oldmansimms 's review for:

Afterland by Lauren Beukes

3.0

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Very much a novel in the vein of The Power or the Handmaid's Tale. I have been forever spoiled by World War Z providing such a wide global view of this kind of apocalyptic/post-apocalyptic story, and I appreciated the interlude section that popped in a few more perspectives on what was happening elsewhere in the world. We have three protagonists: Cole, the mother of a boy who survived this pandemic of virogenic prostate cancer; Miles, the boy in question; and Billie, Cole's ne'er-do-well sister. The main action follows Cole and Miles and hit two different groups of survivors (a commune/co-op kind of thing and a group of religious fanatics that has grown up post-plague) quite quickly so I expected the story to be the main characters hopping from situation to situation across the country, only to have them stick with the religious group the entire rest of the book. Which is fine, and presented its own storytelling beats, but I think I would have preferred the other tack. Meanwhile, Billie's storyline is her attempt to track down Cole and Miles, but for a lot of it she (and her criminal companions) are going to somewhere that the reader KNOWS Cole and Miles are not, which makes it less tense. Still, it's an interesting setting, and avoids the trap of having the plot be all about Saving Humanity; I'd be interested to read other stories set in this world.