The Book of Etta is the follow-up of the extraordinary The Book of the Unnamed Midwife. For more information you can read my review here.

The Book of Etta is the kind of follow up for which you need to read the previous book in the series in order to understand what is going on. In The Book of Unnamed Midwife a disease wipes out 98 % of the human population, the women and the unborn babies being the most affected, leaving approx. 1 woman to 10 men. A terrible world to live in. The main character is a nurse who wakes up in the hospital bed where she was left to die with the disease. Thanks to her fighting instincts and skills she battles for survival in a world were there are no more rules and nothing to strive for. Disguised as a man, she travels from San Francisco to the north in search for safety. During her journey her path is crossed with people who react differently to the tragedy around them and who will mark her life, no matter how much she struggles to avoid any contact. I loved the realism and the way the author imagined different way the society restructured after to face the new reality. In some parts women were sold as sexual slaves, in others women organized themselves in hives, keeping more lovers in the household.

After reading the first book I felt that it was perfect as a standalone and there was no need for a second novel. I still do not think Book of Etta was necessary or that it added much to the plot but that does not mean that I did not enjoy reading it.

The book of Etta is set 100 years after the events in first novel at a time few memories remain of the world before the disease. Etta is a young woman living in Nowhere, a matriarchal town where women could choose between two destinies: to become a midwife or a mother with all the risks involved (many of the mothers and newborns were developing the disease during birth). Etta did not want to be either and decided to become a raider, a person who explores the surrounding looking for valuable things remaining from the Old World for trading purposes. As women are scarce and valuable Etta disguises herself as a man while on the road and becomes Eddy. Etta/Eddy’s main purpose is to find and save enslaved women and bring them to safety to her town.

I do not want to go too much in detail on the plot. What it needs to be said is that this book is less about survival and has less action than the first book. The blurb is misleading as the kidnapping part happens only at the end. The author uses the apocalyptic unfair new world as a backdrop to discuss sexuality and sexual/gender identity. There quite a few gender/sexual variations present and a lot of time is spend discussing the challenges that are faced in this oppressive new society, being it matriarchal or patriarchal. There were a lot of sexual issues discussed in the first book as well and I thought that there the balance was just right. Here I felt that they took too much from the novel.

The supernatural ending made me decrease my rating with one star because I could not see its place in the rough realism that characterized the prose until then. I hope the next book will not be about the supernatural Mormons who save the world.

I received this copy from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest reviewfantasy-sf netgalley89 s Shelby *trains flying monkeys*1,674 6,357

I loved the first book in this series. The Book of the Unnamed Midwife. I felt it was a whole new take on the dystopian story world. I will say that normally I don't read many series and I shouldn't have picked this one up. I didn't hate it..I didn't love it either.

It picks up a hundred years from where the previous book left off. In the first book the Midwife lived through the plague that wiped out most of the world's women and all of the children. There has been some improvement made in the life expectancy of women in this one..but they still are being used as trade and slaves.


This book is Etta/Eddy's story. He is a raider who goes out to help rescue any women that need help and bring them back to his town named "Nowhere." He binds his breasts on the road and lives completely as Eddy. Once back home he has to become Etta again and try to fit into what the society there thinks she should.

Etta/Eddy does lots of roaming in this book. Picking up a "horsewoman" named Flora and bringing her home just opens up a whole new can of worms for Etta/Eddy.


As much as I loved the first book, this one just felt it had already been done to death. I mean even this happens. (And I hate it on the Walking Dead also)


You do get an evil bad guy named the "Lion." He is a pretty decent baddie.


The gender confusion that Eddy/Etta feels and some parts of the story do hold up well and this is not a horrible book at all. The whole judgement that I felt with being attracted to same sex people, black people still standing out and some of the authors world building in general are still quite good.
I actually might pick up the final one just to see the Mormon's win the day. (I hope they do.) They stood out in this book.
(It also looks it is the "horsewoman" Flora's book. I'm betting it could get interesting.)

This review has probably confused the heck out of you if you haven't read the first book..and it's one that I do think you have to read before following up with this one. But they ain't bad.



Booksource: Netgalley in exchange for reviewend-of-the-world netgalley read-201784 s Melanie1,225 101k


ARC provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

1.) The Book of the Unnamed Midwife ?????

“The Unnamed Midwife had been a founder in Nowhere. She had been from the old world, a trained nurse and Midwife who had lived through the dying and seen how it all came down. She had left behind her journals, which told the whole story—her own as well as the world’s. It was known by every man, woman, and child in Nowhere. They kept their own journals as a way to carry on her work.”
I read over one-hundred books in 2016, but the predecessor to this book, The Book of the Unnamed Midwife, was my favorite of them all. And even though that’s one of the most powerful books I’ve still ever read in my entire life, it’s also one of the heaviest books I’ve ever read. So, I’ve been putting off this second installment for far too long. But, friends, I finally picked it up and I’m so happy that I did. But again, as much as this book was also powerful, it’s also so very heartbreaking.

In The Book of the Unnamed Midwife, 98% of Earth's population of men and 99% of Earth's population of women have died from an autoimmune disease. Even though most of the Earth's population was wiped out, the ratio of men to women is immense. And even in the future from the initial outbreak, women are still the most sought-after thing. In this second installment, the timeline is many generations in the future (approximately one-hundred-years), but we get to the community that the unnamed midwife helped build. This current community has adapted so many of the things that we saw in The Book of the Unnamed Midwife, and we get to see that not a lot has changed in this post-apocalyptic world.

“I’m Eddy on the road, and I’m Etta at home. I’m both.”
And we follow Etta when she is with her community, Nowhere, and we follow Eddy when he is scavenging outside of his community. I am going to use they/them pronouns for the rest of this review, but I believe our main character is nonbinary and genderfluid, even though those words are never used on page. This entire book really puts gender at the front of this story, because Etta/Eddy doesn’t want to be what is expected of a woman in this world. They don’t want to become a mother, they don’t want to raise children, and they do not want to deliver babies. They want to hunt, and forage, and rescue girls that aren’t even given a choice in this new and cruel world. Also, Etta/Eddy is black and also sees how racism hasn’t ceased, even with the world almost ending.

“Boys can be anything. Girls can only be one thing.”
We also are introduced to a transwoman in this book who becomes such a pivotal character. Flora completely made my heart break in this book, but she was also such a bright beacon of hope. She honestly deserves the entire world, and she better be given it in the final book, The Book of Flora.

But we get to see Etta/Eddy travel to different communities from their own and see how the different groups and people live and prosper. Some treat women lower than currency, some treat them mystical saints, but we get to see all the in-betweens, too. Etta/Eddy meets Flora rather quickly, and they soon travel together to the worst city Etta/Eddy may have seen yet. When they reach the stronghold of the Lion, they aren’t entirely sure what to expect. But even their nightmares wouldn’t prepare them for what this tyrant ruler is truly .

This is a very dark and heavy book. Please use caution before reading and make sure you are in a safe headspace. Major content and trigger warnings for rape, sexual assault, genital mutilation, pedophilia, sex trafficking, slavery, murder, death, loss of a loved one, miscarrying, torture, misgendering, racist comments, misogynistic comments, abduction, captivity, violence, animal death, and war themes.

“On the map, all the roads led to Estiel.”
Overall, Meg Elison writes the queer, feminist, inclusionary literature of my heart. This book is important, and powerful, and empowering. It’s hard, and brutal, and heartbreaking, but I promise it is so rewarding. The reason I am giving it four stars is because the ending felt rushed to me. And even though I loved this entire ending with the soul of my being, it just happened in the blink of an eye. Yet, I am so excited to see where the next book picks up, because I am sort of obsessed with their location! But friends, if you are in the right headspace, please give The Book of the Unnamed Midwife a try. It’s truly a masterpiece, and this entire series means more to me than I have words for.

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The quotes above were taken from an ARC and are subject to change upon publication.

Buddy read with Jules at JA Ironside! ?arc buddy-reads dark ...more62 s BradleyAuthor 5 books4,428

Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC!

The first book in the Road to Nowhere series hit me out of nowhere with it's stark and uncompromising view of humanity and the inhumanity of men toward women when a plague decimated (literally) the population of women. There's only one woman out of ten men across the world. It reads much more delightfully than Frank Herbert's The White Plague and it has a much more grimdark feel than even The Children of Men.

The second picks up and drives home the same point with a brand new twist: gender issues figure very strongly, but it's much more than just women being subjugated by men. This book takes gender identity and explores many very cool twists and shows it off starkly in this dystopian world.

No spoilers, but we get a lot of different gender identities and they're all showcased in ways that even surprised me.

Is this a survival novel? Absolutely. Is it as difficult as only cruel-literature can be? Absolutely. These stories aren't for the weak of heart and some people might get overwhelmed by just how evil men can be, but we're meant to see this all in a stark spotlight.

This might not be a big surprise, but the main character Eddy/Etta pretends to be a man on the road while being a heroic raider who kills slavers to free women, while being what her culture requires her to be when she returns to her home, Nowhere. It's very much a Shakespearian play where the only way to get ahead is to pretend. But this is only where the novel starts. It ends up having traveled all across the map by the end and I was very impressed. :)

AGAIN, this is not for the faint of heart. It's dystopian in almost every way, but there is a fine balance of hope. :)

2017-shelf dystopia-yes-pls sci-fi54 s Choko1,308 2,641

*** 4.25 ***

A buddy read with the MacHalos, because we obviously want to have nightmares for a while...

WTF??? Why are we doing this to ourselves? Why is Meg Elison doing this to us?? And what is wrong with us to actually appreciate it and ask for more??? I think there is a word for insanity ours, but I would rather not put us in a category....

Speaking of categories... Talk about a world which is trying its darnest to figure out how to put people in tidy little categories and cement into them! If only they could get the thousands of little survivalist groups and cults to agree with whatever they believe in, it would all work out... Hahahaha, no, of course this does not happen in this very much Dystopian, Post-Apocalyptic, taken down by a pandemic world, where women are an extreme minority and childbirth still a death sentence for both mother and child.

"...“Before the plague, women were rulers and peacekeepers and cooks and dancers and whatever they wanted to be. And they had medicine that made it impossible to get pregnant. They were free. And now they’re property almost everywhere, raped to death and sold to monsters by monsters.”..."

In "The Book of the Unnamed Midwife" we were introduced to the immediate mayhem, insanity and fall-out following the plague which killed off most women, as well as 3/4ths of the population, and made it impossible to have life births for decades after. We got to meet the Unnamed Midwife and her journals, which are now, 100 years later, revered by all in Nowhere, the settlement where she spend the later part of her life. Now Etta/Eddy is following in her footsteps, being one of the Unnamed's biggest fans and hero-worshiping her, dreaming of bringing change and being a hero, just as she imagined the first Midwife was... So she goes on raids, out of Nowhere, and searches for women to help and rescue, while finding a harsher fate for the slavers, who are prominent in this reality. Only the life outside is not going to sit still and let her do this unscathed...

"...“The Unnamed was Etta’s hero. Not as a Midwife, but as a survivor, a person who could be anything they had to be to survive. ”..."

Book one was very much a survivalist story, shining the spotlight on women's issues and pointing the mirror back at our society as a whole. This book does the same, but through the prism of the overlooked minorities in the larger minority. In a society where women are looked upon as either holy, a commodity, or a means for procreation and sex, either way, highly desirable, the gay, lesbian and transgendered individuals really have no leg to stand on. Since in either case women are pinned to a set of very strict and narrow expectations, a woman who would choose to be with another woman, or a woman who would not want to have a child just does not make sense. The fixation on continuation of humanity has made those groups completely invisible and while a man turning to another man is somewhat accepted, given the rarity of women, it is looked upon not as a natural and innate persuasion, but as making the best of a difficult situation with an expectation that if a woman enters the picture, the men would gladly forsake the "unnatural" ways... You would think that 100 years after this catastrophic disaster they would have figured out a way for men and women to coexist in some semblance of a sane, productive, and still respectful way, but nothing much has changed since the first years of the Fall of society. IT IS PAINFUL TO READ!!! Painful in a slightly different way the the previous book, but just as difficult to pull yourself away from the train-wreck this story drags us into.

"...“This gun is blank and empty, and you can fill the cylinder with anything at all. You can pack it with dirt or fill it with bullets. You can change the world forever, depending on where you point it. You can leave behind terror or justice. You can be as important as the Unnamed, or as lost as any of the men she put down with it. You hear?”..."

I am not sure what it is about this series that is so traumatic but still hypnotic, that I engulfed each of the books in a day! I felt uncomfortable, shocked, angry and even enraged, as well as deeply sorrowful for the people in this world and I know I am going to have nightmares for weeks! As foreign to us as this subject is, in its core, the issues are valid even today and I think this is exactly what makes the series so powerful. It points out how deeply the things that differentiate us from one another affect our view of the world. Etta/Eddy is not only shaped by the feeling of being different or the way people view her differences. Her self-perception of being different is blinding her to the things that make her/him the same with those around. Making the "I am different" the core of his/her life, becomes internalized in self-loathing and nonacceptance of those who are just as different as s/he is... Which leads to some very painful scenes and difficult monologues. But it feels so real, so raw and relatable, that you are fully immersed and on the difficult road with the protagonist in this fallen civilization and among the regressing humanity. On top of it all, the bad guys in the book live in the overgrown village of Estiel, which is a version of STL, or what is best known as my home town, the home of the Silver Arch, Saint Louis, Missouri! Great, now I will not be able to go close to the Arch and not think of bad, bad things happening! I am not sure I would be strong enough to keep the will to live if I ever find myself in this scenario, but I also hope we never, EVER get to that point! I have faith - after all, there is a place where people connect on the internet over books, so humanity still has a chance:):):):)

I am going to leave you with a warning - this series should be read in order and it is not for the faint of heart! Also, if you have issues with rape, same-sex themes, or any type of violence, think if you are in the right emotional state to tackle it. I totally understand if those things are a hard no-no line. No puppies and rainbows, no fluffy clouds and sweet nothings! It is raw, it is dark, it is bleak! But it is also very thought-provoking and entrancing. So it is up to you, just make the educated choice.

Now I wish you all Happy Reading and may You Always find what you Need in the pages of a good Book!!!dystopia ff gay ...more53 s Char1,770 1,655

THE BOOK OF ETTA (THE ROAD TO NOWHERE 2) is a heavy piece of dark, post-apocalyptic fiction.

This story picks up about 100 years after THE BOOK OF THE UNNAMED MIDWIFE. The Unnamed created the city of Nowhere and now they have developed their own way of life. Since the plague that started everything, women are scarce and children even more so. As such, Nowhere honors women and to keep the human race going, women there have created hives-a group of men/lovers who help that woman with chores and who also provide regular loving- with the hopes of childbirth as the result. According to the elders of Nowhere, this is the chief role of women now. Period.

Here, we meet Etta, who feels constrained in Nowhere. Etta has no time for hives or for childbirth, and she wants no part of it. She goes out as a raider instead-looking for goods from the old world which can be made useful again. On her travels, she binds herself up to pass for a man and calls herself Eddie. There are more reasons for that other than the plain fact that it's safer to travel as a man, but I'll let you discover those reasons on your own. As Eddie, he comes across several towns, all with their own ways of doing things, (the world building here is impressive), and then he comes across the town of STL. (I see other calling it Estiel, but I listened to the audio and I just assumed it was STL, so I'm sticking with that.) In STL reigns a man called "The Lion." What he has going on in HIS city is a travesty and an injustice-one that Eddie cannot let stand. Will he be successful in putting an end to the practices of The Lion? Will he survive? Will humanity survive? You'll have to read this to find out!

I didn't enjoy this book quite as much as the first, but I think that's because it took me a little time to get used to the voices of Etta/Eddie. Once I did, though, I settled down and let the story wash over me. As I said above the world-building here is so interesting, each town having their own beliefs about women and children and how to keep humankind going, it provided a lot to think about. Also, it was sad to see what happened to America in the wake of the plague-how many things had been forgotten, the uses for implements lost to history, and of course, what happened to personal freedoms and choices. It's hard for women to live in this world right now, just imagine how hard it would be in a world with no medicines, no birth control, no choices at all for women in general. These were the aspects of this world that interested me the most.

As a note of caution to potential readers-there are all kinds of unpleasant happenings in this book. None of it surprised or shocked me, avid horror reader that I am, but it might shock some. Rapes, pedophiles, genital mutilation, child abuse and other things are part of the post plague world and if those things really get to you, you might want to take a pass.

That said, I recommend this book if you enjoyed the first in the trilogy. No, it's not the same as THE UNNAMED, and no, it's not even the same world as the first book because things have changed so much, but Etta and Eddie have a lot to say and I, for one, was happy to listen. I'm intrigued and excited for the last book THE BOOK OF FLORA, which I've already requested from NetGalley.

I bought this audiobook with my hard earned cash. This review is my honest opinion.audio-book crime dark-fiction ...more51 s Trish2,141 3,659

This is the second book of the The Road to Nowhere series that started with The Book of the Unnamed Midwife. At first I thought the first one was so flabbergastingly hard to read (violent, not glossing anything over) that I felt more numb during this (the shock having worn off perhaps), that the impact is lessened because there is no tie to the old world (ours) anymore. But that changed mid-way through the book (right now I'm actually shaking from rage).

The story is that of Eddy/Etta (Eddy is the male name she adopts on the road to be safe but also because she is probably transgender). She grew up in Nowhere, the settlement where the Unnamed Midwife ended up in book 1. And boy, has that place changed! We had gotten hints in the first book but this time we got the full picture and let me tell you, it isn't pretty. It looks good on the surface (which is the point) but that look is deceiving (also a point made by the author in several situations throughout the story).
You see, being a mother is considered the epitome of what women can achieve, basically letting us revert back to the old times when women were nothing but breeding machines and housekeepers. Only this time this way of thinking comes from the women themselves. I get it to a certain degree, considering how many women are dead (almost all) and how few can actually give birth, to a living child and without dying no less. Nevertheless, considering how many keep talking about staying away from men, being independent and safe from men, changing from the old ways, this is almost hilariously tragic.

The conflict, then, is that Eddy doesn't want to be a mother. She wants to be exactly her idol, the Unnamed. Sadly, she gets many things wrong because during the roughly 100 years since the Unnamed lived, much of her story has been ... changed (I guess that despite the journals it's much the game "telephone"). Not to mention the differences that are natural due to the time that has passed and Etta having been brought up differently.
And that is exactly when Nowhere shows its real face with Etta's mother and others trying to emotionally pressure Etta into being a mother. They do this to others as well. Through Etta's eyes we see that relationships between women are frowned upon (being considered a waste) and that homosexuals in general are being treated badly (not invited to events, living secluded lives etc). And that is the "good" place here!

In general, I got the feeling that the people in this world were far more hard-nosed, with emotions either having been bred out of them or whatever. Of course it's OK to be tough because you need that to survive in such a world, but when you live in a relatively secure and "civilized" settlement but cannot even connect to the people you supposedly love? There is something wrong right there.

So Etta hits the road often and during her trips she encounters other people, the Lion of Estiel (yes, he has lions and tigers as pets, I wonder if the author d a certain character of The Walking Dead *lol*), and other settlements/cities. We get to see that the world is basically as desolate as it was in book 1, what with slave traders selling females (even toddlers), women being cut (genital mutilation being another important topic), women being used as sex toys and breeding machines, general abuse and lots of killings, not to mention no plumbing, general dirt and no creature comforts as is typical for any apocalyptic setting.

However, what was new was that there were also catamites and boys sometimes even getting orchidectomies (castrations). This is an interesting development, especially since through it the author explores gender identities even more thoroughly as in book 1.
I won't say any more about the developments further along because that would spoil too much.

What really got to me was the hypocrisy of the people. I know it's realistic. It already is a big problem nowadays so after the end of the world it can only get worse. Nevertheless, it got to me. Especially having seen what had become of Nowhere was hard because, silly as I am, I saw it as a beacon of hope for "normalcy". *lol* Instead, it's a place where people cannot be who they are, are repressed and get subdued in multiple ways, where one thing is said but not adhered to ( them despising slave traders but wanting to trade with the Lion because it's safer).

And the stupidity everywhere!
in Nowhere, which has been a fort in the beginning so that there were soldiers when the Unnamed arrived in book 1, where they let the "profession" completely die out despite it being pretty much key to the survival in such a harsh world. I mean, yeah, they have that tunnel system but it's not that is really enough. *snorts* Or the fact that men were kept as little workers and sometimes (if they get lucky) as seed donors, living in a totally subdued way - a feminazi's dream come true which was appalling (I am aware the author did that on purpose but that sort of thing never sat right with me). They even ban words there, censoring talk about abortions and other topics on top of having taboo subjects such as homosexuality.
But that was neither the only place where people were stupid nor the only thing people were stupid about - illiteracy was also a big problem. I get that for drifters and loners, but not for settlements and cities. Books are a commodity, a valuable thing to trade ( pretty much anything from the old world), but they deliberately only teach a few or nobody at all how to read. In some cases it can be a tool in order to control people (not a new concept) but especially in places Jeff City I don't understand it because it is simply counter-productive! Then again, I didn't get their sheep mentality either ...
And don't get me started on places Manhattan/Womanhattan and their silly rules silence being a gift of the women or sons having to leave mothers aged 6 at the latest because the women "have more important stuff to do" while girls get to stay with their mothers.
If it wasn't so infuriating, I'd laugh.

It all sounded a string of cults, one worse and more stupid than the one before, actually creepy (especially the "reversed Mormons" with that milk squirting), and I do admit that I actually d how most of them got what they deserved for their lies and treachery (such as the bitch Alice (excuse my language but that is exactly what she was) and Flora, whom I wanted to kill). Sadly, most of them got away with it and STILL made excuses for their abominable behaviours in the end! *grinds teeth*

Funny was that I was right all along and not ALL the old bunkers with guns and ammo were gone/used up and that it was the weird Mormons who actually used those stashes. The Mormons being the smart ones (in some ways at least), hiding themselves in an ingenious place, fighting, knowing and having weapons, ammo and armory, training, ... who'd have thought?! *lol*

So this is a story about individuality, the repression of exactly that and the often complicated search/fight for who we are and being at peace with yourself in the end (sort of). There were a few other messages too and not all were to my liking (although I'm often unsure whether the author meant it literally or was being sarcastic).

The writing was again superb, the interactions between the characters fantastically and intelligently portrayed, and there were quite a few puzzles to solve. There are lots of conflicts as well, reality clashing with wishful thinking, narrowmindedness or even idealism (not to mention religion). Thus, despite my reservations (I often fear that a good book is ruined by its sequel - especially if I haven't known there will be a sequel as in this case) the book was extremely good. The way people were thinking (all of them) was too alien to me so I didn't care too much about individuals in the beginning but that changed simply because I couldn't stand the status quo after a certain point. And the author again managed to build a wonderful (realistic) world that I did care for, telling a deep if unsettling story, all of which sucked me into the book and kept me captivated.

Thus, I recommend this book to anyone who s an intelligent story, with an exploration of deep and important topics, that is well-written and has realistic characters (and yes, I'll nominate it for a HUGO in 2018).
And now excuse me please, I'll have to go and shout my lungs out in frustration because of what happened in the end.40 s Tudor Vlad327 78

Thank you 47North and NetGalley for providing me this copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

The Book of the Unnamed Midwife is hands down the best book I have read this years, so there was a lot of pressure for this sequel. I am so happy to say that it did not disappoint, despite focusing on a new character (Etta), the story and the world remained just as compelling. The only think that it missed was the urgency of the first book, The Book of Etta had some of the trademark moments of pure madness, when I was literally on the edge of my seat, of the first book, but not as many. But it’s the writing and how the author used it convey ideas that really stick with you that got me hooked. All that is present in the sequel as well, I would probably even venture to say that the writing got better.

I think that when it changed, she was ready. I think that in the old world, women were slaves. Maybe not they are now, but somebody needed that vest. Somebody needed her pills or her rings to keep from getting pregnant. Maybe slavery just looked nicer back then.

The Book of Etta, just as the previous novel, is still a feminist book at its core, continuing the theme of discrimination and how it would affect women in a world where they are not only a rarity, but also the most precious currency that there is. This time, a lot of focus is put on sexuality and gender, and the author has a lot to say about it and the setting of this novels is just perfect for that.
There’s also a main conflict, this time we have a big bad wolf, or should I call him a big bad Lion? Most of the men in this series are viewed as villains because of the way they treat women and even other men, but it’s the first time that we have a villain that has the resources and men power to really impact the world this women, and our main character live in. From the moment she met him, it was obvious for Etta that he must go, and from then forward the book focused on finding ways to stop him.

Along her journey Etta finds all kinds of communities, all unique and having their own traditions and all of them treating women differently. The strangest community was one that was governed by a Prophet that really seems to be having some sort of supernatural powers and I don’t know how I’m supposed to feel about this, as so far the series had no sign of something mystical going on, everything that happened in the story could be explained scientifically. There is still one more book to come, so I’m going to wait for that to come out, with hopefully more answers, before I draw to conclusions too fast.

Overall, this had all I wanted from a sequel. I still think that The Book of the Unnamed Midwife is better, but there was no way a sequel could have matched the intensity of that.

4,5 stars, rounded to 5 because I don’t feel okay with the idea of giving it only 4 stars.science-fiction26 s Alina797 303

***Note: I received a copy curtesy of Netgalley and 47North in exchange for an honest review.

When I read The Book of the Unnamed Midwife, I thought it was a perfect book all by itself, with no need whatsoever of a sequel. However, after reading The Book of Etta, I think this brought more insight to the world's status after the plague/fever and humankind's different ways to reorganize and carry on. The Unnamed was Etta’s hero. Not as a Midwife, but as a survivor, a person who could be anything they had to be to survive. The Book of Etta follows on the the events of The Book of the Unnamed Midwife, some 100 years after humanity has been almost wiped out by a plague (~2% of the population remaining, of which 90% men and only 10% women; also, most women die in childbirth, with stillborns, even more often if the fetus is a girl). So there’s little wonder that most of the few remaining women have a very hard time getting by and must find ingenious ways to escape some very painful and degrading experiences. This is not a pleasant world to read about, on the contrary, but it’s a very real possibility for the presented circumstances, and that's what makes the book great.

The novel is written in third person, following the thoughts and actions of Etta (I really really d the Etta/Eddy thing!), the people she meets, the ways the society adapted to the aftermaths of the plague (matriarchal / sexual subjugation, rotation of seed donors, hives, men who can claim paternity and men who aren't allowed, even monogamy in some rare cases).
The focus is on sexuality and gender issues, the novel being more of an identity quest than a survival one, oriented mainly towards world building, experiences and feelings rather than on the action itself.

Most of the handled topics are rather sensitive, but this is not a book for the faint-hearted, just The Book of the Unnamed Midwife wasn’t either: gender roles, discrimination, sexuality and transgender issues, (gang) rape (of women, but also men), pedophily, sexual slavery, sequestration, beating, famine. It was always old women who did the cutting on girls who were too small to fight. Men did the trading, the buying and selling. Every camp seemed to have an old woman who knew the anatomy well enough to condition a girl but not to ruin her. Eddy understood what men were, and how they lived and died selling girls just this one. He did not, never could, understand the old women who helped them do it. He raised the machete, ready to split her skull in two. The characters are well written and humanized and the interactions between them are skillfully done. I especially d that the main one was realistic and coolheaded and capable, but not too much so, also having not-so-good moments and being vulnerable and disheartened.

The only thing I didn’t was that, even though the religion subject is barely touched upon throughout the book, towards the end some kind of supranatural Mormonism appears. Hopefully, the next and last (?) novel in the series won’t go on the slippery slope of mysticism..

Overall, a very good book, superbly written - an interesting and fast read, that I heartily recommend. He looked at the stalagmites, remembering when Ricardo had taught him the word. The way they reached up with all their might, while the stalactites that hung down hung on tight. He had known, even then, that inside every man and woman there was a place this, made of stone that changed slowly, shaped by the trickling of what they saw, heard, did. Tags: dystopia, female-lead, feminism, sexuality



P.S. I enjoyed the distorted names of old cities and geographical landmarks (Estiel = STL => St. Louis, Misery = Missouri river, Womanhattan = women's region of Manhattan :D)apocalyptic-and-post-apocalyptic dystopia female-lead ...more25 s Alice819 3,011

Really interesting world and themes, but definitely not as good as the first one in this series. dystopia-apocalyptic22 s Cathy1,754 271

Make me. I was made. I made me.

Wow. Just wow. What a great book. Deliverance meets Priscilla, Queen of the Desert meets Mad Max meets the end of the world. This deserves every price and award it gets nominated for. I was unsure if I even wanted to read this, after liking Unnamed Midwife so much. But this is probably even better.

The different towns with their varied societies, how fascinating. Awesome world building. There are so many plot bunnies for so many books here. So imaginative.

And horrible. At some points of the story I did not want to continue reading, because I dreaded what was coming next. The plot is a train crash.

Loved the genderqueerness. Nonjudgmental exploration of what is or can be. Nice. The interactions between Flora and Eddy were great.

And then the so often stupid rules so many of the people in this book feel obliged to follow. Apparently we never learn. We just find new and different ways of screwing it up.

Not sure, what to make of the seemingly supernatural character towards the end. A little too surreal. The only part of the novel that I did not and that probably has the potential to ruin the book for some people. But, besides that, I thought this book was bloody brilliant. Loved it.

??I give birth to guns. I bleed bullets. I was born to destroy men. you.”20 s Anna919 754

July 2019:

Wow! Again... Just WOW!

July 2018:

“The Unnamed was Etta’s hero. Not as a Midwife, but as a survivor, a person who could be anything they had to be to survive.”

A fantastic sequel to The Book of the Unnamed Midwife !

What a dark, exhilarating journey this series proved to be, one where nobody and nothing is ever safe and you don’t know where you’ll end up in this new terrifying world. I wasn’t expecting to it this much, and Etta/Eddy is one of the most fascinating characters I’ve encountered in a long while, even if they can be both utterly frustrating and incredibly moving.

“The smell of men is the smell of danger…
The smell of women is the smell of home.”2017-booklist lgbt own-and-read ...more20 s Jenny (Reading Envy)3,876 3,510 Shelved as 'did-not-finish'

Well, I'm disappointed to abandon this one, and may give it another try a little later. But I grow weary of dystopian novels that descend into people wandering a bleak landscape, avoiding violence, trading with questionable communities, and making bizarre reproduction decisions.audiobook20 s Justine1,216 335

I feel a bit ambivalent about my rating. I wasn't completely thrilled with the first half of the book, but I d the second half better. All of it was pretty depressing and intense, but not as satisfying as I would have d. The ending was pretty great though.2018-read17 s A.M. Flynn🪐293 62

I really really d this 2nd book but it was not as good as the first one. Now on to the third book!
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