The Men

What a strange, hypnotic, lyrical book. Based off the premise, I was expecting more of a straightforward dystopian pandemic-type novel. Instead, it was a gorgeously written novel about gender, sexuality, race, and the variety of ways in which humans damage each other intentionally and through misunderstandings, with a heavy dash of sci-fi in-between.

I'm not sure that having multiple perspectives shown was necessary, especially since the bulk of the story was told from Jane's first person POV. I would have preferred to stay with her, especially since Alma, Ji-Won, Blanca, and Ruth were not given very much character depth. And while they do end up connecting, I don't think it's necessary for the novel.

I feel conflicted about the ending, and feel that it was a bit abrupt, but overall it was such a well-written, beautiful book that I bumped it from 3.5 to 4 stars.

Thanks for the digital ARC, NetGalley!!

This was an enjoyable read that definitely gave off supernatural and dark/disturbing vibes. It is well written, with an enaging storyline and well developed characters. I didn't know what to expect but I really liked it and it will be with me for a while to come.

I was immediately hooked by both the cover and concept of this book. It’s a dystopian novel where everyone with a Y chromosome disappears at the same moment. While most dystopian novels might focus on the impacts of this on the world and society, this is a much more personal exploration of grief, trauma, race and love. It uses the concept-led tale as a backdrop for some very considered and engaging character drama. It’s highly readable, poignant and thoughtful, though many of the plot strands seem mildly superfluous and don’t add a lot to the tale. I’d personally have enjoyed this more if some of the side characters had been removed and we’d had a little more time with the two protagonists, but I still enjoyed this quite a lot.

The concept of this book immediately caught my interest a world where all men suddenly disappear , the reason for this was not fully described, The book starts from the moment when all men and boys suddenly disappeared and looks at the reaction of one woman who was camping with her son and his father and woke to find them missing . The initial episode is described beautifully the sheer terror of finding her family missing and then not being able to find them or to raise any help when. ringing emergency services was nightmareish and made me feel nauseous in sympathy . Likewise some of the initial sections dealing with what the women had lost were poetic in their structure and deeply moving
After dealing with initial disappearance so well the story starts to follow the. past of the mother spending a lo of time looking at her past relationship with another woman who she had left to be with the father of her son , she is not fully reconciled with this decision and when the men disappear she is pulled to link up again with this. charismatic woman.
I found the sections following the immediate reaction. to the loss of men less interesting and really wanted to know more of why they had disappeared. The author describes a man free world as representing freedom from subjugation to men , women were free to leave their homes unlocked and walk around naked in public ( I found this highly unlikely but it did make me smile .
The sections which detailed the supposed fake news articles surrounding the. disappeared men some of whom were filmed after the event in a trance like state thoroughly confused me and it was only explained by the plot twist at the end of the book , the scenes were in deed nightmariesh .
Because of my confusion I found the book a struggle to fully immerse myself in and felt it had just missed its initial potential ,I didn't find myself liking the characters and didn't find some of their decisions believable . I was cross about the ending and felt cheated ,