How glad was I when I managed to squeeze this one last book in at the end of April? VERY.

That little extra boost when you managed to get just one more book in before a wrap up is SO satisfying!

Anyway, that’s not the point. We’re here for a review.

Let’s dive right in!

(Found on Goodreads)

Welcome to the Matriarchy.

Sixty years after a virus has wiped out almost all the men on the planet, things are pretty much just as you would imagine a world run by women might be: war has ended; greed is not tolerated; the ecological needs of the planet are always put first. In two generations, the female population has grieved, pulled together and moved on, and life really is pretty good – if you’re a girl. It’s not so great if you’re a boy, but fourteen-year-old River wouldn’t know that. Until she met Mason, she thought they were extinct.

*Thank you to the publisher for sending me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review*

The concept of this book intrigued me right from the start. A world without men? What would that look like?

I genuinely wanted to know. I wanted to see how Virginia Bergin thought the world would look without men. By erasing a gender, people are claiming this book explores gender neutrality and whatnot, but really…I don’t get it? At all. This book is not feminist for erasing men and therefore erasing gender differences. It doesn’t work that way. Feminism is equality no matter the difference/the diversity in people. And it certainly doesn’t help when half the book is slating men. Pitting the genders against each other. That is just a no from me, thank you.

And I was somewhat disappointed by the fact you don’t actually find out all that much about how the world works. You’re shown the “rules”, but you only see how they affect this one town. How did the erasure of men stop war? I know armies tend to be male based but I’m sure women would still find things to feud about, men or no. “The ecological needs of the planet are always put first”. Do these things not just enhance the stereotype that women are calmer, delicate beings with no sense of violence, anger, or any strong emotion? That war just vanishes entirely because men aren’t around seems a bit far fetched to me, and I wanted an explanation. But I didn’t get one. Tough luck to me.

Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t a bad book. I enjoyed it enough to whizz through most of it in a day.  It was an easy read, being told from the perspective of a 14 year old girl.

But for me it was just…lacking. 

Lacking what, I don’t know. There was just nothing to get me riled up while reading. The plot jumped around everywhere and seemed almost rushed towards the end with how drastically everything turned.  I found myself wondering about smaller things, like “why do some of the girls have bizarre names like River? Is that what would happen if the world was run by women? People named after the environment?” and “Why does the synopsis say River thought boys were extinct when she clearly knows women have to get babies somehow?”  I just think that if this book had a lot more detail about the way things were run and the effects of the male gender dying out, I’d have found it a lot more entertaining. In this, it just felt like an out of proportion drama was going on when there happened to be no men around.

This review is a real slating, considering I didn’t actually mind reading it.  But see, there’s a difference between “not minding” and “enjoying thoroughly”, isn’t there? In my video wrap up, I originally rated this 3 stars. A week later – writing this review  – I’ve docked it half a star, simply because I can already tell this book won’t exactly be memorable for me. So, half marks, I’m afraid.

Rated 2.5/5 stars

Share your thoughts!

Is this book on your TBR? Do you plan on buying it once it’s released?

Have you read any books similar to this?

Let me know in the comments!

Until next time…

Come and visit me!