the next good book

Afterland

By Lauren Beukes

9/10
(9/10)

404 pages

What’s it about? Three years after a pandemic kills 99% of the men on the planet, Cole is lucky enough to have her 13-year-old son Miles still with her.  They had been visiting the United States from their home country of South Africa when the virus kills her husband and leaves them stranded.  Cole must now find a way to keep Miles safe until they can manage a way home.
What did it make me think about? My first thought was “I wish this novel had come out a year earlier” as releasing it during an actual pandemic makes is feel a little too close to home.“Did they pick it up right there?  On the fingerprint reader, which she’s never seen wiped down?  Or was it the elevator call button at the park hotel they’s paid extra for so they’d be first through the gates?  Jabbing a pin code into the credit card machine at the restaurant?  The handrail on the Incredicoaster?  Or passed hand-to-glove from Goofy to Chewie to the kids?  All she knows is that within a few days, all eight of them came down with the flu.”I am sure this was a futuristic novel when it was written, but a few months later some paragraphs are eerily familiar…
Should I read it? Lauren Beukes writes a great page-turning novel.From time traveling serial killers, to man killing viruses- Lauren Beukes creates a world full of interesting characters in very fast paced stories.   Her characters often have an edginess to them that I really enjoy.  In this story Cole and Miles grapple with an intrusive government, a megachurch bent on reform, and even some violent feminists as they try to make their way home.   I would highly recommend this one!
Quote- “He doesn’t want to go home.  All his friends are almost certainly dead.  Not the girls, obviously , although who knows?  “
What’s it about?
Three years after a pandemic kills 99% of the men on the planet, Cole is lucky enough to have her 13-year-old son Miles still with her.  They had been visiting the United States from their home country of South Africa when the virus kills her husband and leaves them stranded.  Cole must now find a way to keep Miles safe until they can manage a way home.
What did it make me think about?
My first thought was “I wish this novel had come out a year earlier” as releasing it during an actual pandemic makes is feel a little too close to home.“Did they pick it up right there?  On the fingerprint reader, which she’s never seen wiped down?  Or was it the elevator call button at the park hotel they’s paid extra for so they’d be first through the gates?  Jabbing a pin code into the credit card machine at the restaurant?  The handrail on the Incredicoaster?  Or passed hand-to-glove from Goofy to Chewie to the kids?  All she knows is that within a few days, all eight of them came down with the flu.”I am sure this was a futuristic novel when it was written, but a few months later some paragraphs are eerily familiar…
Should I read it?
Lauren Beukes writes a great page-turning novel.From time traveling serial killers, to man killing viruses- Lauren Beukes creates a world full of interesting characters in very fast paced stories.   Her characters often have an edginess to them that I really enjoy.  In this story Cole and Miles grapple with an intrusive government, a megachurch bent on reform, and even some violent feminists as they try to make their way home.   I would highly recommend this one!
Quote-
“He doesn’t want to go home.  All his friends are almost certainly dead.  Not the girls, obviously , although who knows?  “

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