The first half gripped me. Seeing the beginning of the pandemic. The initial reactions, the fear people felt and how they tried to protect the men in their lives, including babies/children. The heartbreak as they had to sit and watch their loved ones die.

But the second half dropped for me. I became a little bored. I can't really put my finger on why for that. Maybe just the direction the plot went. It was nice to see how the world was trying to rebuild. How the pandemic changed dating, economics, politics, careers, dating and even how they respond to boys being born. But it just didn't keep me gripped as the first half.

The amount of POVs was a small issue for me. There was so many that they started to blend together. Trying to keep track of who was who was a problem.
I did like that they used women from different backgrounds. We see a POV from women in different careers and women just trying to stay home and protect their family. Showing how the pandemic affected people in different places. Including different countries.

In the end I felt a little underwhelmed. I expected a darker dystopian and although the idea was intriguing it fell off a little towards the end.

Totally gripping! I wonder if I would have felt the.same had we not been living through a pandemic, so many parallels to our current situation. What an amazing first novel for this author

I really liked the premise behind this – even with the situation around us – and there are aspects of it that I really enjoyed, like the inclusion of news reports and the way that the book approached a timeline of pre, during and post ‘plague’. However, there were just to many aspects of the plot that gave me pause – little details that maybe wouldn’t have been noticeable at another time, but with the news highlighting so many similair aspects they were highlighted, and maybe it was just bad time, but there was enough that it made it very hard for me to suspend my belief. I also wasn’t enamoured with the characters, and I felt like that there was a lot of potential that went unfulfilled.

I thought the premise of this book was brilliant and I loved the style of the newspaper articles/emails/interviews trickled through the narrative. However I found there were too many characters and it felt really disjointed as a read.

Didnt enjoy this book at all. Took me months to read it. It just isnt my cuppa tea. Apologies to the author but i didnt like it.

Finished this last night. Not what i expected AT ALL. Given all the controversy surrounding this novel's headlines - and the fact that it's a book about a pandemic written just before we started our own pandemic but only just published - i expected it to be a hard-hitting tome in the style of The Handmaids Tale or The Power. Far from it. This is a tender book about love, grief, partnership, separation, and sacrifice.

This is a very well written page-turning novel that follows the lives of a myriad of women across the world when a pandemic that is fatal to only men strikes, wiping out 70% of the world's male population. Very affecting and surprisingly observant about how we change and adapt.

The writing skill is impressive, able to pull out ongoing stories and developments, dropping in to several lives over a five year period, seeing how women, men, and society grieves and moves on.

It's hard to believe that this was written before the Covid pandemic, overran the world. Reading it and trying to remember that it is only fiction and not a prediction of what is to come.

It is an excellent read. The characters feel alive on the page. The story feels all too real and the message of hope at the end is something we all need to hear.

An excellent book at any time but especially so during current times.

As soon as I saw the synopsis I knew I had to read it, it sounded so interesting and I did end up enjoying this book even though it was quite difficult to read at times.

TW: Discussions of a pandemic and plague, death including children, infertility, depression, anxiety, suicidal thoughts, sexism

This book was such an interesting read although it was difficult to read at times and did have to put the book down a few times and come back to it because it describes the fear and panic of being in a pandemic and it was eerily similar to the covid pandemic. The first half was especially hard but once I got through that I was pretty much hooked.

This book discusses what would happen if a virus killed 90% of men on this planet, what would be the repercussions and how would that affect how we live and function as a society and honestly there is a lot to think about. From those who are part of the government to the police force to those in healthcare what would happen if most of the men in an already male dominated profession died? We need doctors and surgeons because people will still need to be treated, who would run the country in the aftermath, how would our society structures change. These are things we see discussed in the book and it was really interesting to read.

It also discusses motherhood and infertility especially as the virus kills male children too and many women are left grieving for their sons. It was incredibly difficult to read at times when we see the grief of these mother and how they struggle to cope with the loss of their husbands and sons and then the guilt of those lucky few who had husbands or sons who are immune. Then because there are barely any men left they can’t even think to have a baby again and then there are those who before were struggling with infertility and are now faced with the reality that they may never become mothers. One of the hardest things was the scenes of the women who were giving birth to baby boys who were not immune and then having to watch them die just days later.

Once a vaccine is discovered we do see a more hopeful future where people are just beginning to pick themselves up and come to terms with a new normal. Much like we have had to in the face of the covid pandemic. Those who survived the pandemic have been thrust into positions they may never have been able to get before because there are literally no men left in those areas. The majority of the government is now full of women and it was interesting o see how they handled things that maybe men would handle differently.

We also see at the beginning when it all starts, the doctor who discovers patient zero is largely ignored and labelled as hysterical and so it spreads rapidly before anyone takes it seriously. The sexism and misogyny present in the workplace means that so many more die before things can be put into place to reduce the death toll. Discussions about how women aren’t given the credit they deserve and the gender pay gap and so much more.

The main issue I had with the book and the discussions was how white centric it was and how the majority of focus was on the UK and US. I know that for women of colour and those living in Asia and Africa for example would have a really different experience in everything that would happen during the virus outbreak. And yet none of that was touched upon and the few mentions of places like Saudi Arabia was linked to trafficking and other places like Iran, Afghanistan etc were just mentioned to have no information about what is happening there after years of the pandemic. I’m tired of the BIPOC erasure in books especially in a book dealing with a worldwide pandemic.

Overall this book was an interesting read and did discuss some really important issues and I did mostly enjoy the book.

3.5 stars
Phew. It was oddly disturbing reading this with the pandemic still raging. This is set in the near future, and the author started writing it much before COVID-19 was on the horizon, even so...phew. Not an easy read, but interesting nonetheless, especially since you can't help comparing with what's going on right now. The story was very West focused, almost like the rest of the world (the majority!) didn't exist. The vaccine solution was actually worse that what's happening right now!
Did I say disturbing? Well, I must be crazy because I still enjoyed it!
(Review copy from NetGalley)

Thank you to the publishers, Netgalley and the author for an ARC of this book!!

Okay, so I instantly read the title and was super intrigued. The end of men??? What could this be??? Definitely had a ball reading this, and it brought back memories of my dystopian YA novel phase circa 2015. Nostalgia aside, it was a bit on the ball to read about a pandemic in a novel... while the real life pandemic was going on. It made the novel's events a bit more real to me, a bit closer to home which really pulled me into the novel. It's got an interesting concept, and I think the author pulls it off so well. I was heartbroken by the storyline, and the characters are ones that will stay with me for a long time. Despite such an audacious premise, it's very much character-driven, and those are stories I love the most. Congratulations to the author for such a feat!

Set in Glasgow, 2025, Dr. Amanda Maclean is called to treat a patient with flu-like symptoms in A&E. Within three hours he is declared dead. This unknown illness then sweeps through the hospital at a deadly speed. The victims are all male, no matter what their age.

Dr. Maclean then raises the alarm but is dismissed as crazy. However by the time the authorities do listen to her, the illness has spread to every corner of the globe.

Can a cure be found before it’s too late and the male population is wiped out?

Given the current state of the world, this makes for interesting reading. It not only focuses on Dr. Maclean but also on many other people who are affected by the virus, be that losing the husband, son, or those that then start working on finding why it affects only men and finding a cure.

It's written over a number of years, in various different countries too. Mostly it's from the perspective of women and shows the emotions they are going through, and how countries cope with the dwindling male population, setting up how the world still works with the change of balance.

I received this book from Netgalley in return for a honest review.

Unfortunately I just could not get into this book. It may be one for other readers, but I was unable to finish it.

I really liked The End of Men which is bizarre as we are still living in a pandemic ourselves!

I liked how the different chapters were told from the points of view of different people affected and dealing with the pandemic and liked that this included people all over the world such as doctors, other healthcare professionals and just general people trying to survive.

A lot of the story was quite heartbreaking to read as you prepare yourself for the worst.

Really well written.

When I first started reading this, I was a bit worried about it being difficult and quite triggering - considering it's about a pandemic and I've been struggling massively living through a real one! It's strange how this was written before Covid-19 appeared as there are lots of parallels, especially with lockdowns, social distancing and how it's handled by government and the media.

This book is set in 2025 and a new virus is sweeping across the world - however the virus only affects biological men (although women are carriers) and has a very high death rate. Only 10% of men are immune. So not only do we see how a virus so fatal affects the world, we also see how the world shifts in response to women taking charge of everything.

This is a really powerful novel - and fair play to the author for coming up with the story before an actual pandemic happened in real life!

Gosh, this was so close to what has been happening over the last year, I couldn’t stop reading it. Totally engaging and relatable.

Thank you NetGalley for my complimentary copy in return for my honest review.

A disappointing read. In fact, I ended up getting bored partway through and skim- reading a lot of it. For me, there were just too many characters which had the effect that I didn't really care about any of them. A shame, as it was an interesting premise and strangely topical given that we are now living with a pandemic! But it jumped around so much, scratching the surface of interesting ideas instead of really delving into them.
I also thought it was too extreme: it is possible that viruses can affect men more than women (this is well-documented) but seems highly unlikely that it would kill almost every man who contracts it but leave women completely unscathed. LIkewise, the vaccine that Lisa develops partway through is described as 100% successful. A previous 90-something % vaccine had been discarded. A little bit more realism would have allowed me to buy into this book a bit more.
One line made me laugh: the idea that when a woman doesn't hear from a man she's dating, it might really be because he's died!

would like to thank netgalley and the publisher for letting me read this book

a pandemic book read during the pandemic...mind blowing loved it

I didn't think I was ready for a book about a pandemic but this was a story set in the future about a disease which I thought was worse than the one we are living through. I enjoyed meeting lots of characters and I had to find out how they all fared throughout the horrors and how life changed for them, forever and for future generations to come, .and I think this was the magnet that kept bringing me back. It was strange how women took on the men's roles and how unfair the lottery of life in the book was. An unexpectedly enjoyable read for me.

Even for the unfortunate timing of this book, it took me to a different reality. One that isn't that hard to imagine! The writing is brilliant, and really set the scene for me. Some of it also broke my heart, but i found myself being so interested and gripped. I really enjoyed it.

Thank you to Harper Collins, Christina Sweeney-Baird and NetGalley for what was an ARC at the time I received it. I will be honest here, I have health anxiety, so reading a book about a virus in the middle of a global pandemic became a little too close to home for me; hence why I have only just read it almost 2 months after the release date. I was worried it would heighten my anxiety, but I am glad I bit the bullet and got stuck in.

What an emotional rollercoaster. A mystery virus breaks out in Scotland and bizarrely, all the victims seem to be male. Whilst Dr Amanda McLean recognises this trend and worries that this virus will only kill men, her fears are dismissed as neurotic. What follows is a truly compelling, engrossing story that at times made me feel anxious, angry and sad all at the same time. With a variety of characters all sharing their experiences in diary form, you really start to wonder if this could actually happen, and what we would do if it did.

I've not picked up another book for a few days since reading this as needed some time to get over my book hangover! It is close to home for sure, so approach with caution, but a truly excellent book.