The dystopian genre of speculative fiction may be reaching a tipping point or burn-out, but if novels like Schwehn's become the norm then we have nothing to worry about. This simple yet inventive novel is the kind of allegory that challenges not just our understanding in a metaphorical sense but requires us to stretch emotionally. Brilliant.

The Rending and the Nest has a very intriguing premise. A post-apocalyptic world with a mystery sprinkled with themes of motherhood, survival, and community. Unfortunately, the pacing, writing, and characters were dull. 

The Rending and the Nest is a very slow paced book. Schwehn take hers time building the world and main character, Mira. I loved getting intimate details about the world post Rending and Mira as a character, but it took Schwehn almost half the book to accomplish. The synopsis above explains that a man named Michael will arrive thereby creating some plot movement. However, he doesn’t arrive until 41% through the novel. Despite the slow start, I didn’t feel like DNF’ing it. The world and pregnancies were too interesting and shrouded in mystery to put down.

The writing felt overly poetic. It read as if Schwehn was trying her absolute hardest to write as sophisticatedly as possible. The metaphors and similes were jarring and pulled me out of the story rather than flowing smoothly. 

I really enjoyed Mira and her best friend, Lana. I was able to connect with them almost immediately. However, the other characters weren’t as well developed or relied on one particular trait to describe them and the way they behaved.

What peaked my interest in this novel the most was The Rending itself. Where did 95% of the population disappeared to? Why did they disappear? Was it random? Were people targeted specifically? None of these questions are answered. There aren’t even hints of an answer within the text. The build up of the mystery of The Rending throughout the novel created suspense and intrigue, but by the end of the novel I was incredibly frustrated with the lack of answers. 

Overall, The Rending and the Nest is not for everyone and, apparently, I am not one of those people. It is a unique post-apocalyptic story because of its focus on motherhood, community, and loss, however the story failed to perform after it had caught my attention.



***I received an eARC from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I don’t even know where to begin with this book. The plot is incredibly unique and somewhat horrifying. The underlying themes tended to be too many, though. I related well with the main character, Mira, and her friend Lana. However, most of the other characters didn’t feel as developed. I got a bit lost in who was who since they mostly seemed to have the same character traits. I can’t say that I didn’t enjoy the book, but I felt the underlying themes and descriptions of some back story or current situation got a bit long. As a Minnesota native I adored the setting, and the Zoo was sharp in my mind after a family visit this past summer. I would recommend this book as a very unique read, but would have to choose carefully to whom I would recommend it to - a pregnant friend might find this book a bit disturbing. Overall, enjoyable as a stand-alone novel. I’ll keep my eyes peeled for more work from this author. Thanks for the ARC!

Honestly, it's hard to know what to say about this story. Nothing I say can truly describe what it's like to read The Rending and the Nest. It's definitely original, strange, and compelling. It no doubt kept my attention all the way through. If you are looking for a traditional apocalyptic tale, this isn't it. It's bizarre and definitely different, but still somewhat captivating. I didn't LOVE it, but I definitely couldn't put it down. I feel the same way about this book as I did Wonderblood. It was good, but it left me wanting. I still hope to see more from this author in the future.

This is a very strange tale of the world after. 95% of the worlds population has disappeared along with its stuff. The remaining population must make due in a gray, cloudy world. Years after the Rending (the end of the world) some of the females begin to get pregnant. Their pregnancies are anything but normal, but the births are even weirder. Conflict arises when another settlement wants the babies for a sign. 
Overall, a refreshing look of a post apocalyptic world. The characters and the scenery were a great combination. I will never get the Zoo out of my head. Two thumbs up!

Thank you to Bloomsbury and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book to review. 

I have problems with a lot of post-apocalyptic books. They're all too depressing. They show all the darkest parts of people and focus so much on just the gritty awful stories of survival, and leave behind the rest of human nature and growth and life. But The Rending and the Nest was not like this. 

The Rending and the Nest by Kaethe Schwehn was exactly everything I've ever wanted from a post-apocalyptic book. It shows the horrible desolation of a post-apocalyptic world, but it doesn't leave its characters there with no hope. This book shows characters who start lost in their broken world, just surviving, but it ends with them living. They fight for hope and life and love and each other. They claw messily through the shards of their world and their memories and grief in a way that was so beautiful and compelling and incredibly refreshing to read. It didn't shy away from all the ugly things that would develop in a post-apocalyptic world, but it didn't leave us to wallow in the mess. 

The characters in this book were all so detailed and interesting and human. Schwehn showcases every side of human nature, and showcases them in such an honest way. I was shocked and disgusted and emboldened and comforted, because humanity is shocking and disgusting and emboldening and comforting. So many post-apocalyptic books just get lost in the ugly, but not this one. This is a fearless book. 

The prose of this book was both its greatest strength and weakness, I think. It carried so much weight, but I also felt at times that I was not so much reading this book as I was floating through it. There were times when it could have toned down the metaphors and flowery descriptions (which is saying something, since I love both of those things) in order to make the story a little easier to grasp. 

I personally had no problem with the fact that the Rending is never explained. And I was satisfied with the ending, as well.

The Rending and the Nest is easily the best post-apocalyptic book I've ever read. I would absolutely recommend it.

Dystopian fiction is generally hugely appealing to me. And this was one conceptually fascinating, a world rendered incomplete and strange through rapture like event, now with most of the population gone, weather changed and most of the material possessions ranged into giant Piles. In this world a small group of survivors banded together into a make shift community supported by scavenging and various other means.  If life in this new bleak environment wasn’t difficult enough, there’s also the fact that all the pregnancies now resolve in immaterial objects for babies.  And if that wasn’t challenging enough, there’s also now a threat from another, considerably more depraved community.  While all this may sound good (if somewhat odd) on paper, the execution left something to be desired.  The author’s previous works comprise a memoir and a book of poems and this novel reads very much like a logical follow up to that, a certain dreamy surreal metaphorical allegorical estrogeny quality to it all. We don’t get to find out much about The Rending, seems like the event was used merely to frame the soul searching expositions of all the female leads of the book, particularly the protagonist. The latter is very young, rendered as a teen and now barely in her 20s, and maybe due to that, for the longest time the book seems like a YA novel to me, albeit of a more sophisticated variety.  At the very least, there was a very young perspective from which this new post apocalyptic world was presented.  Of course, there are some terrific stories about and/or from a kid or young adult perspective, there are ways to make that sort of narrative exciting and compelling for an adult, just looks at the success of Stranger Things, but this wasn’t one of those. Not for me, anyway, this is a personal take, of course, but inability to engage with the characters doesn’t usually lead to a very enjoyable read. Then again it wasn’t that unenjoyable either, it had lots of potential, some good writing, some very imaginative plot devices and imagery and it was original, certainly. I think objectively it’s quite possible that this was a good book that didn’t quite connect with me personally, but would be a great one to readers who would be able to establish that connection.  It read like a peculiar dream. And relatively quickly too. Thanks Netgalley.

I have a life-long love of apocalyptic fiction, and so the description of the book is what drew me in. I didn't get anything I was expecting - but I got a fantastic story none-the-less. We're never told what caused The Rending, and that's ok, because the tale is intriguing and breathtaking. Kaethe Schwehn has crafted a look at the things we carry with us, and how we deal with loss and the traumas of our past. Deep, mystical, and lingering, 'The Rendering and the Nest' is just flat-out good reading.

This book tickled my end-of-the-world fancy. I had recently read a different post-apocalyptic novel and it missed the mark. This one, however, really met and exceeded my expectations. 

Schwehn is a phenomenal writer, and is able to capture the depth of human emotions with her words. Similar to Station Eleven (which I also loved), this novel is much more about the characters than it is about the plot. Themes of grief, fragile hope, and human nature (both the good and dark sides) are interwoven amongst complex characters. The protagonist, Mira, is refreshingly self-aware and acknowledges certain privileges that she has without it seeming forced. Secondary characters like Rodney and Lana are also multi-faceted, and their relationships with Mira are nuanced and realistic. 

This book touched upon so many life experiences - trauma, grief, falling love, falling out of love, pregnancy, childbirth, stillbirths (if that's what you would call the kind of "Babies" in this book), friendship, community, and more. What was especially impressive to me is that the author a scenario that is totally unrealistic in our current world (women giving birth to inanimate objects), and yet she made it feel completely plausible in the world that she built through her words. 

The only reason this is not 5 stars for me is because of the ending/epilogue. After such a graceful story, I felt that the ending was a little abrupt and that the epilogue would have been better if it had been extended into a longer ending for the book. There's also a part of the epilogue that leaves a lot of unanswered questions for me, so it was very unsatisfying as a conclusion. Despite this critique, I would still recommend this book without any hesitation.

Sincere thank you to the author, publisher, and Netgalley for an ARC.

This just didn't do it for me. It was wooden, unengaging. I didn't finish it.

Forget the Handmaiden’s Tale, this is one of the most chilling and bizarre stories of a dystopian future I have ever read. 95% of the population has simply disappeared. Mira, one of the few humans remaining, constructs a community of sorts that she refers to as Zion. The survivors manage to eke out a living by scavenging left over items from life before the event. Several years later, one of the women, Lana, announces she’s pregnant, but what she gives birth to is not human, and this bizarre incident continues to play out with other women in the community. Any sense of normalcy is gone Lana leaves Zion with a man named Michael, who tells the community that the world beyond their gates is much better, safer, more normal. When Lana doesn’t return, Mira must decide whether to go in search of her friend or stay put in the relative safety of Zion. Super creepy, super scary, made me want to hide under the bed