The population has been decimated by war and sickness, and few women are left in Green City. To solve the problem men created the Perpetuation Bureau, and women now have a single purpose in life: to be a Wife and have as many children as possible with her multiple husbands. Not becoming a Wife is a crime, but a place called the Panah offers sanctuary to women who refuse to live by the rules of this draconian system. Instead they come out at night, offering carefully selected men something they can't get anywhere else—non-sexual intimacy with a woman. They have the illusion of freedom, but the women of the Panah can never be truly free when the discovery of one can be the ruination of them all.

The story is told from multiple viewpoints, mostly from the viewpoints of specific women residing in the Panah. Much of the focus is on a woman named Sabine, the main female protagonist. The story is also moved forward through the eyes of two different men, each of whom play an important role in the later part of the novel. With clearly marked chapters, it's never a challenge to know whose point-of-view you're currently reading, however.

For the most part, I enjoyed reading this book. The idea that men would be starved for intimacy that excluded sex is somewhat of a stretch, but it is presented in a believable way in the book. I liked the characters, and was interested in what would happen next for each of them, especially where Sabine was concerned. The latter portion of the book had some intense events going on that had me holding my breath and dreading what might happen... then I reached the end of the book.

If you've been reading my reviews for a while, you know that one of my pet peeves, when it comes to books, is loose ends. It drives me up the wall when gasp-worthy things happen in a book, with zero resolution for the character it happened to before the story ends. I get it:Sometimes the reader has to fill in the blanks about what happened with their own imagination, because the author chose to leave that tiny bit of mystery at the end. There are times it works beautifully—for example, Gone with the Wind leaving open the question of whether or not Scarlett got back together with Rhett. But there are some questions that NEED to be answered, or it tarnishes the reading experience as a whole. The questions left unanswered in Before She Sleeps were (for me) things that needed to be addressed, not left in limbo. I may be in the minority in that opinion, as I've felt dissatisfied with the way other dystopias ended, whereas others applauded the endings.

I'm glad I read this book, though, and look forward to seeing what other readers think about it!

The women of Green City have one duty. As soon as they come of age, they must take at least one husband (usually more) and have as many babies as their bodies can manage. We’re not sure how the crisis is handled in other countries in Bina Shah’s chilling novel, Before She Sleeps. In Green City, women are tracked and monitored and bombarded by propaganda about their very important role. There are some women who have managed to rebel against the system. In an underground bunker called the Panah, there are women who struggle to live a life that is not tied to their biology.

Before She Sleeps is mostly narrated by Sabine, a young woman who belongs to the second generation of Panah women. (Panah, we’re told, comes from a Persian word for sanctuary.) She found them on the Deep Web just as her father was putting plans in motion to get her married. Through Sabine’s eyes, we see how the women of the Panah maintain their independence. They take on clients—always powerful men with important connections—and sleep with them. They don’t have sex; they just sleep with these men and offer them the comfort of sleeping next to a woman who is not also married to one or more other men.

The only problem with the Procreation Bureau’s very logical plan for repopulating and dealing with the shortage of women is that, like so many other very logical plans, it does not take into account that people are not logical. Sabine’s limited freedom is jeopardized when one of her clients decides that he loves her and won’t take her repeated noes for an answer. The inevitable crises sends all of the characters rushing around Green City trying to hide their secrets, hide and move Sabine, figure out what happened, and work out what will happen next.

To be blunt, there are a lot of parts in Before She Sleeps that read like thought experiments that are more academic than realistic. I have some serious doubts about how things would play out if most of the women in the world died. There are hints that things were not always peaceful for women in Green City that ring truer to me than the (mostly) rigidly compliant citizens we see in this novel. Plus, the plight of the constantly pregnant wives is not pleasant to contemplate. By having an outsider tell the story, I think we miss out on the possibilities this book’s premise offers. At the risk of sounding harsh, I think Before She Sleeps could have used more thought and a lot more psychologically realistic character development to make it feel plausible.

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley, for review consideration. It will be released 7 August 2018.

After the ‘War’ and the literal and figurative destruction of many countries, not only has life changed for Earth’s inhabitants but so has geography. The island is somewhere in South West Asia and the capital is Green City – a place that is sustained through science, chemicals and rigid governmental control. One of the consequences of the War is the major depletion in population. In an effort to counteract this new rules apply. Women must take on multiple husbands and undergo multiple pregnancies. Both men and women live severely restricted, proscribed lives.

A few women resist and literally go underground. However, within the powers that be, there are a few men who are not only aware of these women, they seek to avail themselves of their ‘services’ as Clients. The rules though, forbid sexual acts. What the men seek is intimacy and a loving embrace. For the women, they are still prisoners, living underground forever – with no way back without dire consequences – their lives.

This dystopian novel brings to mind The Handmaid’s Tale but unfortunately although I was fascinated and interested to see how it would develop, I never engaged on a deeper level. I never felt involved with the characters. Is it well-written – undoubtedly? Is it plausible – yes, within its genre?

Would I recommend it? Yes but not unreservedly. You will just have to read it and judge for yourself.

Thank you to the author, publishers and NetGalley for providing an ARC via my Kindle in return for an honest review.

The latest in the increasingly popular feminist dystopian genre and quite a good one. The world of the near future has been torn and restructured by a global war in the Levant and particularly South West Asia, where the book takes place. Green City is an artificial creation of terraforming a desert to become a suitable place to live, but after a large number of the female population dies out the new austerity rules come into play. The surviving women become essentially breeding machines with multiple male partners to a family to ensure gene variation presumably. Small portion of women rebels and chooses to live on the fringes of the existing society, their lifestyle financed by providing a sort of escort service that offers companionship to eligible men. A precarious situation at best and then a snafu makes it all the more complicated to sustain. Intriguing, isn’t it? Told from multiple perspectives the novel weaves a tight dynamic narrative I found quite compelling. Though I didn’t buy the premise of all these men of power looking exclusively for cuddles and platonic comfort (that seems naïve and biologically implausible), the world Bina Shah created was terrifyingly plausible. Of course, this isn’t a flight of imagination, the author is from Pakistan (Karachi born and US educated), a place with a dismal gender equality index where the status of women is one of systemic gender subordination, so while this novel is sure to draw inevitable comparisons to a seminal Margaret Atwood’s work, it probably didn’t have to go far to look for inspirations. Actually come to think of it, this is probably my first time reading a Pakistani author, so yey for international reading. And also terrifying, really, particularly in its eerie realism, particularly as abortion laws are currently under attack in the US news, to think how easy it is for a civilized society to regress to oppression by any and every other name as a response to a change in circumstances utilizing horrifying phraseology like for the greater good. Timely, well written and intelligent, this is infinitely preferable to the estrogen dystopian variant where women go to any length to have babies despite apocalyptic conditions of the world around them. Thanks Netgalley.

In a future world, due to illness and war the population is dying out. To circumvent this problem, the men in charge decide that women's ONLY goal is to bring new babies into the world. To accomplish this, each woman is required to have multiple husbands. The husbands treat their wife well and buy her whatever she wants but her main goal is to become pregnant and bring new life into their world. What the new rulers of this world choose to ignore is that they have taken something vital from women - FREE CHOICE. This novel is about a group of women who refuse to follow the rules and live underground in secret. They come out at night to provide the one thing that men can no longer get - comfort and care - not sex but comfort and intimacy without sex.

This is a well written story about life in a patriarchal society with absolutely no rights for women. The main characters and well written and give a view of the life of their underground group. Even though this is NOT my favorite genre, I'm very glad that I read this book and I think it's going to stay with me for a long time.

Thanks to the publisher for a copy of this book to read and review. All opinions are my own.

Before She Sleeps - Written by Bina Shah
When is it alright to be just a woman alone!

In modern, beautiful Green City, the capital of South West Asia, gender selection, war and disease have brought the ratio of men to women to alarmingly low levels. The government uses terror and technology to control its people, and women must take multiple husbands to have children as quickly as possible. Yet there are women who resist, women who live in an underground collective and refuse to be part of the system. Secretly protected by the highest echelons of power, they emerge only at night, to provide to the rich and elite of Green City a type of commodity that nobody can buy: intimacy without sex. As it turns out, not even the most influential men can shield them from discovery and the dangers of ruthless punishment.

What did I like? This book fascinated me. What would we do if this should really happen? Is that the way the government would treat us? I guess I would be one of those women that rebelled because I could never do what they wanted me to do. I did see the reason that the secret society was formed and how it could take control of the situation if there wasn’t such a great cost to the mental conditions.

What will you like? A very well written dystopian novel that will grab the independence in you whether you’re a man or woman. Developed characters that feel real, with real emotions and feelings. Thought provoking with lots of incredible action to take you to this impossible place in time. Starts out with interest and builds to an explosion of emotions. Highly recommend this read. I received this from the author and Net Gallery for an honest review with no other compensation.

Sound familiar? From Pakistan author Bina Shah comes this look at a dystopian world where men have ruined everything with war and now the women must pay the price. Much like The Handmaid's Tale, the women are secluded. They are here to re-populate the world. And that is all. The women are repressed, treated like breeding stock and must take multiple husbands and keep on giving birth.

It is a patriarchal society and women have no rights.

But in every repressive regime, there are those women who just aren't going to follow meekly in line. They don't want to be a part of this system. And one woman has found a way out. And her niece will assume responsibility for all of the group next.

These women live underground and are secretly protected by a man at the highest levels of this new regime in Green City. They only come out at night and provide some of the wealthiest men with the one thing they can not buy. Comfort and intimacy without sex. They are like ghosts in the night. Always safely home come morning.

Until one morning one of them doesn't come home and the entire community will be changed.

I don't normally like dystopian novels, but the characters in this book were so engaging. And the story told so well, that I am looking forward to the next one!

Netgalley/ Delphinium August 7, 2018

I enjoyed the book to some degree, but in all honesty, the lifestyle and traditions of Islam are so alien to me that I had a hard time empathizing with any of the characters, though I sincerely hated a few. Couldn't finish it. Just not my type.

I didn't request this book. The Book Blurb is scary and I don't read scary books. I'm sure this book will be intriguing to people who like this type of genre. I don't read scary, violent , disturbing topics. That is why I didn't request this book.