Morgan is fighting to develop a vaccine in a world where women now dominate society due to a disease that has decimated the male population called Manflu. Her husband Jonas survived, but is weak and housebound. Will her friend’s nephew tempt her from her husband and the straight and narrow? Will she get the vaccine developed in time? And who can she actually trust?

A decent read, I enjoyed the story line and the vision of the world being run by women! The writing style was easy to follow, and I finished this in a few days.

Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC of Manflu.

2 stars

Interesting premise, mediocre execution. Heavy handed prose & clichéd futuristic world building made it hard to fully engage with the story. Many (imo unhelpful) assumptions about gender are baked into the narrative, & there’s little space left for the reader to ponder what might or might not change if the male population was suddenly decimated by disease. An unsatisfying ending makes this a book I cannot recommend.

[What I liked:]

•It was interesting to read a speculative novel about a pandemic during a pandemic. There were definitely things I could sympathize with the characters about, like social distancing & the push for a vaccine.

•Jonas & Morgan had a really touching relationship. I enjoyed their scenes together.


[What I didn’t like as much:]

•Clunky, heavy handed prose, & lots of info dumping that intrudes on the narrative.

•I don’t really like how society suddenly became some kind of utopia with women running everything. Don’t get me wrong, I believe the future is female & things could get better for ALL genders without the patriarchy, but women can definitely be corrupt, greedy, & cold-hearted b*stards, just like anybody. This part of the premise really lacks nuance, & the book suffers for it. (Some women are eventually revealed to be evil, but I still think the premise went to far on this.)

•The last thing I want to read in a novel about a pandemic is a giant government conspiracy to infect citizens. I’m so so sick of effing conspiracy theories. Also the reasons behind the conspiracy weren’t very convincing to me.

•This books treats gender in a very binary way, & conflates gender with biological sex. Not that gender has to be a focus of the story, but I thought it odd that in a book that centers on a virus that affects men & women differently there was no nuance on this subject. Wouldn’t a vaccine research scientist think in terms of X & Y chromosomes instead of gender identity when looking at how biological sex affects immunity?

•I also dislike a lot of assumptions the book makes about women—like most women no longer care about their appearances & just wear pyjamas to work because there are no men to impress; what happened to liking fashion, or dressing to please yourself because you like looking sharp? The perspective honestly doesn’t feel very woman-centric.

•I really dislike the ending. There was a lot that could have been explored between Morgan, Nate, & Jonas, but that got swept under the rug. What happened with Nate at the end felt like a cop out. There was no emotional resolution. Also, why Patty’s book? Why not just move to Europe & do their research there?

CW: infidelity (sort of...one partner gave the other permission to open the relationship, but she kept it a secret when she found a new sex partner, & called her own actions “cheating”)

[I received an ARC ebook copy from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review. Thank you for the book!]

This was a pretty interesting book. I wasn’t sure what to expect from the title but I thought it was quick paced and a good story. I would definitely recommend this one and read more from this author.