I'm going to be honest, this book is kinda weird. I wouldn't even really call it a book, it's more of a short story. It's set in a kind of dystopian future, where England has been almost completely flooded. Each character is referred to by only the first letter of their name. The main character has just given birth to her son and is struggling in her relationship with her husband. Her and her husband try to navigate their new reality, finding shelter and food, and coping with this new way of living.

The way the story is written, it is almost more poetry than story telling. It was so rhythmic that I couldn't stop reading it. The way she describes relationships among survivors, among husbands and wives and mothers and children is mesmerizing. I felt the writing was beautiful, but the story was to short. You don't have enough time to relate to the characters or care about what is going to happen.

All in all an interesting, albeit weird short read. Thanks to Netgalley for providing an ARC for review.

Beautiful writing but didnt go deep enough. The book was very short.

I'm struggling to put into words just how I feel about this absolutely beautiful book. More poetry than novel, the thoughts & feelings within resonate so deeply that you can't help but be deeply affected by the text. An astonishing piece of art.

I received a free copy from NetGalley in exchange for a review.

Beautifully poetic. Narratively sparse. There was much left out of this story that initially left me utterly confused. However, the story focuses more on a mother's attempts to care for her child in the wake of an unprecedented natural disaster than on the natural disaster itself.

An incredibly quick read, this is a story you'd want to read only if you have nothing else pressing to read first.

If I’m being honest, I really don’t know how I feel about The End We Start From; I’ve been thinking about for a few days and yet I still cannot land on whether I like or dislike this book. On one hand, the more positive one, Megan Hunter has written this book in an incredibly beautiful way, with it being almost written in a lyrical or poetic format which is unusual to come across in the dystopian genre. This structure makes for an easy and extremely engaging read that really paints a vivid picture of the main character’s life with her newborn son. With the narrative’s main focus being on the act of rearing a child, which is an everyday part of a lot of people’s lives, it makes to construct a sharp and poignant contrast between the mundane and the dystopian mayhem that is going on in the world outside of the main character’s little personal bubble.
But, in my more negative feelings towards the book, this is also where it is lacking. This extreme focus on the unnamed main character and her initialised loved-ones makes the tragedy of the world vague and ambiguous, and although some people find more fear in the unknown, I am certainly not one of them. You could say that this is due to the main character fixating on her baby in an attempt to ignore the horrors of their new world, but I do not know if that would be realistic to someone in that situation - wouldn’t you want to know the dangers so that you could then better protect your child? I would anyway.
Also, despite the characters existing in a world in which they are supposedly constant danger, there is never a direct sense of threat against the main character and her child, who are shielded away from near-all of the carnage. This led me to never feeling any sense of fear for them, especially the protagonist of the story (who is probably the main reason why I didn’t particularly like The End We Start From) who made decisions that I can’t imagine that I ever would, and never really showed any grief or emotion over the deaths of people she knew.
Overall, with the book being only 180 pages, I suppose that I didn’t lose anything from my life by taking just-under-an-hour to sit down and read this. But I certainly don’t feel as though I gained anything either.

This is a very short novel about a woman who gives birth in a dystopian world. It captured my interest from the first paragraph. The descriptions of what has happened are quite sparse. We know that there has been a flood and many people have had to leave their homes. After the flooding, there were fires. Many people ended up living as refugees and food was scarce.

During all the turmoil, baby Z is going through the stages of his first year, oblivious to all the upheaval around him. However, the message is clear--no matter what happens in this world--life goes on and people adapt to difficult circumstances.

The story reminded me somewhat of The Road by Cormac McCarthy. Both stories are short, with little details given about what has happened in the world and very little interaction between characters.

I enjoyed the story, but felt like I just read an excerpt from a novel. It wasn’t an emotional story, there is no violence, but readers will get a sense that the characters are living in a dangerous world.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Grove Atlantic for allowing me to read an advance copy and give my honest review

A short, poetic, dystopian story full of emotion and brief glimpses in to a terrifying new world born after an environmental disaster floods London. The writing cleverly hints at things only your mind can fill in, which is somehow more gripping than long detailed prose would ever be; this allows your imagination to picture a fight for survival and what you yourself would do in similar circumstances. The contrasts of horror in the world with the innocence of Z is compelling.

An interesting short read, beautifully written. We explore a sort-of post apocalyptic world where a young woman with a new baby is forced to escape a large flood in London. For me, I would have preferred the story to be longer and a bit more developed, but the style is deliberately stark and leaves a lot to the imagination of the reader. Worth a try if you're into scifi/dystopian fiction.

I can't say I enjoyed this. The saving grace is that it's a quick read, just 140 pages. In my opinion there was no plot, details were sparse so I had no idea what was going on and everyone's name was a letter, P, R, Z which made it even more difficult to follow. With a bit of work it could be good but unfortunately for me right now it's a thumbs down.

The End We Start From is Station Eleven meets Exit West - a literary soft apocalypse refugee story set in a near-future Great Britain. Except, it's a pared down, sort of anemic version of both of those novels. It was well written, but for the most part left me cold.

This novella doesn't use names and doesn't fixate on details - instead it's about humanity, the connections we make, the ways we adapt to change. Although Megan Hunter does an impressive job at delving into these themes in so short a story, there was too much left unsaid for me to be able to really connect with this on an emotional level. London is submerged underwater, the unnamed narrator gives birth to a baby, she and her husband are separated, and I should care, but I don't.

Hunter's prose is worth mentioning as it is undoubtedly this novella's biggest strength. It's poetic and lyrical, incisive and creative... but strong prose isn't enough to elevate this past 3 stars. Bottom line: I finished this book and thought 'what exactly was the point of that?' There just wasn't anything particularly unique or innovative about this story. Reading these 160 pages wasn't an entirely unpleasant way to spend my time, but I can't say it made much of an impression on me. I have a feeling that when I look through the books I read in 2017 at the end of the year, I'm going to see this one and say 'wait, what was that again?'

Thank you to Netgalley, Grove Atlantic, and Megan Hunter for the electronic copy provided in exchange for an honest review.

This is a slim volume of 12 chapters which follows a young couple (an unnamed female narrator, her husband R and son Z) who are forced to leave London as it floods and they head gradually North to escape the ensuing riots and decline in social structure. The novel subtly captures huge emotional and physical changes and In not naming the characters the author clevely allows the reader to inverst personally in what those names would be. Its simplicity in capturing a sense of place also gives a universal quality to the book. Recommended. Thanks to Netgalley and Grove Atlantic.

A poetical dystopian novel, short in explanations, confusingly adorable at times because of the mother and child relationship. Tough to chew when thinking of the father/ husband who left them alone in crisis - and why did he?

Ambiguously tense because what happened was a flood, or maybe worse, could have been also a big fire or destruction for or without any reason. Post-apocalyptic happenings without much detail.

Yet the world is as usual, people helping each other, going back to basics, surviving, struggling, hoping to be reunited with the loved ones. And the end is the new beginning, relearning to be together, finding love in memories and present details of a big hand or a faithful smell of grainy skin.

I was thoroughly impressed and confused at the same time, still this short novel has something special to it beyond the usual dystopia. Must be the poetical style interspersed with references of things and events that could have happened before, with some clue to what will come next.

Many thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this arc.

I don't normally read dystopian but the writing style, which is elegant, sparse, and compelling, drew me in. As a mother, I could definitely relate to the plot. Some parts of the novel seemed vague or confusing, which impacted my feeling of resolution at the end, and I would have liked the characters to be identified by names instead of initials. Still, THE END WE START FROM is an extremely well-written story and a quick read. I recommend it if you're looking for a smart, literary novel.

I received a free electronic copy of this dystopian novel from Netgalley, Megan Hunter, and Grove Press in exchange for a honest review. Thank you all, for sharing your hard work with me.

This is a sparsely worded tale of life after the tides rise and the world shrinks into small islands of usable soil. I love the blunt emotion felt by this new mother as her son Z grows, matures, evolves into a real boy. How she misses her husband R, who left her and son Z at a refugee center and wandered off looking for better, but it is a vague longing as she makes a life with her newfound friend O and her daughter C, about the same age as Z, as they do their best to build a world for their children. The exhaustion, the confusion of those over-stressed Mother days is there in the words not said. This is a simple world that most Mom's are already familiar with....

The prose in this book is sparse, written in short paragraphs but the author has made every word count. The idea of the story is brilliant - a futuristic novel where an enviornmental crisis has changed life as we know it. Baby Z is born at the start of this and we follow as the world changes around him. It's a scarily realistic book with some very honest opinions, particularly about becoming a mother and the world as it could be. Sometimes the limited writing, almost like poetry, was frustrating but it meant you added your own words between the lines and took the part of the author yourself. Well worth a read.

<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/33858905-the-end-we-start-from" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img border="0" alt="The End We Start From" src="https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1484434655m/33858905.jpg" /></a><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/33858905-the-end-we-start-from">The End We Start From</a> by <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/16188062.Megan_Hunter">Megan Hunter</a><br/>
My rating: <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2138626328">3 of 5 stars</a><br /><br />
In The End We Start From, our nameless narrator focuses on the miracle that is her newborn child, Z, to cope with a world turned upside down by flood. Z brings the narrator strength and purpose against a backdrop of stark new realities. At one point, it dawns on the narrator that she is “the after plan,” when all along, the after plan has been Z. He is a powerful symbol of joy and hope. Debut author, Megan Hunter's description of a mother’s love and pride in milestones met during the first year of life left me yearning for the days when my children were young. This is a quick, life-affirming read once the initial confusion of few details and characters identified only by letters, settles.

I received a complimentary, review copy of The End We Start From in exchange for my candid review.

This was a sparse and beautiful book. Sparse in a good way though. It reminded me of a more poetic and shortened version of Station Eleven. Post-apocalyptic and beautifully written.

This beautiful but brief novel is a journey through a civilisation changed beyond recognition due to a natural disaster but at the same time is about the beginning of a new life (simultaneously that of a new baby, of its mother and of society). The idea that ends are beginnings and beginnings are ends is threaded throughout the book.
The End We Start From is written in prose that is almost lyrical in its flow. Our narrator is heavily pregnant when floodwaters force people from London. She gives birth to baby Z (all characters are labelled with only letters, no full names) and though chaos reigns around her she finds joy and peace in the experience of motherhood. She and her small family move through the country finding shelter with relatives, in refugee camps, with unexpected new friends. Open hostilities have broken out in the streets but as long as our nameless narrator has Z she remains positive and hopeful despite the uncertainties of her everyday life. Despite the dismal world surrounding her you have the bright moments of maternal joy as her baby smiles or laughs, or reaches a new milestone. She and her baby thrive through their ability to adapt to change.
The prose is carefully crafted, without a word wasted and with a poetic quality. It also, through its very premise, addresses climate change and refugees – a parable warning us to retain our humanity as the visions we see on the news could very well one day be us. This is a dystopian novel but one which keeps hope alive. It is a stunning tale that evoked a lot of emotion.

A short book in spare every word counts prose, close to poetry. This follows a family dealing with the aftermath of climate change in the UK and imagines what might happen to the everyday life we rely on. Even the names are shortened to initials and the effect is one of tumbling pace, which rushes you on from one experience to another, echoing the rising waters in effect- cleverly done. The protagonist is a new mother, and this analyses the cocoon a baby and mother can exist in , despite the surrounding maelstrom, an advocate for breastfeeding if ever you needed one. The book in sparse detail takes us through every emotion, with the barest of descriptions, we come to know nobody very well apart perhaps from the mother herself who manages tot retain an absolute focus on her new son. Clever but for me, i wanted more character, l, less drama. If you are a fan of post apocalyptic type genre you may well love it. I can also imagine it being studied in schools, where students pull apart each minimal line to see how it was done.