I'm finding this book difficult to rate and review, I think in large part because it deals with issues of consent and every once in a while gave me the heebies while reading. That said, it deals with myriad triggers (sexual violence, rape and rape culture, child abuse, consent, violence, adultery) very well: it is not written to be titillating--which is often a complaint of mine--and in fact much of it happens off the page. I personally didn't find anything too gratuitous, but I would certainly understand if someone else were to feel differently. Like I said, it gave me the heebies occasionally.

All that said, the prose is sharp, the writing and story really flow well, and the world-building is amazing. I would have liked a bit more information about how the Vaik society and The Fortress are structured and how they function, but I also understand that the mystery surrounding it is part of the point.

This was a really interesting read that I had trouble putting down, and I have been recommending it highly to everybody in my life.

This book is quite an experiment and not what I was expecting, but I was intrigued. I was expecting to get something like "The Power" by Naomi Alderman, but "The Fortress" is science-fiction female-empowerment in a very different way. Instead of taking power in a male-dominated society, the women inside the Fortress are their own society, indeed their own race, that only allows men as servants, slaves, and supplicants. Some of these men, such as the main character, stay temporarily to learn about gender roles and gain a greater respect for women. The men who stay permanently have usually committed some crime against women and are serving out their punishment. They range from the reformed to the disturbed. They serve as workers, sexual slaves, and sperm providers. The book never really names its lessons about gender roles, but they seem to mostly revolve around consent and dominance. One of the most disturbing parts of the book has to do with wrestling with the age of consent, and the book provides no easy answers. If you flip everything in the book into our society's current gender norms (which is referenced in the main character's story before coming to the Fortress), the book's role in questioning these norms becomes more clear and more palatable. I'm glad that I read it, but I woud have benefited from knowing more about what I was getting into.

Interesting book. Wasn't quite sure what I was getting in to when I started reading it but the story was interesting though there could have been more back story as to how this society was developed.

Dystopian fiction is one of my favorite genres, and it was great to find this one where there is a society existing, behind walls, dominated and run by woman. But the handling of dominance, rape, pedophilia put me off and I found it distasteful. Perhaps women are no better than men? The sex felt too much to me like soft porn. Still, an interesting premise that I think some readers would like. Thank you to NetGalley for an early copy.

25% in, I am really enjoying this as a version of Stargate Atlantis "aliens made them do it" fanfiction. Very smutty. We'll see if my enjoyment holds up as the story continues.

100% in...
If you keep reading it as original character fanfiction, I totally enjoyed it. If it's trying to be more than that, I don't know how well it succeeded. I liked the world, which felt plausible but incomplete.

Total cop-out not going more into the Ulain "selected for deflowering" storyline. This was such an interesting part of the world-building, and I GET why the author made the choice to have THE scene not depicted in graphic detail. But there were so many possibilities surrounding that plot turn to enrich the story and explain the society - to say "oh, men don't get to understand why" smacks of avoidy.

An interesting concept that tackles some unpleasant and difficult subject matter.
Trigger warnings include rape, sexual assault and paedophilia
This is certainly not a book for the faint of heart, and at times it makes for difficult and disturbing reading. The book follows a man by the name of Jonathan Bridge , a busy and successful career man who is atoning for cheating on his wife by submitting himself to the justice of a matriarchal society, known as the Vaik. He will spend a year with these women, submitting both physically and mentally to their every whim and order. This leads to some very uncomfortable situations both for him as a character and for us as readers. While I found the reversal of traditional roles, and the complete removal of power with its resulting changes in Jonathan to be interesting, I did struggle with some of the passages, most notably one where he is ordered to have sex with a very young girl.
I read and reviewed an ARC courtesy of NetGalley and the publisher, all opinions are my own.

Not my type of book, struggled to get through it, wanted to find out what happens to Jonathan. Didn't;t can for the premise.

I tried so hard to get into this book-the premise sounded interesting and I was looking for something different but this book did nothing for me. There wasn't anything to make me care about the characters and I don't feel it had the impact on any views or thoughts about sexual power it was trying to make.
This was not for me.
Thank you to Netgalley and the Publisher for the opportunity to read and review this title. All opinions and mistakes are my own.

After being caught cheating by his wife, Jonathon, a high powered professional, will do whatever it takes to win her back. Even giving up a year of his life to live in the Fortress. The Vaik, a society ran and populated entirely by women, are in charge of the Fortress. The Vaik believe primarily in four tenants - work, history, sex, and justice. Within, they demand complete and unyielding obedience from the supplicants.

This was an absolutely fascinating book. I found the Vaik and their culture to be particular interesting. I wish the author had went into more detail about their existence, but perhaps that is grounds for a sequel. Overall, I enjoyed this book and look forward to reading more from this author.

This book is not in my preferred genre but I selected it based on the title. I thought the premise of the book was interesting. A man voluntarily goes away for a year to live in the Fortress, which is run by women, so that he can be a better spouse to his wife and father to his unborn daughter when he returns. One of the terms of living in the Fortress is that he must do everything the women tell him to do and to question nothing. The women in the Fortress use the men to perform the many physical jobs needed including sex. I thought this was a little far fetched but it turns out that the main character needed to really change the way he treated and thought about women. What better way than to completely turn the tables on him and make him the object of the women's lustful needs. His experiences in the Fortress give him the opportunity to really look inside of himself and reflect on his past actions. By the time he leaves the Fortress, I believe, he was ready to make a fresh start with his life.

*2,5

Thank you to NetGalley and Erewhon Books for providing me with an eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Whilst I did enjoy the writing in this book, I wouldn't say I enjoyed it very much and I've for sure never read the word "penis" as much in a book. Of course, it makes sense given what the book is about but still.

In this book, we follow Jonathan Bridge, a man who decides to enroll as a supplicant for a year in the Fortress, which is run by women, in the hope that his wife will take him back afterwards and let him raise the child they're waiting for.

Jonathan has a lot to repent for, as he's pretty much been a terrible person all this life leading up to that point at the beginning of the book but he slowly learns to let go of the way he saw things all his life (from abuse of power to capitalism and other things) and adapts to the life in the Fortress. In there, men are assigned to do specific things and have to obey and respect all the women present, especially if they are looking to have sex with them. So obviously this leads to numerous sex scenes in this book, which was a bit much for me though I didn't dislike them exactly nor thought they were badly written.

My main issue with this book is that it's pretty clear from the beginning what it's trying to accomplish and where it's going so, even though it is short, I was not intrigued at all by the story, it merely continued its path, leaving me unchanged.

This book seemed by the description to be the perfect set up. A man who is more concerned with his own pleasure than with the people in his life who he's supposed to love finally gets his due. Nope. This is about redemption. He learns his lesson and goes home to his beautiful wonderful life a better person who will cherish his beloved baby. I didn't care for the story. It was too black and white in some ways, and wanted me to sympathize with a child molester, and then there were some Lolita overtones. Never okay. And the capper was a new vocabulary mostly made of lots of vowels and impossible to even try to pronounce. That is what I dislike most about fantasy. You get bogged down n trying to say these words in your head and lose the story.

Well that was different from what I usually read! Interesting take on women empowerment. Will any males who read this be enlightened? Would make a cool movie too.

This book is set in a matriarchal society that is flipped from the corporate world that Jonathan, our main character comes from. Having worked in the corporate world, Jonathan's experiences were very true to life and I was looking forward to him learning to respect women as equals. The world building in this novel was fantastic and I really enjoyed seeing this beautiful society that Jones has created. I was invested from the beginning in seeing Jonathan through his transformation. I was left a little wanting in the lesson learned and felt the story could have fleshed out the equality and respect needed from Jonathan towards the female gender. It was overall a good read with a different way of viewing our culture and restitution.

This literary fantasy takes us with the main character as he spends one year within the "Fortress," a place where men are (usually) rehabilitated. He goes there at the behest of his wife, because he has tolerated a culture of poor behavior, even rape, towards women, and the Fortress is where his thinking changes. Within the Fortress, women have all the power, and it does not appear that they always use it appropriately, leading the reader into some ethical dilemmas.

I requested and was lucky enough to receive an eARC copy of The Fortress from Netgalley, after having read a few reviews and being really intrigued by the mixed reactions. As a result, I really didn't know what to expect from the book, especially having never read anything by the author before.

So....the general premise is that there's a female only society, collectively called the Vaik, coexisting within the modern world, in a floating city known as the Fortress. The only men who live there are essentially the Isvestyii - 'the unredeemed', criminals who are serving time at the mercy of the Vaik, and the Supplicants who choose to spend a year in total service to the Vaik, to 'find' themselves, or to atone for their prior behaviour in some way. 'Service' is absolute, and includes manaul labour, sexual favours and no questions asked. Ever.

Our protagonist, Jonathon Bridge, is a sleazy high flying corporate executive, who cheats on his pregnant wife and elects to enter the Fortress as a Supplicant, in an attempt to save his marriage and redeem himself as a husband and future father. His past is revealed in a series of flashbacks throughout the book. What happens during his year of service tests his every limit...

There are so many triggers in this book (rape, child abuse, consent issues, violence, adultery), thankfully many of them off page, but the author handles it all with compassion and I personally didn't find anything too gratuitous, although many issues were uncomfortable and challenging for sure.

I loved the author's writing style, the prose was sharp and the story flowed well. The world building was good, but I would have liked more about the Vaik's internal structure and justice system. Also another chapter by way of conclusion! The Fortress raised so many interesting issues, I could see it being a fabulous Book Club read - for the right group 😊

I really struggled with my rating, giving it 4 stars immediately but now I've had time to let it all cogitate, I'm leaning more towards 3.5 ✨✨. Definitely an interesting read though and recommended.

Thanks to #NetGalley and #ErewhonBooks for the opportunity to review #TheFortress.

I wanted to like this book. I loved the premise: guys who do wrong are sent away to go through what women have gone through for ages. But the language and handling of the subject matter made me feel like I was reading something for the Fifty Shades of Grey crowd, of which I am not.

The book held my interest a tad only because I wanted to see how it ended. Meh. It was unrealistic, even in a Fantasy genre. Not the book for me.

I’d like to choose not to finish reading or reviewing this book. When I first read the description I was presuming something similar to Circe by Miller, or a compound like in Eggers, The Circle. It is neither. I’m going to not pass judgement, and I’m also not going to finish it for a published review. Thank you for the opportunity.

This book is a neat idea, but it's also kind of iffy. The idea of men being given a chance to be reeducated is great, but the way this book is written, it plays out more like women getting revenge on men. In this system, men are more likely to come out resentful or completely submissive, rather than reformed. The men sign on for a year, and when that year is over, they get to leave. There's no check for redemption, there's no check for growth.
Men are awful. Society is awful. It'd be nice for men to have a chance to learn how truly awful this system is, but I don't think this is the solution.
Let's face it, Jonathon is also a victim in this system. He's honestly a decent guy. He's put into an environment where it's normal for men to take advantage of women. The privilege that men enjoy informs their decisions. It's really no wonder he doesn't want to disrupt the system either before he's confronted or after his time with the Vaik.

Very interesting concept, I enjoyed the storyline and it was well written but apparently based in a different society/world so I do wish there had been a little bit more background about it.