Initially, it’s difficult to tell the time period in Jennie Melamed’s novel, Gather the Daughters. It is life on an island with little in the way of modern conveniences—no indoor plumbing, no electricity, no weapons beyond knives and a limited food supply of grains and small animals. Later, we learn about “wanderers”, the “wasteland”, defective babies that die at birth, and husbands that can take another wife if their wife can’t produce healthy children. Still, is this a future? Or the past? The narrators, three young girls who haven’t reached puberty yet don't provide many clues. It isn't until the novel's second chapter when vagueness turns to apprehension after learning from the island’s pastor

 “When a daughter submits to her father’s will, when a wife submits to her husband, when a woman is a helper to a man, we are worshipping the ancestors and their vision.” 

So…jumping right into patriarchal doctrine! Still, Melamed is wise and builds the tension in Gather the Daughters slowly. The heavy-handed religion is not too surprising, given the apparent sinfulness of the previous world. The first half of the novel is fascinating backstory about the island and its inhabitants. Creepy and weird, definitely, but Melamed holds off a little bit longer until the novel’s halfway point when she reveals the real foundations of this society. (I don’t consider sharing this a spoiler because it does not change the novel’s plot. But, if you like less-is-more book reviews, then suffice to say I recommend Gather the Daughters as great, escapist, dystopian reading. If you want more of my thoughts, read on!)

It’s been a long time since I read a novel that made me recoil, but, without violence or gore Melamed strikes at a visceral level. The island is built on societally mandated incest against little girls. It is one of the ancestors' laws that from the time they are a small child every father is to have sex with their daughter. It’s difficult to even write this in the context of the novel because the correct terminology is rape. Unremitting rape, every night until the girl menstruates at which point she is handed off to a husband to breed. I can’t over-explain how repugnant reading this was because Melamed insinuates it so carefully into the plot. There are no overt scenes of violence, no disgust from any character. We learn everything through the three girls: Vanessa, Caitlin and Janey. Vanessa, whose father holds such an important position that she has access to books, something none of her friends have. Caitlin, who is newer to the island and its ways when she sees something she was not supposed to see. And seventeen-year-old Janey, who has determined that she will never grow up and so has been starving herself to avoid maturing. These girls are several generations in so there is no terror or revulsion, just resignation…because this is how things have always been.

Gather the Daughters is a novel built for discussion and lots of it. Not just about the morally reprehensible aspects of a fundamentalist, patriarchal society, but about the larger theme of repression in all its forms. The island exists thanks to ignorance. A systemic, multi-generational effort to root out and destroy any kind of knowledge or individual thought. Only the wanderers, the men who leave the island and go back to the wasteland, have any control. Whether there is anything out there or not is not questioned. For the modern day reader there will be nothing but questions, mostly because the only other option is complete disbelief. Well done, Melamed.

I seriously almost gave up on this book due to the subject matters regarding the fathers of this post apocalyptic story. However, my anger with this "ritual" also drove me to read further after discovering a "rebellion".

I literally did get a sick regarding this ritual.

As I said, I did keep with the book and found it to be a very good read after my initial shock and disgust. So, if you can find it possible to get over the ritual, you will get a good read.

The ideas and rituals of this island were VERY strange and I hope that's not really happens in the future! HA!! Women are degraded and second, maybe third or even worse, fourth class citizens in this setting on an island that is away from the "Wasteland" of civilization approachable by ferry and only used by the wanderers. The wanderers are the council of men that take trips back to the "Wasteland" to get supplies, people and whatever else they can find that will help their new world.

A good read that I did find gross and entertaining, if you can believe that can happen in one book.

Thanks to Little, Brown and Company and Net Galley for providing me with a free e-galley in exchange for an honest, unbiased review.

Years ago, the ancestors escaped the ravaged Wastelands to colonize a small island and start a new society. They wrote Our Book to line out the strict hierarchy and structure that would dictate their lives. Years later, their descendants still follow their rules. Life in the agrarian society can be brutal, especially for girls, so the children are given a taste of freedom in the summer. They're allowed to run wild until they return home in the fall. As one of the young girls is heading home at the end of this year's summer, she sees something so shocking that she can't keep to herself. The other girls are reluctant to believe her because it contradicts everything they've been taught, but the bit of forbidden knowledge begins to sow the seeds of discontent.

How could I resist a book described as "Never Let Me Gomeets The Giver"? There were also shades of The Handmaid's Tale, Lord of the Flies, Kindred, and The Village (movie). I recently commented to someone that I've always been drawn to dystopian novels because I'm trying to recapture the feeling of reading The Giver twenty-five years ago. Gather the Daughters definitely rose to the occasion! I was so captivated by this story. What grabbed me most about Melamed's writing style was the subtlety. It was engaging because she allows the reader to figure out many things for themselves. The intricacies of these characters' belief system are revealed gradually. It deals with a disturbing topic, but it's not graphic. The characters talk about it euphemistically, so I wasn't immediately 100% sure if I was correct about what was happening. Admittedly, it may have been a bit of denial on my part. The controversial topic is spoiler-tagged in my first comment for those that may need to know.

The girls won over my heart completely. They have little control over their lives or bodies, but the cult can't control every aspect of their thoughts. Some of them are more rebellious than others, but even those that are reluctant to challenge the system still find their own quiet ways to rebel. In one touching chapter, the girls imagined the types of islands that might be out there. Their visions reflected what bothered them most about their society. There are four girls we get to spend the most time with:
• Amanda (almost 15yo) - She was happy to be married so that she could escape her father. Now that she's pregnant with a girl, she realizes she's merely changed her role in the process.
• Caitlyn (13yo) is meek, but has an inner strength that she's not even aware of. The entire community sees the bruises all over her body, but she insists her father doesn't hurt her. She claims she just bruises easy. When she witnesses a shocking event, her role within the group of girls begins to change.
• Janey (17yo) is the oldest of the children. She starves herself to delay the onset of womanhood. She is fiercely protective of her sister Mary. Janey isn't scared of anything and that terrifies people. If anyone is going to be able to get through to the girls on the island, it's her.
• Vanessa (13yo) is a curious, clever child. Her father's position as a Wanderer gives her rare access to books. I loved the interrogation techniques she used to extract information from adults. She questions everything, but thinks it's futile to entertain any ideas of escape.
• Rosie (9yo) doesn't get her own chapters, but she's such a memorable character. She's headstrong and full of righteous rage.

In this book, the subjugated are trained to assist in their own subjugation. There are multiple signs that the women aren't happy with their situation. For instance, male births are celebrated while girl births are grieved. Regardless, they are willing to bear the burden for the good of their society because it's a part of life, just like the seasons. It's seen as disrespectful to the ancestors to even suggest changes. There's no room for dissent. By the time the girls are old enough to articulate themselves and fully comprehend what's going on, they're resigned to their fate. Women aren't allowed to congregate in large numbers without male chaperones. Many keep quiet because they have no opportunity to discover that they aren't alone in their doubts. The harmful ideas are so ingrained in their society that the dissenters begin to think that they are the ones who are defective. There's also the threat of divine retribution. Vanessa worries the ancestors will hear her thoughts and punish the entire community. It's repeatedly mentioned how important it is to prepare children for their roles, with some adults pushing to start preparing them at even younger ages. When the children of Gather the Daughters were singing a disturbing nursery rhyme, I was transported back to a scene in Kindred where Dana sees the slaves' children pretending to hold a slave auction. In that moment, she realizes just how easily people can be trained to accept horrifying things.

“The author Jennie Melamed is a psychiatric nurse practitioner who specializes in working with traumatized children. She explains her motivations for writing this book in the following article: Exploring a Cultish Culture: the behind-the-book story of Gather the Daughters (excerpt included). How does the horrifying become an accepted part of a society? It's an interesting exploration into the way cults operate and their methods of indoctrination. It also made me think about what parts of our own society are widely accepted but may be disturbing with some distance. The one thing I didn't love is that the ending. It left me a little wanting. It's a perfectly fine quiet ending, but I was left with so many questions. I can't help but hope we get another installment. Nevertheless, I'll be looking forward to reading anything Jennie Melamed publishes in the future.

I chose this book because:

I’ve been reading a lot of realistic fiction, but I haven’t been reading very much of other fictions (by realistic fiction, I don’t mean the genre, but fictions that are realistic-ish, including the hoards of thrillers and sci-fi that I’ve been reading). So, I’m interested in being taken to a different world, as nightmarish as this world seems to be for girls and women; thankfully it’s just a book! But I’m also interested in drawing parallels to how women are treated in this fictional world and how women are treated in the modern world right now.

Upon reading it:

I felt so deeply for the girls. It was a truly terrible world for girls and women. I wanted them to realise it instead of getting brainwashed by the patriarchy. And once they did, I wanted them to escape to a better life or stage a revolution and change their society. As a reader, of course I recognised all the injustice, which not all the characters in the book could right away, but I could also relate to this. When all of society is telling you one thing, you start to believe that your own feelings are not valid, that you yourself are not valid. Whilst women in the modern world are certainly not treated as badly as they are in this fictional world, there’s still a lot in the modern world that women need to fight for. Especially as a woman of colour, realising that you and your feelings are valid is so important.

I imagine that this book takes place post-apocalyptic, the world as we know it has become what is called the “wastelands,” and there survives a small civilization on an island, on which it seems like society has reverted back to its old ways where women are just objects owned by men and their sole purpose is to make babies. But also… maybe not?

All we know for sure is what the girls and women know about the island, and all we know about the wastelands is what the wanderers tell them. For all I know, the rest of the world was in perfect condition and the wastelands were just a ruse to keep the girls and women in check. A big part of what drove me through the book was the suspense of wondering what the wastelands were, right along with the girls in the book who were trying to figure out that same thing, except those girls didn’t even know anything about the pre-apocalyptic world—the island was their only reality. This book kept me hooked like a mystery novel!

{My Thoughts}

What Worked For Me
A New and Horrifying World – Gather the Daughters would not be the stunning book that it is without the bucolic, yet horrific society created by Jennie Melamed.

-Founded by the “ancestors” on an island off the coast of “the wastelands,” their followers live by a strict set of rules that most follow blindly.
-No one ever leaves the island except the ten wanderers who lead it.
-Until they reach puberty, daughters are often “visited” by their fathers at night.
-After a girl first bleeds, she has her summer of fruition, a bacchanalian ritual that leads to marriage.
-Children are allowed the freedom to run wild every summer. Those summers are the best part of life: loved by the children and remembered with longing by the adults.
-The “ancestors” prescribe all of life on the island.

“Amanda’s summer of fruition was Mother’s first step toward death. When Amanda had children, her parents only had until the wanderers deemed Father no longer useful, and then they would drink their final draft and be buried in the fields.”

Multiple Perspectives – Gather the Daughters is a character driven story told from the perspectives of four courageous young women. Fifteen-year old Amanda, married and pregnant, quietly begins to question the ways of the ancestors. Vanessa at 13 has more knowledge than most girls. As the daughter of a wanderer, Vanessa has access to books. A little knowledge can be a dangerous thing. Shy, quiet, outcast Caitlin witnesses something that goes against everything the ancestors have taught. And, 17-year old Janey? Amazing.

An Emerging Leader – Janey, lucky in that she has a father different than most, so wants to avoid the role prescribed to her by the ancestors that she’s been starving herself for years. Until she bleeds, there can be no summer of fruition.

“Janey is so thin that Vanessa wonders how she continues to breathe. Her body is graceful in its starvation, posed in arcs and wings of bone, her collarbone soaring upward against her skin like a loosed bird.”

At 17, Janey still enjoys the freedom of childhood summers. The younger girls look to her for comfort and guidance. Janey doesn’t set out to lead a revolt, but when fall arrives she can no longer turn a blind-eye to the lives, and deaths, of women on the island.

What Didn’t
Honestly, everything about Gather the Daughters worked for me, but cautions are in order. The culture on the island includes incest. The word is never used, nor is the incest ever described, but it’s clearly implied and key to the story. This might bother some readers. The summer of fruition some might also find offensive, though again, it goes toward building the story.

{The Final Assessment}

Gather the Daughters was the perfect book for me at the perfect time. I was looking for something different and Jennie Melamed’s debut more than delivered. From start to finish, I found the book to be creative, unexpected, and original. While not a complete surprise, the ending definitely satisfied. Melamed left me wanting more and that’s a very good thing! Grade: A

Note: I received a copy of this book from the publisher (via NetGalley) in exchange for my honest review.

Gather the Daughters is about a small community that lives with no electricity or modern conveniences on an island. They have a church made of stone that sinks into the ground and a holy book written by "the ancestors." These ancestors are saint-like founders who, according to tradition, fled the wider world to preserve the human race during an apocalypse.

Traditions are dark and strange on the island, but not questioned because they were written by the ancestors.

The tale is told from the viewpoint of four girls: Vanessa, Caitlin, Janey and Amanda.

Similar to The Handmaiden's Tale, Gather the Daughters is ultimately about what happens when society dictates and controls relationships, sexuality and education through religious doctrine. It is also examines the male/female balance of power.

This is a dystopian novel unlike most. Instead of pitting children against each other, the future looks more like a survivalist religious cult. And instead of child brides and polygamy, there are strict guidelines regarding sex. Families are only allowed to have two children. So, while it is not spelled out, it is implied that this is why it becomes acceptable for fathers to have sex with their pre-adolescent daughters. Afterall, they are men and have urges that need to be satisfied. This way it won't end in procreation. In fact, once the girl menstruates for the first time it is hands off! The next summer the girl is sent to some crazy summer of fruition ritual which includes a month of mingling and sexual orgy. Here was my first problem: after being traumatized by dad climbing into bed with you every night and your mom angry with you for alienating her husband's affections, why would a young woman want to go seek out more sex? After this month, the 13 and 14 year old girls are married and begin the cycle all over again. But a couple young woman start to fight back and that is the strength of this book. They do not want to become women (physically) and start putting together some of the strange goings on within the group. Here is second problem: if each family can only have 2 children and women mysteriously "bleed out" and there is an increase in "defective children" isn't the population dwindling? I know. I am too logical. Btw, this does allow for a man to take a second wife because of course the problem couldn't be with him, right? And sure they once in awhile let people join their group from the "wasteland" but this only makes me think that instead of them surviving some scary world war that they are indeed some survivalist religious cult. Despite my personal nit-picky problems with the framework of the society, the book has an interesting premise and the characters were well developed. And, afterall, if these societies weren't faulty, what would we have to read about?

Altough the themes were definitely appealing, I couldn't connect with the characters or the plot. I wish I could've enjoyed this a bit more, but I found it too slow-moving and I my heart wasn't on it. Might get back to it in another moment.

The world is supposedly a wasteland, all that is but the island. The island, on the other hand, is a small place inhabited only by select families- each with a job to do. Life on the island is nearly all inclusive. There is no talk of the outside world allowed, and most everyone was born on the island- one of several generations. In a way, it almost sounds idyllic- almost.

The ways of life there, however, are anything but. The law of the land is crude, set down by the ancestors. Wives must obey the husbands. Sons must be dutiful and one day take after the fathers in their line of work. Daughters must never refuse their fathers. The fathers must lay with the daughters to train them up well. Then as the daughters come of age physically, they are married off to continue the cycle.

It's a cycle that many abhor, albeit mostly the women. Yet it's the only way of life any of them know. Until the day some of the younger girls get the idea that maybe, just maybe, this kind of life isn't all it's cracked up to be.

Gather the Daughters was a hard, but captivating read. One I suspect will continue to pull at the edges of my mind for some time to come. The author's ability to cultivate such a realistic environment complete with truly believable characters made it easy to get sucked in to their plight. It made it incredibly difficult to read at times, but I'm so very glad I did.

Thank you to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for giving me this review opportunity.

I was thrilled to get this book from Net Galley after reading the premise: An adult-style The Giver meets The Handmaid's Tale in this futuristic, creepy debut novel by Jennie Melamed, a psychiatric nurse who worked at my alma mater, the University of Washington. I read voraciously, finishing this book in just one day. The story is set on an island somewhere, occupied by descendants of the ten original founders. Each family is only allowed to have two children; the birth of a son is celebrated, while the birth of a daughter is cried over and mourned (you will find out why as the story builds into a creepy, societally approved father/daughter incest). The summertime brings a wild rumpus, as the youngsters are freed from home, work, and school and live wild for those months, only to be brought back into the fold as the first frost hits. This tale follows a few of the young girls, as we see the story through their eyes; a rebellious older teen who starves herself in order to not come to 'fruition,' a new wife who loves her husband but is terrified over her pregnancy; and a young teen who sees a horrific truth on the beach and thus instigates some deep questioning of how young mothers have died. I was all in on this book, until the ending, which in my opinion was a completely cop-out. I won't give it away, but geez, it was frustrating. Instead of taking the easy way out, I really wanted to see the author grapple with some deep issues and even be courageous enough to leave some questions. (Think Handmaid's Tale ending!). I don't want a pretty package at the end, but I do not want to feel like the author just got tired of writing or was not sure where to go for the finish. However, I would try another book by Melamed as her first effort was original and well-developed for the first 99%. This would also be a provocative book club choice, as it would definitely induce great conversation.

Well, I don't really know where I stand with this book! One minute I liked it, the next I didn't want to finish it. Sometimes I felt bored other times I raced through it. It was certainly unusual and is ideal for a book club, plenty to talk about. The subject matter is difficult to read and write about. I had to finish it to find out what happened to the girls so something about it obviously kept me reading!

Thanks to Netgalley for my copy.

OK then -- if ever there comes a day when I'm in charge of book publishing (!), I will make a rule that decrees that NON-ENDINGS are not allowed. That's what we've got here, so be prepared. I have seen comparisons to THE GIVER (with its ambiguous conclusion) but this reminds me a little more of THE HANDMAID'S TALE as the island cult completely re-engineers the role of women and girls in the world the author created.

Is this a cult or just a fringe group of lunatics gone mad -- or is that the same thing? Years ago, ten "ancestors" brought men and women to this island and created a society where men rule. So much so that fathers lie with daughters as a matter of course. Women are meant for childbearing and little else. Well, in this book, as is to be expected, the young girls start a rebellion. Not the wives -- the children. It would all be totally fascinating if it weren't so difficult and near impossible to change the ways of men who are enjoying their little world and total control. This was a dark novel and quite depressing, actually, to think that there could possibly a place where this kind of thing would go on. The outside world is forbidden to these island inhabitants who have absorbed the lies of the ancestors into a holy book with lots of "shalt nots" designed to keep them from curiosity. Certain men go to the real world, the "wanderers", but it's pretty much a self-contained microsm of in-breds.

Did I like this? I am still grappling with that. It was interesting, but terribly scary to think about considering that I have 2 daughters so it horrifies me to think of a world like this. It's a debut so the big questions aren't really answered and the storyline told by several different narrators (some of the girls) isn't complete in scope or depth.. I will imagine it ended how I hope and, as a feminist, I truly believe that this novel would provide a nice framework for lots of book club discussion. I don't see this title as appealing to men, alas, so probably won't get too much feedback there. Fathers and daughters UGH. The male characters were very loosely developed and seemed stereotypical and one-dimensional.

Thank you to NetGalley and Little, Brown and Company for the e-book to read and review.

So this is a tough one to review so let me take the easy route and start with a summary. The book is written 3rd person and rotates between focusing on four different girls who live in this island community. In this community, which is set at some point in the future (it's hinted that something terrible happened in the world, we're never really told what because the girl's never really know), families live in a very rigid social structure. They each worship one of the "ancestors" that started the island group, couples are not allowed to have more than 2 children, many "defective" children are born, and OH <spoiler> THE FATHERS HAVE SEX WITH THE DAUGHTERS UNTIL THEY ARE MARRIED AT 13 OR SO!!! </spoiler>. During the summers all of the younger kids, including girls who haven't started menstruation, live outside and run wild. Once a girl starts her cycle though, that following summer is her summer of "fruition" and she travels with all of the other girls in the same position from house to house for a month meeting, seducing and in some cases being drugged into meeting prospective spouses who are 17 years and older. Girls do go to school but it's not really clear why honestly. Also once people can't work and are too "old" (about 40) they commit suicide together. SUPER!

This is not an easy read. It is well written but the topics it focuses on are hard to swallow and the feeling of dis-ease I had when reading it was compounded when my suspicions about the skeeviness of this society were confirmed. I felt like it was definitely unique though and even when the plot started to drag, I kept reading because I wanted to know what happened. I wasn't entirely satisfied with the conclusion but I'm also pretty sure I couldn't get an ending I liked to a book I didn't entirely enjoy. Good speculative dystopian fiction but should come with plenty of trigger warnings.

Vanessa, Amanda, Caitlin, and Janey. They are some of the daughters in Jennie Melamed’s stunning debut novel Gather the Daughters. Classified as science fiction, Gather the Daughters transcends genre classification with its universal themes and its ambiguity. Ostensibly, it takes place after a catastrophic societal collapse that leaves the world a burning husk known as the Wastelands. Long ago, ten families, known and worshipped as The Ancestors fled that downfall with this small remnant of humanity, founding a new society on an island where their descendants live today.

This is ambiguous though. Caitlin’s family immigrated from the Wastelands, refugees. While Caitlin remembers nothing from her long ago childhood, clearly there are some people who still live. Moreover, the most valued men on the island are the wanderers who travel to the Wastelands and forage in the wreckage of useful goods. We’re supposed to believe they are taking their lives in their hands, heading back into the raging fires of the end of the world as we know it, but for all we know, they could just be going to Walmart, which is kind of the same thing. No one talks about the Wastelands…which makes it seem as though their history may be unreliable.

Vanessa, Amanda, Caitlin, and Janey. These four young women dare to question the social order. This is a patriarchal society in the extreme. While children, they have their summers free, wildly free, but then, the summer of their menarche, they must go through fruition, a sort of male-female sexual sorting that ends in marriage. They are then allowed to have two children and when those children grow up and have children, they are expected to get out of the way by drinking the final draft so their kids can move into their house – good grandparents are dead grandparents.

Amanda has already reached menarche and through her we discover exactly what happens at fruition. She is married and pregnant and in a shockingly violent scene learns she is carrying a girl. This devastates her because she does not want to bring another girl into this miserable life they all endure. Janey is the same age, but she is starving herself to avoid fruition and marriage. Caitlin’s life is perhaps the hardest, her father is cruel and abusive and her arms are always covered with bruises. Vanessa’s probably the luckiest, a kind, generous father who brings her books from the Wastelands…stories of the world before its destruction.

Vanessa, Amanda, Caitlin, and Janey. These are brave young women – girls, really – by our standards. But their society does not value girls or women other than as servants of their fathers and then their husbands. As adults, women are not allowed to meet in groups of more than three without a male chaperone. But for Vanessa, Caitlin, and Janey, they have a final summer and Janey challenges them to resist, to ask if things could be different, to break the rules.

I loved and hated Gather the Daughters. It made me squirm and I found it very disturbing, not because the story was too outlandish, but because it seems too credible, too possible. In some ways, this culture is a natural continuation of disturbing patriarchal phenomenon in our society. Look at the growth in father-daughter vows, ceremonies where daughters pledge themselves to their father’s until marriage, even wearing rings as a symbol of that pledge. Now imagine a similar mother-son ceremony. It would never happen and people would see it as revolting and unnatural, but the reverse is celebrated. That shows how deeply as a society we accept men as the owners of their wives and daughters. This possible future is not improbable.

The prose is so beautiful, too. When Vanessa is sitting in her classroom, a classroom that is too empty with so many children affected by an epidemic that ripped through the village, “she discovers that grief is a liquid. It passes thickly down her throat as she drinks water and pools soggily around her food. It flows through her veins, dark and heavy, and fills the cavities of her bones until they weigh so much she can barely lift her head.” It continues in one of the truest, most visceral descriptions of how grief can overwhelm us I have ever read.

This book is about how societies define norms. Often norms are oppressive and unjust and when that is so, societies often work harder to enforce them and create taboos about discussing them. One of the brilliant elements of this novel is how those social taboos about open and frank discussion keep us in the dark for a while. How we readers slowly come to realize what is unsaid, the oblique references to societal obligations and mores that we only come to grasp bit by bit.

Some people will find this book traumatic and painful to read. There are shocking scenes, graphic descriptions of labor and delivery and a shockingly violent scene early in the book when the pregnant Amanda is cut open to reveal the sex of her fetus long before its birth. Part of its “magic” is how slowly we come to understand how the patriarchy exerts its control, so let me just say this. If you are a person who needs a trigger warning for any reason, this book is going to trigger you.

Gather the Daughters will be released July 25th. I received an e-galley from the publisher through NetGalley.

What if The Handmaid’s Tale took place in a separatist cult, ensconced on an island? That’s exactly what I think went through Ms. Melamed’s head while coming up with this novel. Gather the Daughters is a haunting tale of a society where women are controlled but children are free, and a young woman on the cusp of that transition discovers something that pulls her ideological foundations out from under her. It’s perhaps not for the faint of heart, but will definitely appeal to  fans of engrossing dystopian fiction that lingers in the memory.

The nuances of the world the author has created are unravelled in rich and layered prose, and I am reluctant to spoil its discovery for potential readers. So while this review is not full of spoilers, I am at the same time hesitant to go into too much detail. But here are the things I think you should know before diving in.

Many years earlier, the world was tipping over into becoming a barren wasteland due to war, famine, apocalypse - your standard fare for dystopian set-ups. Taking a note from M. Night Shyamalan's The Village, ten men gathered their families and set out for a island off the coast of their country. Setting up their own religion, government, and way of life, the men crafted a society where the only purpose served by women was to bear and rear children. Breeding became carefully controlled; matches between men and women were political and did not always take familial genetic relationships into account. Contact with the outside world was only allowed through the founding fathers, who left the island for supplies on occasion and came back with tales to justify their fiefdom.

This is likely to sound particularly familiar to fans of dystopian fiction. (Notice how dystopian writers tend to talk about subjugation and control of fertility and women’s bodies as markers of totalitarianism? But this is a book review, not a symposium, so I’ll step off my soap box now…) What is different about this particular world is that children are allowed to take summers off from living in society and being civilised. They run feral and free on the beaches of the island, having the most wild of rumpuses. Boys continue the cycle until they are ready to marry, but for girls, this freedom is abruptly cut off at the first sign of puberty. At that point, they are married off and shoved into back corners to breed as quickly and frequently as possible.

The catalyst for this story is the catalyst for change. As in so many of these books, a young girl sees something she shouldn’t and is forced to make decisions. Can she be who she’s been raised to be? Or should she listen to her inner voices telling her that something is very wrong and the world as it has been presented to her is very broken?

I read Gather the Daughters in one sitting, veritably inhaling it as I casually let my household chores pile around me and my phone go unanswered. It has been a while since a novel wove itself around me so completely, not necessarily because it was suspenseful - although it was - but because it so thoroughly transported me to its world.

As I said in the introduction, this book is not for the faint of heart. It’s not graphic by any means, but there is no romance here. The moments of joy are hard fought and fleeting and I’d argue pretty vociferously that none of the sex in this book is truly consensual. It’s a novel that makes you thankful for independent thought, for ancestors before us who chose to engage with difference instead of run from it, for those around us who open homes and tables and create love instead of fear. It’s also beautifully crafted and eminently haunting. If you’re a fan of dystopian works at all, I beg you to consider Gather the Daughters for your next read. I don’t believe you’ll regret it.

Buy Now: A/BN/iB/K

Great story. Very reminiscent of M. Night Shyamalan's movie "The Village" and "Lord of the Flies". I loved that the author didn't compromise the story by giving it a happy ending or by explaining where the family goes after they leave the island.

Although the book has an interesting premise, I had a hard time getting into it. The characters just didn't feel real. Since I did not finish the book, I do not intend to publish a review.

Gather the Daughters is an exceptionally original story. The characters are well developed and instantly identifiable. Jennie Melamed has writing a beautiful, thought provoking story that will remain with me for a long time. I highly recommend Gather the Daughters

Cults: one of my favorite subjects. As a bonus, a main focus was the role of women in a patriarchal society. This book was gripping and f'd up and I really enjoyed the read.

Free copy from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.