternatives. Cole and Mila encounter a group of women who form an order of nuns, basically, who are rewriting the rules about Christianity. They believe the boys and men of the world were killed as punishment and if they become obedient and dutiful, they will be rewarded with more boys and men in the future. It drives home the idea that in a religion already dominated by men and fixated on one boy in particular (Jesus), the stakes and adoration escalate to new heights when actual boys and men are so scarce.
The writing was pithy and edgy in many places.
--"There's probably an APB out for them. Murder. Drug smuggler. Boy trafficker. Wanted felon. Bad mother. Bad mother is the worst thing you can possibly be." This really nails life for so many American women.
--Billie thought her sister supported the rights of all women including the right to get pregnant. "Selfish goddamn cunt." The irony is spot on. In the U.S. because pearl clutchers and hand wringers spend far more time denying women's right to choose NOT to get pregnant, the feminist choice is to support the right to not be pregnant, but in this world the government is denying the right to GET pregnant so it's actually more feminist to help someone GET pregnant.
--Devan (Billie's husband) tried to reassure her that testosterone was the key problematic ingredient in most of the catastrophe's of the world so they'd have better leaders if they didn't have it. "As if women weren't capable of evil fuckery in their own right."
--While Miles is being held in a detention center, supposedly for his own protection he says the experience is like being in a "boy zoo."
--at one point Cole describes her nerves as being sandpapered by worry
But I had some mixed feelings about other aspects.
--The beginning is focused on post apocalypse but by end it's a road book looking at specific characters traveling. The world building was more interesting than the road part. The characters had promise at the beginning but that didn't hold up at the end which was a bit too tidy. Since the characters didn't hold up, it made me more curious to know what was happening in the world. There was so much Beukes could have done with politics, human rights and economics if she had wanted to. She seemed to choose to focus on the characters but that wasn't as strong as the stage setting she did in the beginning.
--Throughout the book Cole is determined to get back to South Africa. But why? Do they know it's safe there? I thought maybe we the reader see how overly optimistic she is and that makes the ending a little less tidy. Because Beukes focuses on the effects of the pandemic on the U.S., the state of things in other parts of the world are unclear. That creates a certain tension for us wondering what the family will find when/if they get there. I also wondered if centering on an immigrant gave Beukes the chance to amplify the us/them tensions for Cole. She was already a fugitive for smuggling a boy plus she's breaking the law in a country she isn't a citizen of.
--Billie, Cole are women but have male names. Devon-could be feminine name
--There's a point where I didn't like it, was like 2 different books. Liked the world of the first part but not so much the characters. It was when the religious group dominated everything.
On one hand, "yay! there is a women's group!" But then. "Shit! It's authoritarian!" In the end, the women resorted to what they knew which was the same kind of toxic authoritarianism that patriarchy drives into men.
--I deeply appreciated the acknowledgements at the end where Beukes explains the various people she consulted to get the details right, especially for how to create an illness that would plausibly only affect men and boys. I wish she'd given herself more leeway to include that kind of attention to the context throughout the whole book, not just the beginning.
I really, really liked the premise. The women of the world become mechanics and soldiers, roles few did before because they didn't have to. Suddenly it's not just accepted for women to be sexual partners, but is widely practiced because there are few alternatives. Cole and Mila encounter a group of women who form an order of nuns, basically, who are rewriting the rules about Christianity. They believe the boys and men of the world were killed as punishment and if they become obedient and dutiful, they will be rewarded with more boys and men in the future. It drives home the idea that in a religion already dominated by men and fixated on one boy in particular (Jesus), the stakes and adoration escalate to new heights when actual boys and men are so scarce.
The writing was pithy and edgy in many places.
--"There's probably an APB out for them. Murder. Drug smuggler. Boy trafficker. Wanted felon. Bad mother. Bad mother is the worst thing you can possibly be." This really nails life for so many American women.
--Billie thought her sister supported the rights of all women including the right to get pregnant. "Selfish goddamn cunt." The irony is spot on. In the U.S. because pearl clutchers and hand wringers spend far more time denying women's right to choose NOT to get pregnant, the feminist choice is to support the right to not be pregnant, but in this world the government is denying the right to GET pregnant so it's actually more feminist to help someone GET pregnant.
--Devan (Billie's husband) tried to reassure her that testosterone was the key problematic ingredient in most of the catastrophe's of the world so they'd have better leaders if they didn't have it. "As if women weren't capable of evil fuckery in their own right."
--While Miles is being held in a detention center, supposedly for his own protection he says the experience is like being in a "boy zoo."
--at one point Cole describes her nerves as being sandpapered by worry
But I had some mixed feelings about other aspects.
--The beginning is focused on post apocalypse but by end it's a road book looking at specific characters traveling. The world building was more interesting than the road part. The characters had promise at the beginning but that didn't hold up at the end which was a bit too tidy. Since the characters didn't hold up, it made me more curious to know what was happening in the world. There was so much Beukes could have done with politics, human rights and economics if she had wanted to. She seemed to choose to focus on the characters but that wasn't as strong as the stage setting she did in the beginning.
--Throughout the book Cole is determined to get back to South Africa. But why? Do they know it's safe there? I thought maybe we the reader see how overly optimistic she is and that makes the ending a little less tidy. Because Beukes focuses on the effects of the pandemic on the U.S., the state of things in other parts of the world are unclear. That creates a certain tension for us wondering what the family will find when/if they get there. I also wondered if centering on an immigrant gave Beukes the chance to amplify the us/them tensions for Cole. She was already a fugitive for smuggling a boy plus she's breaking the law in a country she isn't a citizen of.
--Billie, Cole are women but have male names. Devon-could be feminine name
--There's a point where I didn't like it, was like 2 different books. Liked the world of the first part but not so much the characters. It was when the religious group dominated everything.
On one hand, "yay! there is a women's group!" But then. "Shit! It's authoritarian!" In the end, the women resorted to what they knew which was the same kind of toxic authoritarianism that patriarchy drives into men.
--I deeply appreciated the acknowledgements at the end where Beukes explains the various people she consulted to get the details right, especially for how to create an illness that would plausibly only affect men and boys. I wish she'd given herself more leeway to include that kind of attention to the context throughout the whole book, not just the beginning.