A Touch of Book Madness

I have to admit that this is one of the most original plots I read in a while. The premise got a hold on me since I read the blurb, and I was immediately drawn to the idea of a world of only women. Basically, after a strange disease wiped away all the men and some of the women, the remaining women found a way to keep on, creating more girls using the DNA of the other women, similar to cloning. Along came, Taylor, presumably the only man alive and mixes everything up for him and Mary.

This plot actually reminds me a bit of Lord of The Flies, only this time instead of kids, when circumstances change; all the women become wild and crazy in an attempt of civilization. It was awful to see women striped from their nurturing nature and become violent, controlling and so cold! I mean, I knew we had it in us, but it was still hard to witness. I can’t imagine a world where you are not allowed to touch each other.

We didn’t get to know many of the characters aside from Taylor and Mary, and I would’ve liked to see what made those women in the compounds tick, how they handled this authoritarian society. But I did get to enjoy Mary and Taylor. I thought they were younger a lot younger at first, because of the way they behaved, especially Mary, but I guess her behaviour was driven by a knowledge thirst and some ignorance as well. You could tell Mary and Taylor were very confused and didn’t know their place in the world, and that’s what made them so real, who wouldn’t be confused growing up in a world like that were all the real information has been kept from them behind these very ridiculous and strict rules?

I also felt their instant attraction was very real. I’ve repeatedly stated in different occasions that I will buy into insta-loves when it seems plausible, and in their case it truly did. They were very confused, and having never experienced anything like that before, especially Mary who had never seen a man before, nor did she enjoy the comfort of touch very often, it was deemed they would feel attracted to each other, so yeah, very realistic for me.

The thing that didn’t work for me, though, was that the story was too fast paced. Everything happened really fast, and it felt at times that information was being thrown at us. It was a bit baffling. I also think it was easy to predict where the plot was heading, but that didn’t bother me as much.

The changes in the point of view of the writing were crystal clear, and I really appreciated having both points of view, it made the story whole.

Overall, this book brings Dystopia back to its origins, and deals with some very powerful issues, making it a pretty enjoyable read.

*Note: I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review, but my opinion was not biased in any way by this fact.