A review by ellenmillard
Femlandia by Christina Dalcher

mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.75

Femlandia is Dalcher's third novel, and having devoured both Vox and Q I was highly anticipating it - a dystopian thriller set in a female-only community? Sign me up! But as the narrative progressed, I couldn't shake the feeling that the plot lacked substance. This, alongside the relatively thin world-building, meant I didn't understand the motives of the characters (who were unlikeable at best and utterly detestable at worst!). 

The events leading up to Miranda and Emma entering Femlandia were rushed and vague, with Miranda's husband's suicide alluding to an event I never quite grasped the intricacies of. This, alongside the notion of society turning feral in a relatively short amount of time and Emma's assault by the road, left me feeling like this was just a plot point to conveniently reunite Miranda with her mother's Femlandia ideology. Femlandia itself is described as something of a utopia, where women are free. However, because Miranda spends 80 of her days there in solitary confinement, I didn't get a feel for the place. It's through (very) thinly-vieled suggestions that all is not what it seems there, but I certainly wasn't surprised at the twist. Once you've eliminated sperm being transported into Femlandia, and you've realised that women seem to only be having female babies, it's pretty easy to put two and two together and make four (in this case, the boys being separated from their mothers at birth and kept alive to provide sperm once they reach puberty).

 

For me, Femlandia promised a lot but delivered little, which was a shame as the concept deserved a worthy execution.