#AthenasChoice #NetGalley
Thanks NetGalley, Thinker Books and Adam Boostrom for an ARC to review which I am late to give review.
So, a man wrote this book about a dystopian future where our beloved earth got rid of all men accidentally by a killer virus targeting men only. We are in the year 2099, it's heaven on earth, no more world hunger, you 3d print whatever you wish for and have I already mentioned the no more men part?!
Some experiment is running to bring men back, why??? The experiment is sabotaged and Athena is involved in solving the mystery. And Athena begins a series of choices and series of weird dreams.
A really good refreshing original book.
I loved it.

3,5 stars
A very interesting dystopian world building, made even more interesting by the fact that some things are not so far away from us (especially on a technological level), I liked that the protagonist was not the classic special snowflake. Speaking about the protagonist, was I the only one bothered by the ambiguity about Athena‘s relationship with her friend/house mate? I mean, I felt like the author couldn‘t figure out himself if they were lovers or just friends (with benefits, maybe?).
A very big no for me was the ending, though It‘s definitely a personal preference. I understand how it serves the narration in this case but I personally hate open endings because they feel like lazy writing to me so I didn't‘t like at all the fact that we didn't get to know which option Athena chose!

I liked the premise of the story so it made me want to continue reading, but the writing style felt a little stilted. This may be due to the narration of the audiobook though. The story itself is worth picking up the book if you're intrigued by the premise

Okay, so. The synopsis of the book itself is very appealing and draws you in.

And although I cannot say I was disappointed, I think I set my expectations too high.

If you love dystopian tales and would love to read about a world without men, you'll like this one. Definitely interesting and different, but maybe just not for me? Either way, I leave it with four stars.

This was slow and difficult to finish. I found the overdescriptive detail on everything too much and the futuristic storyline a little hard to believe.

Even though this book is a bit different to the usual books that I read, I enjoyed it. The book is a mixture of mystery, thriller, sci-fi and fantasy and it is set in the future. All of the men on earth have been wiped out by a deadly virus, leaving only females on the planet. Some scientists have been trying to produce the male genome, but this has been stolen and a girl called Athena is called on to help solve the case. I really liked Athena and her journey and I liked the ending of the book.

Many thanks to the author, publisher and netgalley for allowing me to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

t's been decades since the Y-virus killed all the male population of earth. There is no war, no hunger and no violence therefore a controversial project to bring men back divides society.
When the Lazarus Genome needed for the project gets stolen, a mysterious command is received, naming Athena Vosh as the one that could help find the thief. Will Athena, an ordinary teenager, be up to the challenge?


I'm a great fan of dystopian and science fiction, and the blurb of this book drew me in immediately.
However, I'm sad to say that this book didn't turn out to be to my liking at all, and I struggled to finish it.
The story right from the begging was chaotic; it didn't just follow the character's perspective but was also intertwined with government reports
( heavy on technical jargon ), the character's schoolwork, Wikipedia facts etc.
The dialogue was so unrealistic that it made me cringe.
The book has great potential, but, unfortunately, it didn't meet my expectations.
However, as it appears my opinion is in the minority ( which to be honest baffles me ), I think that you might want to check it out yourself.
I can't wait to hear what you think.

This is a really interesting book,
. It involves sci-fi, mystery, bots, and a totally different world. Now the best part, a Virus has spread rapidly, so now you understand, too why I picked this one. The virus selects only men though. So, now the world is dominated by women. Our main character, Athena says that is fine, but does have her troubles accepting no men. She misses a man, and can not even say that. What will happen to her? Who will the world adapt? This is intriguing, interesting, and a must read.

This is not even my favorite genre. Mystery mist Ed w/Sci-Fi, but I read and listened on. You will to.

Athena’s Choice Review

-Received an arc from NetGalley!-


“Ugh, you know, maybe it would be better if men never existed!” “All problems begin and end with men!”

Ladies, how many times have we thought or said those words? Alex Boostrom takes those sentiments and puts it to the test in this novel.

*Trigger warning: mentions of sexual assault!*

It is the year 2099, and it is the world of women. Literally. Many years prior, men have died from a mysterious Y-Disease. Some women have died and so have trans-men. 19 year old, Athena Vosh is figuring out what she wants to do with her life when she is accused of stealing the Genome project. As Athena defends her innocence, it is revealed that she knows more than she realizes. Plagued with visions of a library, Athena struggles to unravel this strange mystery of what is going on and what really happened when the Y-Fever was going around.

In this story, every woman has her reasoning of whether or not they want to bring men back into existence. Some, like Mirza Khan, are adamant to not bring them back because she and her female relatives have experienced untold horrors at the hands of brutal men. Others long for the steadying hand, someone else to be there for them. To feel them against themselves, or even a tender kiss.

This book also deals with feminism. What it means to be feminine, feminist, radical feminism, and to have the upper hand. However, I ask you: how do have the upper hand when the other gender doesn’t even exist?

“Every act of learning is an act of destruction.”

As Athena is learning the truth of what really happened, she has a choice to make. As she learns more, she realizes that destruction and peace are truly the opposite sides of the same coin.

The ending was really cool. Boostrom kept the ending “open-ended.” In the author notes, he asks us what we would have done. If given the choice, would we keep men away deon existence or bring them back? Boostrom also noted, while a work of science fiction, the technology, use of AI, having devices inserted in our bodies, and modifying our genetics/genomes is quite near into the future. Fantastic book!

I first listened to an audiobook and then downloaded an ebook. I wanted to see how the book is different. The author included a lot of news and Wikipedia articles, advertisements, school reports, and assignments to help you understand the story as a whole.

Athena's Choice is an interesting story about a world after a Y-fever pandemic. Approximately fifty years ago, Y-fever spread through the world and caused the death of all men, transmen, and a small percentage of women. So there are only women now inhabiting the Earth.

The story and the whole idea of this book are very attractive, and I liked it. I went through the first third with anticipation of what will happen next. But somewhere halfway, I was beginning to lose interest. The whole story was interesting, but some other things bothered me. One was that I couldn't quite connect with the characters. Second, I missed some info on how does the world look like without men. I felt like a million questions here were left unanswered.

The cover is beautiful. It was one of the reasons why I requested this audiobook and ebook. 3,5 stars (rounded to 4) from me.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read this! All opinions are my own.

Guess who keeps falling for beautiful covers and discovers that the book behind it isn't exactly what the cover promises? I did not like this book. The idea isn't bad, but the execution of that book is absolutely horrible.
The most important question: If that disease was called the Y-disease because it was "only" attacking people with a Y-chromosome - how come trans men were killed as well?
And that was just one of the many, many plotholes and weird stuff happening durnig that book. At some point I just closed my eyes and hoped it'd be over quickly. It wasn't. It kept going on and on and on and with every sentence it was going worse and worse.
Also, I can't help but wondering - how would this book have been received if it was the female population who had suddenly been wiped off the face of the earth...?
I reveived an ARC by Netgalley.

This was an extremely interesting book to read given the current climate of our world. I also loved the concept — a world without men, what would it look like? Unfortunately I feel the repercussions aside from loneliness were not fully explored, and the characters in this book were very dull. An amazing premise doesn’t mean much if I’m unable to connect with the characters because I’ll never be fully immersed in the story. This is a book that I feel like could have been great but unfortunately just wasn’t.

What a awesome science fiction book!
You will.find yourself captured by the characters and the story that's being told.
I enjoyed all of it!
Very well written.

Thanks NetGalley publisher and author!

Thank you to Netgalley for this ARC.

At first I was so intrigued about the concept of the book. It was really interesting and the book leaves you with so many questions. But in a really good way.

But half-way through it became boring to me. So I had to DNF this book to keep the reading slump away.

I am so sorry. But I am not in the mood for this book right now. But i'm hoping to read this in the future.

Thank you again!

I loved the premise of this book and the sci fi, futuristic elements. The synopsis drew me in straight away and I was so interested to find out what a world would look like without men. Imagine that! I’ve read no other story like it, which made sense to me as to why it won quite a few awards and was shortlisted for a few more. The world building was fantastic, the descriptions of the technologies and the food printer made me want one for myself!
I also loved the various advertisements, Wikipedia articles, newspaper reports and video transcripts scattered between chapters. It broke up the story and was a perfect way to give information to the reader without dumping it all boringly on a page.

Unfortunately, the things I disliked about the book outdid the few things I liked. The characters fell flat for me, the emotional scenes didn’t move me, and I cared about none of their relationships.
I felt that the romantic element between Athena and Nomi was irrelevant. They could have been friends and it still would have had the same impact. I wasn’t too sure what to think of female sexuality in this time, either. Women are still attracted to men, even though they don’t exist, right? Or are they now all gay? The entire population of women who are still straight are intimate with what? I feel like this entire aspect is just missing from the story.
I also felt like the book gave men very little credit and blames the entire gender for all violence. For some reason now that they don’t exist, there is NO crime. This is very unrealistic.
I wish I would have enjoyed this more. It had such great potential, but I thought that in the end it really missed the mark for me. With a little more editing and reworking, it could have made for a very great read.

Thanks to Thinker Books for the DRC!

Can you imagine a world without men? In this book, we can *sort of* have an idea of ​​what it would be like.

In this dystopia, set in 2099, all men (cis and trans) died 50 years ago. Only a small part of the female population was affected by the virus, which is why it became known as the Y-Fever.

The world was dominated by women. Technology has evolved a lot. Violence has decreased. Many diseases have been virtually eradicated. But the suicide rate has increased, due to the high level of depression caused by the feeling of loneliness.

Athena, the main character, is a young girl who doesn't think she is special at all. She wants to be an artist, but her paintings are constantly rejected. She thinks she has no talent. But suddenly, she's called on a mission to find something that could be the cure for the virus, which will bring men back to life. She often asks: "But why me? What do I have to do with it? I never even saw a man!" - and trust me, there's a reason. One day she'll understand it.

Even with all the improvements, the world was far from perfect. Some people were happy, but others were not.

The group called "lonely hearts" were suffering, because they missed their male partners and were not attracted to women. The youngest, like Athena, who had not even met men, were very curious to know what they would be like. Although they heard all about the bad things that happened in the past (such as rapes, acts of violence, abuse of power, etc.), they wondered if things really were that bad. Were all men so evil?

Another group, made of women who suffered a lot in the past because of men, argued that this cure should never be found, because the world has become infinitely better and safer after their absence. They believed they were doing good, preventing other women from experiencing the same traumas they faced.

So, while searching for answers, Athena wonders: who is right?

Well, I have a few considerations. This part might be a little spoilerish.
First, this book was written by a man. I'm pretty sure it would have been much different from a woman's point of view.

Considering that it's a women's world, I expected to find a deeper narrative about affective relationships between them. Athena and Nomi's relationship is almost not explored. They're best friends and Nomi loves her, but it's pretty clear that they don't feel the same way about each other. I *think* Athena was bisexual, because she enjoyed being with Nomi, but she was also curious about men. It would have been nice to read a chapter where she reflected upon this subject, trying to understand herself and these feelings. But no, things just sort of happen...

I also wish it had explored a bit more of gender diversity. It is clear that cis and trans men were affected by the virus. But what about trans women? What about non-binaries? What happened to them? Where do they fit in this story? It would have been nice to read more about this too.

Until halfway through the book, I honestly didn't know what to make of it. I found the beginning very slow and a little confusing. But, as I started to see where it was going, I got really into it and read over 40% in a single night.

I think that mainly because we are living in a pandemic in 2020, I felt a different excitement, imagining all the investigations and tests that happen without the vast majority of the population knowing about it.

It's not a perfect book. It leaves many questions open.
But it brings us good reflections.

I was so intrigued by the manner in which Boostrom shared the history of the Union through Wikipedia entries. It was a very clever way to convey the timeline of the story. I also loved the many innovations he developed in the book. Those who love fashion will want to have the ability to choose the clothing for the next day and it will be designed specifically for them and ready to wear the next day. It can also be recycled so new outfits can be worn every day. Foodies will enjoy the food printer allowing you to select and print the food you want to eat. Although in order to have higher in foods, you must purchase a more expensive model.

I am usually not a fan of dystopian novels, but this one caught my attention and I simply could not wait to find out the ending. The coming of age part of this novel is about Athena and the choices she makes throughout the book which shows her growth from a free-spirited teenager to a young woman who must put her life on the line.

While this book sounded interested in the blurb I truly struggled to get through it. I almost gave up on it but I forced myself to finish it. I liked the idea of having all female characters but it wound up being really really confused by all the similar characters. I also found the narrator to be kind of monotonous and boring. I couldn't focus so I finished in the ebook version.

As one of the first ARCs I ever requested, I went into this book having no knowledge about it at all - I'd never even heard of it! However, its intriguing plot and exciting world-building soon had me hooked and proved that you shouldn't judge a book just by its lack of hype. </p>
Synopsis

The year is 2099. All men* were wiped out from the planet by a virus 50 years ago, leaving women to run the world. Most would agree that things have been much more peaceful since the men disappeared; however, a controversial experiment is being carried out to bring men back. The problem? This research has been sabotaged.

Athena Vosh is living an ordinary life with her girlfriend, Nomi, when the police arrive, having been tipped off that Athena knows more than she is letting on about this crime. However, Athena doesn't appear to know anything - the only thing unusual about her is the strange, vivid dreams she keeps having about a forgotten library containing a book that may solve the case. With this information alone, she is brought in to participate in the investigation, helping the police to work out what happened to the virus' cure. Along the way, she discovers more about her world than she could ever have imagined, leading her on a journey to making a decision that will change the future forever.
Review
Having had no expectations going into reading this, I was pleasantly surprised by 'Athena's Choice'. I really loved the plot, as it put an original spin on the idea of a world run entirely by women. It was complex enough to keep me interested, with Boostrom's easy to read style making it easy to follow the action, and incredibly well-researched, with all of the technology it features being easily imaginable. I also really loved the use of mixed media to add to the world-building - having newspaper clippings and website pages included between the chapters added a lot of depth to the world Boostrom created, without detracting from the plot. It also accounts for anyone who falls outside of the gender binary (*spoiler below) which, whilst described in a slightly clunky way, I thought was great as so many books about gender aren't inclusive like this.

However, I really wanted to be more invested in Athena and Nomi's relationship. Whilst I enjoyed the development of the other characters and love that there was queer rep, Nomi often seemed to be included as an afterthought, and I would have loved to have seen more from her. I also really struggled to work out who this book was aimed at - whilst it is marketed as adult science fiction and covers some mature topics, the simplistic writing style feels much better suited to a younger readership. This sadly detracted from the overall reading experience and is something that could have been rectified by the book going through a few more edits.

Overall though, I would recommend this book to adults who are looking for an easy science fiction read that packs a punch. Despite its flaws, it is a very enjoyable read that is full of potential and interesting ideas - it just falls short a little in its execution.

Rating: 3/5

*A Note on Inclusivity (spoiler warning): When all men are wiped off of the face of the earth, Boostrom explicitly includes trans men in this. The virus targets traits traditionally perceived to be masculine, rather than those who are biologically male, so this book is inclusive of all genders.

Note: This review will be available on my blog from 2 pm (BST), 1st October 2020

Thank you to NetGalley and Adam Boostrom for the copy of Athena's Choice. This is a voluntary review.

First, can we talk about this cover? Gorgeous! When I first read the premise for Athena's Choice, I was immediately intrigued. All men are dead, worldwide virus, 2099. To say the least, this sounded like the recipe for a great Sci-Fi adventure.

There are many things in this book I enjoyed, but a few I did not. The writing style Boostrom used kept the story fast-paced, but in some areas lacked the detail needed to explain atmosphere, setting, and various futuristic objects. Contextually we can assume what is happening, but at times I would have liked more detail to really picture the author's vision of 2099. As well, much of the story is told through journal articles, newspaper clippings, and various other medias like Athena's schoolwork, to describe the history up to 2099 and the current missing Lazarus Genome. While I enjoyed the clippings for the history of the world, I often found them as extras that distracted from the plot. Athena's schoolwork pieces did not add any substance to her.

There were some fantastic futuristic ideas that were explored a bit or implied, such as the massage nodes or the clothing magnets implanted in the body. I actually stopped and pictured those Polly Pockets from the early 2000's where you could snap on the clothes. What a time saver! The idea of the world moving inwards to land because of flooding was quite realistic as climate change continues to become a priority issue across continents. The automated cars, programmable plastic.. I loved these ideas.

Athena herself was an interesting character. I didn't really care about her until the end to be honest. Despite manning the helm of this story I preferred listening to and picturing Captain Bell. Athena did not really have substance to her and I did not feel a connection with her; she was just someone following the story, not driving it. Her relationship with Nomi was so complicated I couldn't really understand how she actually felt. I think Athena was bisexual, but because she hadn't met a man, was it the mystery that consumed her, or something deeper? Or was she with Nomi because that was the only option in a female-only world? I am unsure. I also did not enjoy the dreams she had. I expected a sort of Fantasy, weirder Sci-Fi twist to them instead of the Core sending her these 'visions'. They seemed out of place with the writing.

Lastly, the ending. I actually loved the ending. Sometimes ambiguity can be frustrating, but in this case I think it served the story well, and I could really picture Athena's internal debate. The scientific conclusions Grace came to were morally grey and written well. Grace herself was a fantastic grey villain, and I enjoyed her parts in the book. The choice she left to Athena was truly an issue of humanity and preservation, and I still am not sure what I would do if I were in Athena's position.

Overall, this was a fun read with some deep moral questions and consequences. If you're a fan of Sci-Fi I would recommend picking this up.