The End of Men

This is a really good book. But when I saw the author was inspired by world war z and station eleven I knew I was going to love it because those are also really good books. It has Y The Last Man vibes without going that far.

An interesting premise for this book, but I personally found it difficult to be fully invested in the characters.

Well, unless it was Lisa, who I really didn't like at all!

There were a lot of sad and heartbreaking moments, but like I said before, there was something lacking that made it difficult to be fully invested. The coldness with which some of it was written maybe?

Thank you to PH and Christina for the chance to read this book.

Dystopian fiction, oh how I love it! Slightly uncomfortable reading at times, dealing with a global pandemic as it is, but far enough away from reality that there were only a few crossovers with reality (thankfully we still have tea and coffee... oh and men!).
A mysterious virus starts rapidly killing males and only 10% are immune. Christina Sweeney-Baird weaves together the stories of survivors to build a timeline of the societal changes that ensue.
The characters are well-written and believable and, for such a multitude of narrators, distinct. Each short chapter is narrated by a, usually female, voice giving an insight into some aspect of their life. The short chapters were both a blessing and a curse as I literally could not put down the book (oh, just one more chapter - it's only a few pages... I may as well read the next one too then...).
I enjoyed the gentle nod to Atwood, queen of feminist dystopian fiction, in one of the early chapters. Later, Sweeney-Baird's bright new world retains reflections of Gilead in some countries' repopulation programmes. The remaking of the world to fit women seemed to be a response to Caroline Criado Pérez's Invisible Women, I would be most surprised if Sweeney-Baird has not read this (just checked - she gave it 5 stars, as did I).
Overall I found it a fun, quick read and only one thing grated with me - I just couldn't believe there would ever be an A&E at Gartnavel!

Could not put it down.