Lauren Beukes es la mejor. Este thriller sobre las consecuencias de una pandemia en un mundo casi apocaliptico sobre una madre protegiendo a su hijo de los extremismos y el peligro esta muy on point.

Tiene un ritmo endiablado que te mantiene enganchado, un trio protagonista que funcionan muy bien y una ambientación muy bien construida y documentada aunque sea todo ficción. ( )

http://speculiction.blogspot.com/2020/10/review-of-afterland-by-lauren-beukes.ht... ( )

Post-apocalyptic. Not great. Almost all the men die. Mother trying to get her and son back to South Africa. Sister of mother trying to kidnap son to sell for his sperm, I guess? Unclear why mother thinks it’s so much better off of an idea to risk all instead of staying in cushy hospital/spa while scientists try to find cure. But…whatever.

DNF. Never captured my interest. ( )

"She thinks, Oh, is that all? Is that it? Dying is hard. Living us hard. Death? Overhyped. First there was a person, now there is no person. She recognises that this is self-defence. She's just tired. Tired and numb, the sorrow woven through with anger. Worst friendship bracelet ever."

Cole, her husband and her son are visiting the USA. Starting in 2020 a pandemic sweeps the world and they find themselves stuck. While the effects may be minimal to those with two X chromosomes (simply flu-like symptoms), people with a Y chromosome (cis or trans) are getting a cancer that rapidly kills them. Cole's twelve year old son, Miles, is one of the lucky ones and she wants to get him back home to South Africa before the Department of Men or some other group takes him away from her. She pretends he's a girl (Mila) to sneak him around the country, while trying to plan an escape. Hopefully before he goes through puberty! Oh, and did I mention that her sister is after her too? Seeking vengeance.

When I saw this book I was immediately intrigued. There are many books where (fertile) women are in short supply, but men? Not so much. This isn't, however, some kind of breeder tale. Reproduction is actually forbidden for now until they figure out how to beat the virus.

There are so many parallels with how our own pandemic played out. The unpreparedness, the rapidly evolving science, way too many personal agendas fuelling misinformation, lack of hand sanitizer, and lots of fear, death, chaos and manipulation. I think this is part of what made this book so believable - we've already lived through a far milder version of it. And this doesn't seem to have been inspired by the pandemic either! The publication date was actually brought forward (April 2020) because of covid. I'm pretty impressed at how spot on she got it.

I absolutely loved the plot and the premise, but the book was a bit all over the place. The chapters were short and it switched between characters/time periods between each. I think it would have been a stronger book had we got to spend a bit more time in one place at a time. We meet a lot of interesting characters but everything is a little all over the place and things get kind of confusing. It's still enjoyable though!

I absolutely loved the interlude. It provided a natural way to show some of the science and what's happening elsewhere. Similar complacency at first with similar views to covid. Although here I think things spiralled much faster. I would have loved to have seen more of what was happening in South Africa, especially since Beukes is South African and has a good idea of how the government works/reacts to things. I would have loved to have seen how her writing panned out against what happened.

While events like this do force people to be strong, I feel like a lot of the characters were too okay. There's a lot of trauma that happened (and is still happening). While society is more restricted, everyone seems pretty normal? It could be because our narrators are a bit self absorbed, but I do wish we'd seen a bit more of the inevitable grief. There was this ever present sense of pain? despair? uncertainty? that permenaed covid. And the effects of this disease are far more devastating.

All in all, this was an enjoyable book. I'd recommend it to those who'd like to read about the bond of a mother and her son in the midst of a deadly pandemic (although they know they won't die). While not transphobic, it might not be for you if you are trans, especially if your family struggled to accept it. Cole keeps jumping between Miles (he/him and Miles' preferred identity) and Mila (she/her and the one she invented to keep him safe). Just something to keep in mind if you are considering picking this book up! ( )