This truly was an incredible book. And to find out it was debut? Even more incredible.
The premise of this book had me intrigued before I even fully knew what it was about. A virus that kills only men? Dang that is so insane! Tell me more!
Things I really enjoyed about this book starting with the suspense. The suspense that started with men suddenly dying and nothing that the doctors did could save them from whatever was killing their bodies, so good. The inner suspense as a reader, knowing that shit was going to hit the fan when the health advisors or whatever didn't listen to the doctor telling them about a new virus, but instead calling her crazy. How the world really did crash and burn and how people had to change their entire lives while not getting consumed by their own panic. Incredible.
I also enjoyed the multiple point of views. I like how we got to see so many different takes of how people experienced the virus. Doctors, mothers, hostile owners, police officers, etc. It captivated my attention and kept me turning page after page. However, I do think that the short chapters and the amount of point of views made this confusing and hard to switch from character to character to character. I did a pretty decent job remembering the characters, but even then I had to take myself out of the intrigue for a second to remind myself of those characters whose experiences we didn't get as often. I think this would have been better had there been less point of views and more time focused on each character that was crucial in development of the story.
I enjoyed that this was somewhat relatable as well. It's about a pandemic. Which, even though people seem to have forgotten, we are still experiencing. I've seen some readers saying that the author got unlucky with the timing of the publication for this novel but I disagree, I think our pandemic helped bring interest to this book. I liked that it wasn't similar to our situation in some aspects but yet similar to it at the same time in other aspects. Without the author even knowing there was a pandemic right around the corner.
This book was also heart wrenching. Seeing so many people lose the ones they love? It reminded me that death lurks and can take people away in a second. The author wrote these characters well enough for me to care when someones loved one passed away. Even though there were too many point of views in my opinion, I still cared about them.
The main thing that really bothered me about this book was the parts after the vaccine was discovered. I just thought there could've been more development there and more intrigue involved. I don't really have specifics, as I haven't given it too much thought, but I would've liked more from that. And I would've been more interested in the book after that point, instead I felt my interest being dragged to other things because the book lost it's fire.
(Counted as Athame: A Book in a Genre You Don't Normally Read for the Clear Your Shit Readathon)
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