A review by ruby4sure
The Death of Grass by John Christopher

1.0

Literally the worst book I have ever read. How a story as interesting as a virus destroying all the grains in the world can be so badly executed is beyond me. The characters are all horrendous, slipping from being every day middle class families into some neandrathal gender roles within minutes of the outbreak being announced. The men are all one dimensional savages and the women reduced to maids and prostitutes - even when the 'good father's daughter and wife are kidnapped and assaulted all he can think about it how they should get over it. Not only is it implicitly and explicitly sexist, it is terribly written with dialogue between characters not far off note form, used only to drive the plot and never ever testing or developing the characters. How this has become a modern classic I do not know, other than to demonstrate how much of a miracle it has lasted so long.