The Book of the Unnamed Midwife starts out slow and has a few slow points throughout the story, but for the most part the story moves along very quickly. The point-of-view character is often the midwife, who gives various names but never her own. In fact, for much of the book she pretends to be a man, which saves her on many occasions.

The Unnamed Midwife character is so well developed that it’s easy to relate to her and understand why she thinks and behaves the way she does. The other characters are developed just enough to develop the plot beautifully. One of my favorite parts of this book is that the way the Unnamed Midwife explains bisexuality. It’s beyond perfect.

For most of the book I was really unsure where the story was going or how it could possibly end. The answer? Beautifully. The story ends in such a perfect and complete way I can’t imagine another for it. Room is left after the Epilogue for a potential follow-up story but it’s not a cliff-hanger.

I devoured this book. Fantastic post apocalyptic story. Ms. Elison's story telling draws you into her world and keeps you there. It was interesting seeing the midwife's interactions with other people in the world. Highly immersive tale and the concept of the boys re writing her journals was great.

The unnamed midwife was a deeply original, fresh character, a type I've never really seen before. The book is apocalyptic, sexual, science-y, and suspenseful, but in a matter of fact way that really appealed to me.

Went to sleep and the world was dying…woke up and it was dead and gone.”
The thought of waking up to a world, where everything you know and everyone that you love is gone, has to top my free copylist of nightmare scenarios, especially when what is left is the worst of humanity; the evil and moral depravity that is usually buried deep but is now walking the deserted streets of every nation. Where the number of remaining males eclipses the number of females, a horribly dangerous environment for the women.

This is the setting for book 1 of The Road to Nowhere series, The Book of the Unnamed Midwife by Meg Elison. An epidemic of apocalyptic proportions has ravaged the world and unnamed (or multi-named – as you will understand as the story unfold) O.B. nurse wakes from her sickness to a frightening reality. The story is her struggle to survive in such a brutal and dangerous environment.

Let me tell you this is not the first type of book I would grab for readingbooks help escape reality enjoyment. I like my books to give me moments away from the realities of life, not magnify the horror and evil found with a simple click on the net. But Meg tells this story from an intriguing perspective. Imagine coming upon a private diary and a video camera (events are interspersed with internal musings) and they become your view of life in this new world. I didn’t think this format be compelling, but because of Meg’s writing skill and imagination, it results in a intriguing and captivating work.

bridgeBook two The Book of Etta is scheduled to be released February 21, 2017, and that is encouraging because I feel that the book’s ending was anticlimactic, considering all that transpired in the story. It some ways this was due to the diary entry approach to the book. The ending felt more like an epilogue than a conclusion. Hopefully, it is just an obscure bridge to the up and coming sequel.

An apocalypse is a horrifying event. In the right hands, fiction can take this deep fear and transform into a gorgeous piece of work, thoughtful and well crafted. This author has done an amazing skill: taking a bleak landscape and making you care for a world that has descended into chaos.

Like other apocalypse novels, this one begins with a flu that kills most of the people who contract it. In this world, woman are dis-proportionally affected and childbirth becomes a fruitless endeavor. This story follows one woman who survives and is looking for a reason to live. Trained as a nurse and midwife, she searches for women to help and a reason to keep going. This novel stands out for its honesty, and unflinching look at how the world treats and views women. Bleak but powerful story-telling is a mix of POV's and storytelling which further makes for an interesting twist on a possible world changing event.

A dark as night apocalyptic novel? That's actually good? All the stars going up.
She wakes up in the hospital after being sick to realize that they are no people around. Just some dead bodies and the remembrances of a sickness that was rampant. Mostly all the women were dying and the babies and children were all gone.
She ventures home shell shocked and is almost raped in her bed. She discovers that there are a few men still alive but the rules have changed.
She poses as a man because those are her best chances of making it anywhere without being made into a captive.

When the sirens quit, the rules gave out. Some people had been waiting their whole lives to live lawlessly, and they were the first to take to the streets. Some people knew what would happen; they knew better than to open their doors when they heard cries of help. Other's didn't. What disease cannot do, people accomplish with astonishing ease.

This book takes on this type of story differently than I've seen it done. It seems like by reading the blurb and a few of the reviews that you are getting a story that's been told before but not that I've read. The unnamed woman sets out on her journey and I became entranced by it. I usually gripe and whine about not knowing all the tidbits..like what the disease actually was and what caused it. But not this time. It is done PERFECTLY. The author does take the time to wrap up the stories of the characters she introduces. (Even when you wished she hadn't...dark stuff)
Then genders are blinded when the world is thrown to shit.
Women are basically trade items at times and then 'hive' masters the next.



This is a whole new set of worms.
photo 200_s_zps9gsna3cs.gif

Read this book.

(It looks like it might be a series but fear not my fellow series haters..this is a full meal on it's own.)

Booksource: Netgalley in exchange for review.