I read Gather the Daughters by Jennie Melamed a few weeks ago while we were on vacation. Somehow, it was the perfect vacation read. When I first heard about this book, I wasn’t super motivated to read it. I packed it on a whim after Little Brown sent it to me and I’m really glad I did! This book really worked for me.

Gather the Daughters takes place on an island after some post-apocalyptic event happens in the US that forces everyone to flee. On the island, everyone has a role, and once someone’s role is finished - so, they get to old to be useful - they take the “final draft” and die. Only the wanderers, a group of apparent chosen men, are allowed to venture back to the old mainland via ferry for supplies. The islanders believe that the mainland is desolate and everyone left behind is suffering. The role of women is to get married and have children as soon as they’re able. Daughters are forced to marry when they’re still very young. Oh, and this book comes with a warning: it alludes to both child abuse and incest. 

The island has a tradition in the summer of allowing the children to roam completely free. No school, no rules, and a summer of adventure and fun. However, the girls know that as soon as they start their period, there will be no more summers for them, no matter how young they are.

This book follows the stories of girls on the island. Vanessa’s father is a wanderer who allows her to read books. Janey Solomon doesn’t eat in an attempt to stop herself from reaching “fruition”. Caitlin is a bit of an outsider. Amanda reaches her summer of fruition before her best friend Janey.

As the girls near their final summers of childhood, they start to unravel the mysteries and secrets of the island. If the mainland is a wasteland, how can the wanderers find supplies from there? They suspect something more sinister is happening and will go to great lengths to find out.

This book reminded me of The Handmaid’s Tale with slightly less of that Margaret Atwood expertise, but I really enjoyed it. I was rooting for the girls and wanted to find out the truth along with them. If you like dystopias, I would highly recommend this book.

The End We Start From by Megan Hunter is a one-sitting type of book. This book is gorgeous through and through, from the color of the cover to the characters. I picked this up on a whim at my favorite local bookstore and read it that night in one sitting, and it was a five star read for me.

The End We Start From starts in a future where our unnamed narrator is pregnant with her first child, a boy, Z. (Names aren’t included in this book - the characters go by their first initial.) In this future, the world is flooding. London becomes uninhabitable and the narrator, Z, and her husband, R, have to flee their home and learn to survive. 

The prose is sparse but poetic. This book had my heart racing and butterflies in my stomach for the whole couple of hours that I read it. We follow our narrator as she lives in her car with her husband and newborn child, through time in refugee camps where R leaves to get some space and doesn’t return, and further on her journey into a new future where the world is different AND she is a first time parent. 

I was surprised how much this book made me feel despite being so minimalistic. It made me feel hopeful but deeply sad at the same time. I fell fast and hard for the writing. I recommend this debut dystopia to anyone who likes spare but lyrical words and wants to read something fast and beautiful.

Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward is undeniably a beautifully written book and emotional story. It follows Jojo, a thirteen year old boy, his baby sister Kayla, and their mom Leonie as they set out on a long drive (with one of Leonie’s friends in tow) to pick up Jojo and Kayla’s father, Michael, from prison. 

The perspective oscillates between Jojo and Leonie. The family lives with Leonie’s parents, Mam and Pop. Mam is dying of cancer and Pop carries his own burdens. Leonie is not a good parent to Jojo and Kayla. She struggles with drug addiction and sees visions of her dead brother Given whenever she gets high. Jojo cares for Kayla because Leonie can’t (or won’t), and has too much responsibility for an thirteen year old. Jojo at least has Pop as a father figure, but Leonie is wants Jojo to see Michael in that way, despite Michael’s absence from Jojo’s life. 

I feel like Jesmyn tries to make you feel for Leonie, and see her perspective, and while I could a little bit, I couldn’t forgive her selfishness and cruelty towards her children. When Kayla gets sick on the car ride, Leonie doesn’t take it seriously and instead is bitter that Kayla reaches for Jojo instead of her. Leonie repeatedly chooses drugs and her own self interests over those of her family. When a cop points a gun at Jojo, Leonie doesn’t try and protect him. I guess how I felt is how Jojo also felt, only he was stuck with her. It was no surprise that she consistently disappointed him. 

The language in this book is descriptive and really sets the scene. I felt for Jojo and Kayla the whole time. The tension built up during the car ride can be felt through the pages. However, the ghosts that haunt the family were a bit much for my liking. Some parts of the book seemed a little random and unnecessary, some parts felt contrived and unbelievable, and some parts dragged on and on. 

Overall, I can see why people are moved by this book. While I enjoyed it, I just didn’t have the connection with it that I would have liked. I’d still recommend it to fans of Jesmyn Ward and people who like family dramas and a descriptive setting in the deep south.