You can find this review and others on my blog SleepySamReads!

This book was provided for free in exchange for an honest review..

I don’t even know where to begin with this book. I have so many thoughts about it

I’m gonna start here; I have read/seen several post apocalyptic stories. One of the ones that immediately comes to mind is The Walking Dead. This book starts off much like that tv series. Our main character, who we never learn the real name of, wakes up in a hospital after the world as she knows has ended.

Immediately I knew this was going to be different than other apocalyptic stories I’ve consumed, mostly because our character immediately runs into two guys who are gay. An apocalyptic story that doesn’t forget the gays exist??? Hallelujah! Even better? Our main gal is queer herself, pansexual to be exact. She thinks and talks about the relationships she’s had in the past, as well as the man she was with when the world went to shit..

One thing that is really interesting about this is how almost all the women and children have died, so women are far and few between in this new world. Normally I would hate a story like this, but having the main character be a midwife added so much to the story. The Unnamed ransacks a clinic and takes contraceptives with her to offer to the women she meets. In this new world, men have stolen women and keep them on chains as sex slaves. They trade them for things like antibiotics and opioids. The Unnamed Midwife gives the women she cannot save contraceptives because babies are no longer being born alive. Pregnant women either miscarry early, give birth to stillborns, or the baby dies within the first few minutes of birth. More often than not, the mother will also die during or soon after childbirth.

I really enjoyed how it was written in the form of a diary, because it really allows us to get into Unnamed’s mind. We see how erratic and scared she sounds during the months that she doesn’t see anyone. How scared she becomes. I also just really love that it’s in the point of view of a woman.  

I know this all sounds depressing, and it is, but the book also has a hopeful vein in it. The ending especially ends on a somewhat hopeful note that I really adore.

This is an extremely hard book to read. There’s rape, sexual abuse, female mutilation, child molestation, pedophilia, child marriage, and other things I’m sure I don’t even know could be a trigger. I do highly recommend this book despite all this, but please only read it if you can do so safely.

I know I probably haven’t convinced you to read this book, but I hope you will at least give it a chance. I’m glad I did.