Afterland

Stephen King reviewed this book, maybe the NYTimes or Washington Post (WAPO). I read a few paragraphs of the review and ended up buying the book. The topic is almost topical, but the plot is thready and cheap. The writing is amateurish, but suitable for a teenager who has just learned to read. I dont recommend it to anyone who has more than half a brain. I did like Beukes book, The Shining Girls, however. Really, dont waste your money, buy a hardcover of Grimms Fairytales instead.

I bought this because I thought the premise was interesting. But it quickly got into a rather boring escape caper with lots of useless digressions. What really irritated me about it was the flippant dialogue. It tried way to hard to be hip. It was like you met someone who kept trying to impress you with their clever sarcasm and lame jokes. The digression into the religious area was completely off message about what the society was really like at that time. The idea of a woman-run society could have been interesting if it had been explored more thoroughly. I wouldn\’t waste your money on this.

Good grief, that was intense. Afterland is set a few years in the future: a future where 99% of the world\’s men have been wiped out by a virus. Our hero is a mother who has a prepubescent son who seems immune to the virus. They are on the run across America, running from the government who wants him for medical experiments as well as seriously bad baddies who want him for the black market sperm trade. Very well written, the story is told from three different characters\’ perspectives – each shedding different light on their experiences and perceptions. Lauren Beukes does suspense VERY well. I had to excuse myself from family obligations in order to finish it because I just could not cope towards the end. I loved the belligerent bear joke somewhere in the middle. A tricky read right now: it starts in a pandemic… a virus with flu-like symptoms spreads across the world… countries are in lockdown… But still. Once I got into it I could not put it down.

Bought this book because Stephen King gave it a rave review in the NYT. All I can guess is that he must be a good family friend. Very little attention paid to what could have been the interesting premise of a pandemic that kills almost all the worlds men. Instead, the plot focuses on a stupid and unrealistic chase by the bad sister to catch the good sister with the son so that the bad sister can sell the son and make a lot of money, since men are in short supply. The bad sister and almost everyone in the plot are thinly-drawn cartoon characters. Characters do incredibly stupid things to draw the plot out. A waste of time.

When I read a review of this book in the NYTimes, I was not sure that it was something that I would want to read. However, when I found the book on Amazon, I read at least 20 pages of the \”Look Inside\” and was captured by the structure of the the author\’s writing before I knew that I had to read this book. It touches so many facets of life from a death of a loved one, a mother raising a child alone, family expectations, and dealing with prejudice in a world gone mad. The pandemic in this story is not what we are facing now, but the reactions to it from the society that exists in this story is frighteningly real. The relationship of the mother and her son is what keeps the reader turning pages to find out what will they do next. I read this in one day, and I may read it again. Lauren Beukes is an author that is a unique storyteller, and I will read more of her books.

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