Thank you Netgalley for this ARC of Gather the Daughters by Jennie Melamed.

If you are in the mood to be picked up like one of those big claw hands that grabs prizes, and then slowly dipped in a big boiling vat of misogyny, well do I have a treat for you!

Welcome to the colonization where we worship the ancestors and totally abuse our women. As soon as they are old enough to procreate, we set them right to work, treating them like total cattle, and killing them once their purpose has been served. I hated it so much.

I'm not giving this a low rating because I don't think that's fair. The story is solid, it has complex characters and plot points, and it's an intriguing idea, but OMG, it made Warren Jeff's cult look like Leave it to Beaver. I can only stomach so much hatred and mistreatment toward women.

An outstanding debut, Melamed's Gather the Daughters is a jolting and disturbing depiction of a secluded island cult where only summers afford children freedom. Reminiscent of A Handmaid's Tale meets Lord of the Flies, this is a novel whose characters linger long after the book ends. Not easily forgotten.

I was really intrigued by this book, and the plot seemed really interesting. Overall, I liked it, but it was extremely hard to follow. I even had to go back and reread several passages, which I never do.

This book was not like anything I have read before. It's unique in it's subject matter and at times a little difficult to understand and follow, but on the whole I actually did enjoy this book. I didn't realize I like it until I got to the end. It's confusing at time, the characters aren't always shown in their best light, but then again, if this were a real situation, it is very believable. The subject matter was a bit difficult, the abuses suffered were a bit off putting, but again, those kinds of abuses have and still do occur in the hidden corners of society we just don't see them. Gather the Daughters is a book that takes some guts to get through but worth the effort in the end!

I am in charge of our Senior School library and am looking for a diverse array of new books to furnish their shelves with and inspire our young people to read a wider and more diverse range of books as they move through the senior school. It is hard sometimes to find books that will grab the attention of young people as their time is short and we are competing against technology and online entertainments.
This was a thought-provoking and well-written read that will appeal to young readers across the board. It had a really strong voice and a compelling narrative that I think would capture their attention and draw them in. It kept me engrossed and I think that it's so important that the books that we purchase for both our young people and our staff are appealing to as broad a range of readers as possible - as well as providing them with something a little 'different' that they might not have come across in school libraries before.
This was a really enjoyable read and I will definitely be purchasing a copy for school so that our young people can enjoy it for themselves. A satisfying and well-crafted read that I keep thinking about long after closing its final page - and that definitely makes it a must-buy for me!

This is an intense read. It's a few years old but it feels very timely because we are currently in the midst of a discussion about what rights women can expect regarding their own bodies. The girls on this island have even fewer rights than we do here, which is terrifying to think about. 

I was going to caution people who aren't fans of ambiguity that we don't know why things are the way they are on the island but honestly? We know exactly why. Most of the men on the island control their wives and daughters; the one decent man (comparatively speaking) does nothing to stop it. 

And the people in charge are very smart: unrelated women aren't allowed to gather unless a man is present. So obviously nothing is ever going to change. (Also, the women start to become complicit, which is not unlike life here.)

This is an excellent and enraging story. It has me questioning my assumptions about bravery and I know I'll be thinking about it for a long time.

Recommended.

I really enjoyed the unique premise of this novel, but it was really hard to follow. The characters were not unique enough for me to keep them all straight, so it ended up being a difficult read because of that. I really wish I would have loved this one, but I didn’t.

I ended up not finishing the book. I have a hard time connecting to stories that are told from the perspective of a child, especially when we're dealing with a "world" that has different rules. I would much have a straightforward narrator tell it like it is than with the naive understanding of a child. That's just a personal preference. I also didn't like the subject matter and found myself not wanting to keep reading.

This is quite the depressing world for females. The writing was spectacular and I enjoyed the journey through the islands. The operation of this world was fascinating and horrible at the same time. Jennie writes about strong females, some following the process, some standing up and saying enough. I think a glimpse of the male perspective would have added a little to the story just to give a complete picture of everything. Overall, I would recommend this book and would really like to check out more by Jennie Melamed!

Gather the Daughters takes a familiar trope and ups the ante. Many novels explore what happens when people, often repressed or with little power, question their roles in society. Yet, few go to the extremes Ms. Melamed's debut novel does. With her study of family dynamics and the power each familial role holds in a highly patriarchal society, what she has to say not just shocks the senses but is quite memorable as well. For better or worse, you finish her novel forever changed, a rare thing in this day and age.

For not being remotely explicit in the roles of daughter, father, mother, and son, Ms. Melamed makes her points with disturbing clarity. From the opening page, readers experience discomfort without understanding why they feel this way. After all, there is nothing overt about the characters or the story that should make readers uncomfortable. Still, the feeling remains without being able to pinpoint its source. However, sentence by sentence, Ms. Melamed paints a picture not easy to ignore or avoid. The painting may be impressionistic, but there is no doubt as to its meaning and the truth displays itself in all its unsettling glory.

Gather the Daughters is like a dystopian novel on steroids. Children are not killing children, and there is no big bad government trying to rule the world. However, what does exist on the island challenges the fabric of society. It makes you question the original ancestors and the rules they established for their new society. It makes you question the ideas of obedience and the parent-child relationship as well as the more generic adult-child relationship. There are no easy answers to any of what Ms. Melamed posits; the questions alone are disturbing enough to make you wonder if you even want to know the answers. Yet, no matter how much you might wish otherwise, Gather the Daughters is not a novel easily dismissed. It finds a way to sneak into your soul, emerging when you least expect it and forcing you to examine the novel compared today's society.

I've struggled to review this title because I have mixed feelings.

On the one hand, I'm weary of the women-as-breeder trope so common in post-apocalyptic fiction. On the other hand, there are reasons this is so prevalent.

On the one hand, I find the child abuse in this, even though it is often "offstage," very disturbing. On the other hand, well. It's not unbelievable.

On the one hand, I was confused about the world building. On the other hand, the ending makes everything very clear, or at least provides reasons for it to be muddy. It is true that the daughters don't know enough about the world. That isn't a mistake, that's deliberate, both on the part of the author but also on the part of the men running the island they all live on. But would everyone feeling confused make it to the end?

I also very much like the rotating perspectives, always only the daughters.

Whoa.

Please tell me at least one of you thought of Joey Lawrence.

If a book can be said to be both dreadful and wonderful at the same time, then Gather the Daughters is one such book. Set in a unknown period after a fire destroys civilization, an island community is formed by ten men desiring a deeply patriarchical society. These men, now known as the ancestors, made a list of things a person shalt not do and those are the rules that govern their small society. Now the men farm, or carve, or labor outside the home, while the women keep house. Females submit to their father until they are married, and then they submit to their husbands. When their child has a child, they take their final draught. The shalt-nots are never questioned, and if women were to question them, well, bleeding out is very common in childbirth.

Janey, Amanda, Caitlin, and Vanessa are four girls living in this rustic island community. Desperate to avoid coming of age, but yearning to get away from their fathers, each girl feels trapped and helpless. They begin to question the rules that govern their lives, and that is a very, very dangerous thing to do. When one of the girls is murdered for her desire for something better for her own daughter, the girls begin a resistance.

Eerie, bleak, and full of dread, Jennie Melamed’s debut novel is excellent. Her beautiful prose balances the grim existence of the characters, and the multiple narrators works to flesh out life on the island. For those who enjoy dystopian fiction, this will be my go-to recommendation of the summer.

This is a book I don't really know how to rate because I don't really know how it made me feel. 'Disgust' is one answer that comes to mind, but the kind of disgust that comes with distasteful actions from the characters as opposed to disgust with the author.
I think I was most horrified by the fact that it really wasn't that difficult to imagine a news outlet reporting a story like this.

I don't think 'enjoyed' is quite the right word to describe the experience of reading <i>Gather the Daughters</i> but I'll confess I was riveted. I'd recommend this book to fans of <i>The Handmaid's Tale</i> and then ask them to come back for a long discussion!

Gather the Daughters is a deeply unsettling tale of a cult like group of people trying to forge life in a world destroyed.

Hoooooo boy. Let me start with a trigger warning, which I'll explain in a minute, but just imagine giant flashing lights here. So this story is set on an isolated island, in a community that fled the wastelands of our world several generations ago and set up their own little religious cult community. And here is where the giant flashing trigger warning lights are: because it is a community where one of the central tenets is incestuous sexual abuse of children. And also the usual patriarchal cult bullshit where girls are married off as soon as they're fertile. The story is told from the POVs of several girls, nearing or just past puberty, and all are heartbreaking and real. The other stuff going on is not too hard to figure out if you've ever read a book or seen a movie before, but the story itself is well-done, if utterly nauseating. Another one of those that is well-written but that I for one plan never to revisit and cannot really recommend it in good faith unless you have a strong stomach. B/B+.

This book was painful to read, yet I was unable to put it down until i read the last page. Every page brought new horrors and a sadness in my heart yet all I wanted was to get deeper into this world. The daughters captured my heart and soul and all I wanted was for them to survive and make it out of where they are.

Oh, my goodness! Gather the Daughters is a haunting story of a dystopian society. This book reminded me of The Giver meets the Handmaids Tale. We meet several daughters, Amanda, Caitlin, Janey. They live in a futuristic community in which mothers "weep for daughters" and celebrate sons from birth. The women hide horrible truths about life from their daughters, and sons seem oblivious to life around them. When daughters come to fruition they spend a summer with other daughters, meeting the sons and their future husbands. Don't get the idea that this is fairytale-like or dreamy, it is horrifying and torturous. Daughters who do not go along willingly are drugged. As we follow the three daughters in the story, strange things start occurring. Women and daughters start disappearing. Why?

I found this book incredibly difficult to read and emotionally gut-wrenching. It's important to consider and think about these topics but this book did not make those ideas easy to digest.

I give up. This book is just not one I'm going to continue with. It reminds me of The Handmaid's Tale which I also hated and everyone else loves.

Gather the Daughters is a hard book for me to review. On one hand, I couldn’t stop thinking about it but on the other hand, I kind of hated it. I’m going to be completely honest. Before I started Gather the Daughters…I almost didn’t. There were some so called “triggers” such as incest and molestation and those are pretty much the two topics that I cannot handle. Finally I realized that I couldn’t stop thinking about the book and maybe that was a reason for me to keep an open mind and give it a try.

First, let me say that Jennie Melamed has a knack for beautiful writing. It was compelling and beautiful and kept me needing more. However, Gather the Daughters is told from four different narrators. Unfortunately, it was incredibly hard to tell them apart. I found myself wondering, “which one is this again?” One of the narrators was pregnant, and that was honestly the only way she stood out to me among the others. Obviously as the story progresses they become somewhat easier to tell apart, but it took a long while to get there. The voices sounded the same and therefore I had a very hard time connecting to any of these girls.

Here is where things get frustrating as a reader. In this community, women exist to breed, basically. Wait., it gets worse. On this island, each family is permitted to have only two children. So, when a husband and wife have conceived two children, guess who becomes the stand-in to take care of the father’s pleasure? Did you guess his prepubescent daughter? If so, you are absolutely correct!

“Who is my little wife?” asks Father in a sugary tone.

“I am,” whispers Vanessa.

So, daughters are now the stand-in wives and some of the mothers often resent their daughters while the daughter becomes responsible for their father’s well-being in many ways.

Okay so let’s get into some more details regarding the upbringing of these children. Each summer, before the girls hit puberty, they run amok on the island. They live like wild animals in the woods and do whatever they want. Those who have hit puberty – please keep in mind how young some girls are when this happens – and older men spend time together in groups deciding who they will marry. Families “foster” these girls and the group of men comes to visit each night and things often end with couples um…coupling. For the most part, like the molestation from their fathers, this is “normal” to these young people. If a young woman decides that she doesn’t want to mate with someone, they simply drug her with drink and eventually she complies due to the utter lack of function altogether. Isn’t that, in a word, disgusting? I should quickly mention that as these families live on an island they are always obsessing over the mainland and the “eternal fires” that happened over there. Only a select few (read: men) are allowed to travel over there to gather certain supplies and it is mentioned when they have let anyone come from the mainland before there were “problems” (read: probably rape) which also happens to be one of the plot points in this novel. One of the daughters is almost raped by someone new to the island. The man of course sees no problem with this because well, she sleeps with her father and his wife (before she died MYSTERIOUSLY) was pregnant with a daughter so he was going to get to sleep with her anyway! So anyway, this whole eternal fire thing seems like a scary story kids are told so that they don’t leave the island. The reader is wondering throughout the novel “are these fires real?” “Is this just going to play out like an M. Night Shyamalan movie?” “WHY ISN’T ANYONE ASKING THESE QUESTIONS?”

One of the daughters inner thoughts regarding her relationship with her father…

“Every girl lies down under her father, even if nobody talks about it. Like picking your nose, or scratching your bottom; it’s not something to be discussed in public, but you know everyone does it in darkness, when nobody else is looking.”

When they are discussing men being widowed due to their wives dying from a sudden illness taken over the island…

“Let some of the older men go to the summers of fruition. The younger men can wait a year.”

“We’ve never had older men or widowed men at the summers of fruition. For good reason. That could be a catastrophe.”

Oh, could it? COULD IT BE CATASTROPHIC TO HAVE OLDER MEN MOLESTING YOUR DAUGHTERS AS YOU DO?!

The Pastor speaking upon why illness has befallen the island…

“As I look upon us, I can see the reasons for their displeasure. We have strayed from them. We have strayed from their vision and their holiness. We clot up the minds of our daughters with useless knowledge, instead of taking the precious time to teach them to be a solace to their fathers. Wives have forgotten how to be a support to their husbands.”

All of that being said, Gather the Daughters was still compelling in the way that I couldn’t put it down. There were some “daughters” who stood out against this whole dynamic and I was incredibly invested in their end goals. I was completely on board for this uprising of strong young women who changed their ways and you know what? I didn’t get it. All I am going to say here – before I rant below after clearly marking spoilers – is that I did not feel fulfilled by the ending.

Would I recommend this novel? Um…that’s hard to say. I read it in just a few days because it was compelling and atmospheric but it was almost like that terrible comment people make regarding not being able to look away from a train wreck. I had such high hopes and upon finishing I felt like that Tyra Banks scene where she is all, “I WAS ROOTING FOR YOU!” I usually don’t waste my time on books that I am not enjoying and I never “hate read” something as I simply don’t have the time or energy. So I suppose that means that yes…I can recommend it? I enjoyed it enough that I couldn’t stop reading, but I was also so angry upon finishing. Those “triggers” that I mentioned don’t really play into my feelings because everything happened “off the page” and I knew what I was getting into. But still it just felt like…why? So much of this novel was me continuously asking that question.

So now for my spoilery rant after the break…

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Okay, so I get through this terrible molestation, weird ass father-daughter relationship bullshit where these men rape their daughters for years. I get past the wife beating and the father who can’t let his daughter “go” to her new husband. I get past the blatant murder of women who start to ask questions and why? Why did I stay? I stayed because I was ready for some kickass women taking control of their lives. They do, for a time, and I am totally on board. Then? Every single “daughter” dies except one. ONE. You know why she survives? Because she was so complacent throughout that no one killed her and then her dad helped her ESCAPE. So then they’re on a boat and they see the “mainland” and she comments on how she doesn’t know if what they can see is the “eternal fire” burning or just the sun bouncing off of the people walking around. That’s it. Ambiguity after all of this build up. What the fuck?! I cannot explain to you how frustrating this was after I was completely invested and ready for some badass “daughters” taking charge of their lives. So angry. So disappointing.

This is the part where I want to tell you not to waste your time with this novel because IT IS SO FRUSTRATING and omg I was so angry upon finishing it I just wanted to throw it out the window. So I am conflicted. I will probably read something else by this author because she has a knack for writing compelling moments but on the whole, the characters were hard to connect with and I absolutely felt as if I had wasted my time upon finishing.

Disclaimer: My sincere thanks to Little, Brown and Company for providing me with a complimentary digital copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

With its dystopian setting and a cult-like group who sets themselves apart from the greater world this book's blurb was giving off an intense, slightly creepy vibe which intrigued me.

Unfortunately, this book didn't work for me on a few levels. Continually at the forefront of the book is the horrifying subject matter which varied from a total lack of women's rights, teen orgies and leading up to the glaring and horrific ongoing incest/sexual abuse. These are difficult, emotional and intense subjects that I found hard to read.

The story is set within a small population which has set itself apart from the greater society. It's an interesting idea but the author doesn't go far enough with this concept. Readers aren't given enough backstory about how and why their small world was created except that the leaders are following what their forefathers wanted. Nor are we shown what life is like for the greater world (referred to as the Wastelands). I needed more explanation and kept reading hoping for some enlightenment about both worlds but no insight came.

It also didn't help that there wasn't ANYTHING remotely redeemable about this small society and its demented rules/mores. The abuse was rampant and felt like it was used more for shock value because not much was happening with regards to the plot. I wanted to see the girls kick start a change within their society or something huge to happen but, for much of the book, the focus was only on the abuse and I found myself skimming through.

The story's weak plot is told via the POVs of several teenage girls. But even with each telling their own story I didn't feel like I got to know any of them well. They remained almost indistinguishable from each other and I resorted to making a cheat sheet to keep track of them. Not a good sign.

If a horrifying, uncomfortable read is what the author was going for then I give full stars but as a reader, the continually alarming, sickening abuse was too much. I'm still at a loss to figure out the point of this book. The subject matter was so extreme and yet readers are left hanging as to how and why this small society came to be and how it has gone unnoticed by the greater world. This is a book about the antithesis of a good society filled with patriarchal control and rampant abuse. I believe this book will be discussed a lot due to its extreme and shocking subject matter but I cannot recommend this book.