The final volume of the wonderful Road to Nowhere trilogy, which paints a very, very dark view of civilization after a plague wipes out most women and then kills most of the surviving women who get pregnant. The series definitely needs to be read in order, so start with "The Book of the Unnamed Midwife", which is probably the easiest to follow because it starts in present time. The latter two volumes, including this one, take place several generations later and would be hard to just jump into, I think. If I had to pigeonhole the series, I'd say it might be considered a cross between Corman McCarthy's "The Road" and Walter M. Miller's "A Canticle for Leibowitz". The future is portrayed as a very nasty place, especially for women, but it has some remarkable women in it whose stories are told in these volumes and who provide what hope there is that humanity might just survive. Very highly recommended for those who like post-apocalyptic literature.

I was going to say that this book must have been the shortest of the three, but it turns out it's actually the longest. I'm actually sad it's over. I *loved* it, I mean, as much as one can love such a brutal world. The series as a whole is so original and so well-written. I was reading through in this book and noticing (for the first time - how is this possible??) how the city and state names were all bastardizations of actual cities. Estiel - STL - St. Louis. Niyak - New York? Demons - Des Moines. Iwa - Iowa. I am guessing that Shy is Chicago (Chi-Town). And it keeps going and going and I was amazed at the sheer number of cities these people were able to make it to and through in their journeys. Also: No magical Mormons as many people feared!

The exploration of gender was very interesting. And the idea that humans were evolving so rapidly - literally in a generation or two - was a really compelling take. I think my main problem with the story line was what was happening with this army, and why. I guess I didn't understand the motivations of the army's leader, even though it seemed like it was explored and laid out in quite a bit of detail. It just didn't make a lot of sense to me.

Overall I loved the book, and I loved the entire series. I wish that this book had been longer! Even a little extra at the end with the army's arrival, and a longer epilogue with more detail would have been fantastic. But what a fitting end to the series. I'm looking forward to more Meg Elison in the future.

Thanks to NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this book.

It has been over one hundred years since the Dying has taken place. And the army is on its way to Bambritch Island. The refugees have been pouring in. The leader, sometimes described as a man other times described as a woman, has been destroying cities, killing everyone including pregnant women all in the search for “frags”. Flora had heard of frags, people who can impregnate themselves and have living children, before but had always dismissed it as a myth. As the army comes closer, she reflects on the last 40 years in hopes of understanding why someone could have their sights set on Bambritch.

The suspense was killing me throughout this book! We know that danger is coming but we also have absolutely no idea how Flora ended up on this island and where’s Eddy? Who is this living child Flora speaks of? All of these questions are answered throughout the book through narrative transitions in time. This was the best option for this book and Elison executes it very well. Flora tells her story in both the past and present through diary entries, with some chapters being told in third person. This book more than the other two, was rooted in the idea of evolution and how things evolve. How people and communities evolve to survive. How ideas evolve and persist. How morals change and evolve when they conveniently fit a narrative. How we as humans may one day physically evolve and adapt to survive. Each of these characters has to decide how they will then adapt and evolve with the changing conditions.

I love that this series keeps pushing the envelope when it comes to the ways in which we discuss sexuality, gender, and a changing society. Elison takes so many different aspects and really dissects them from queer relationships, to polyamorous relationships, motherhood, transitioning. It was refreshing to read a book that discusses it so plainly. I am not queer so I can’t speak to how accurate these depictions are. I can only speak to my own experiences and I found her conversations around these topics to be very enlightening and informative and very individual. I love that this dystopian series that originally revolved around a woman trying to help other women survive grew into a series that explored sexuality and gender. I’ve never read a book that focused solely on those aspects in a dystopian and now that I have, it’s puzzling to me that there aren’t more books like this. What a way to end a series. Highly recommended.

5 stars is, unfortunately, the most Goodreads allows me to award this book but in my heart of hearts, it deserves a thousand shiny stars.

****VERY MINOR SPOILERS AHEAD****

This is the final tale in a story that starts in our current time and goes to a future where humanity starts again. In The Book of Flora we finally get to know more about her, a horsewoman, so kind and so used to not being fully wanted nor accepted that she made it her strength. She took what life gave her and turned it into light, into acceptance, into love.

I could not say that Flora is my favorite character in this whole series because there are so many others who have my heart also but she is very close to the title. And I can almost see her in my mind's eye, shy, discreet, accepting it with a nod and a half smile.

And what to say about Eddy, my brother? The one who is so much like me, a transmasculine person who is on the verge of being a man but who was never a woman (although perceived as one by so many) but who is more like...neither? Like Connie, you'll ask... but no, not really. They are filled with a different material. A material rotten by the world, by themselves.

This novel is the closest thing to literary perfection I've read in a long while. It is so touching, I highlighted so many passages, I inked them in my memory so I'll have those scenes and dialogues, monologues with me forever. I feel like I learned and grew just by reading this and the other books in the series.

This novel is a homage to gender diversity. To all kinds of questions and identities that have, as Flora so wisely says, always existed, always been here, even if under different names. Sometimes accepted, sometimes persecuted, sometimes just hidden. We are here and we are not going away.

The journey of these wonderful people ends in this book, which saddens me to no end but I am so thankful that I'll carry forever within me all of them, their stories, their words, their lives, their love, their world.

Meg Elison, thank you so, so much for writing such a marvelous series, and for speaking of gender identities in such a respectful, lyric, poetic way.

I'd like to thank NetGalley and the Publisher so, so much for the opportunity. For sending me and ARC of this novel in exchange for my honest review.

3.5 stars rounded up for goodreads. To me, this was the weakest of the series, but still overall fairly entertaining and thought-provoking.

We follow Eddy, Flora, and Alice, as they interact with side-characters old and new. The timeline wasn’t linear, and I thought the end felt very out of place to me. The interacting with people in different settlements and how they viewed the world and gender/sexuality differently was intriguing.

One quote that really stood out to me was “There’s only so many examples of how to be a person in this boat. I hope that when we find someplace to settle, they have more choices. There are a thousand ways to be themselves, but they have to find their own.”

I like that we are continuing to explore gender and sexuality in a post-apocalyptic world, when all too often the danger of being female or other is ignored, but the <spoiler> Connie plot line really lost me at the end. They knew Flora for so little time and yet she always feels they are her living child, and they have such strong feelings towards her that I found confusing. </spoiler>

You should know before starting this book that it is the third book in a trilogy that really needs to be read in order to completely understand what is going on. Both books are excellent and you won’t be sorry if you pick up all three.

The first book follows the story of the original Unnamed Midwife, a woman traveling a post-apocalyptic world where women have become extremely rare. As a result, women are commodified. It gets bleak, believe me. The Midwife, a former nurse, tries to make sense of the world, keeping herself safe, and helping other women when she can.

Book two, beginning roughly a hundred years after the Midwife’s story, follows Etta, a queer, black woman who acts as a raider. She searches the detritus of our world for items that can be of use to people in her town, and saving captive women whenever possible. One of those women is the main character of book three.

Shortly after I read book two I heard about the title of this third book and I was ecstatic. Flora is a fascinating character. She is a trans woman living in this hellscape who has maintained a caring a gentle spirit. No mean feat I tell you that. I needed to know more about her, where she came from, how she came to the town where she met Etta in book two.

Book three opens shortly following the events of book two. The world of these books has devolved into a virtual hellscape over the years. All of the women’s stories are full of suffering, but their strength shines through. None of these three are women to be trifled with. They are indomitable, but not untouchable. I really enjoyed getting to know these women, and seeing how society would progress as time progressed. Would things get better or worse? I can’t tell you, but I’m happy with how it finally ended.

The author certainly has a lot to say about the treatment of women and LGBTQ women in particular. It is a refreshing perspective for what can be at times a tired genre. I’m looking forward to more books from this author in the future now that this trilogy is ended.

There is not much to say about this book except that I still haven't finished it. The writing style is still very nice, just like in the first two and the world itself is interesting. However, some of the concepts touched upon in the second and explored further in this third book are a bit too far out there for me and the overall theme of women being either revered as goddesses (sometimes even mistreating men) or sex slaves is getting old fast. I really thought I'd enjoy the look at transsexuality a bit more but the way it was shown here was ... I don't know. Maybe it's just me and I'm not really in the right mood for something so dark and depressing (again). But again: that doesn't make the book bad, just ... not as good as the other two.

The Book of Flora is the final installment of the Road to Nowhere series by Meg Elison. I was very new to this series and was honored to receive a copy of this book, however, at the time I did not know that it was part of a series. I quickly borrowed the first two books from my library and dove right in. I have a full review of the first book, The Book of the Unnamed Midwife if you are curious about the trilogy. I have been completely blown away by this trilogy, especially since I went into it not really knowing anything and it has now become one of my favorites.

We follow Flora, who we were introduced in the second book: The Book of Etta. She is a horsewoman (transgender) who was brought up by a man named Archie when she was very young. Flora was taught by Archie to take care of the needs of any man and to her body to for any means necessary. She was brought from Jeff City to Nowhere by Eddy who we were introduced in the second book. Flora was taken by the Lion, who was a ruling leader in the city of Estiel until he was taken down by Eddy. The third installment of this series is told after the takedown when Flora is living with Alma and the mish in the city of Ommun, which is like a Mormon underground community.

The story is told in several ways with a typical narrative that follows our main characters POV as well as her own journal entries as she catalogs her expeditions through the world. The setting in which she now lives is a dystopian America that was ravaged by a fever that plagued women and children causing a catastrophic decline in their numbers. Now women are seen as a rare commodity, but women getting pregnant and delivering babies is still dangerous.

Flora travels to several cities in this book: Shy, which is Chicago, Florda (Florida) and where the unnamed first started out in book one, San Francisco. Throughout the story we delve into Flora’s past and how she became a horsewoman and her upbringing. The book shows Flora’s journey of acceptance of who she is as well as finding others similar to her that she can relate with. During her time in Nowhere, she felt like an outcast. It isn’t until she travels to other cities and finds other like herself that she is able to finally accepts herself and settle in the city of Brambritch.

Even though the Lion has been killed by Eddy, there are still factions that rise in pursuit of taking command of the world. Flora, who has settled in the city of Brambritch (Bainbridge), is a part of the council for her community and they are aware of an army that is getting closer to their area. They have a plane and Flora and the council know they will reach them soon. One of the council women suggests to round up willing women from their village to have sex with the men. I found this to be very offensive because it suggests that all women are good for is to have sex with men in order to protect themselves. I understand that this book is set in a dystopian world where women are scarce, but the idea of females having to do this bothered me to my core.

Meg Elison gave me everything I wanted from this book when she crafted Flora and her story, weaving in topics of gender and identity and in creating the dystopian world. This book and this series is not for the faint of heart because of the triggers it contains, however aside from that it is a fantastic story that I have never come across. I can’t believe I had not heard of this series or seen others talking about it because it is one that needs to be talked about. This trilogy has become one of my favorites.

First of all, I absolutely loved The Unnamed Midwife and I really enjoyed The Book of Etta. However, this one fell a little flat for me.

The book picks up where The Book of Etta leaves off, with the survivors of Nowhere seeking refuge in the underground city of Ommun. Due to a number of clashes between several of the survivors and the prophet in charge of Ommun, Eddy, Alice and Flora decide to set out on their own to find or build a new settlement elsewhere. The book bounces between that time period and the future where Flora is older and their citizens are preparing for a possible attack.

The beginning of this book was very interesting and I liked it a lot. However, this book put way too much focus on gender issues. There were transgender people, gay people, a character who didn't identify as either gender, etc. I get the need for gender equality and I liked the way gender issues were portrayed and dealt with in the other two books. However, it felt like the author sacrificed plot and character development to deal with those issues. After a while, I just got bored, especially since every single conversation revolved around gender identity and breeding vs. non breeding. Also, in every single town, they had the same conversation about how the townspeople handled slavers and whether they allowed men or not. And inevitably, that discussion would lead to what it means to be a man or a woman. It just felt like the characters kept having the same conversation over and over. It felt like I was being preached to and I got bored. Throughout most of the book, I had to force myself to keep reading because I was not engaged at all. The end of the book involved a sort of surprise twist, but it was over very quickly and it felt a bit unsatisfying. There was also a part of the story that involved the theory of women impregnating themselves without men. This part of the storyline didn't make any sense and I felt like it was another way for the author to say that men weren't needed anywhere. That part of the storyline wasn't developed at all either. I hate to say it because I do love Elison's writing, but this one was a disappointment.

This is the final book in a trilogy I will cherish for years to come. The Road to Nowhere series takes us through questions of gender, power, and the human condition. Set in a dystopian future, Elison threads so many ideas, so many revelations, through her novels that they must be read more than once.

While I really was fascinated by the first two books in this trilogy, I couldn't pick up the thread very easily in #3.

The final book in The Road to Nowhere trilogy, The Book of Flora starts where The Book of Etta leaves off--but Flora is the main character and narrator now. This book is not a linear story--there are two threads interwoven. One begins in Ommun. The other is about 40 years later. This storytelling style makes this book immediately feel different than the earlier two.

While the earlier books touch on various communities having catamites, horsewomen (eunuchs I think), and lgbtq people, in this book the different genders and where they fit/belong are the focus. We meet a guevedoce (which I had to look up). All of these people just want to live somewhere where they can be accepted, comfortable, and safe. So characters go looking for a place where they will be happy, picking up others on the way, and leaving some behind. This is the point of all the traveling. Not for trading, not for salvaging. The larger world that in The Book of Etta was dangerous and worrying is now safe enough to go traveling for weeks on end with no set goal in mind? With women? Without enough supplies to trade for very long? This struck me as a continuity problem.

Because of all the traveling (so much that it seems a bit unreasonable for so much to be by foot), Elison has to continue with her world building, since each community is so different. And some are very unbelievable--but mostly there are too many for her to do any single one justice. The entire story gets to be a bit over the top and fantasy-ish in the end. And I am not a fan of fantasy, it just goes a bit too far for my taste.

The Book of Flora by Meg Elison
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This book is a worthy successor to the previous two that began with The Book of the Unnamed Midwife, but it DOES require some managed expectations.

Such as?

The book is not plotted traditionally. Rather, it reads from the past and present in equal measure and really focuses on the full gamut of gender issues. And I don't mean just men and women but all states of transformation and gender identity.

And it does it in the bleak and dismal post-apocalyptic world that Elison killed us within the first of the trilogy.

Let's back up. Most women are treated like breeding machines, as sub-human, in this world where very few babies are born and women become rare. In the previous book we explored a pretty cool revolution and the reality of Horse Women, or men who are cut to become women-surrogates for the rest of the brutish Man.

This one continues a further exploration of those ideas and develops them carefully. We get friendships and survival and even a fair portion of humor. The bleak world still exists, of course, but there are some interesting cultural modifications and stranger (possibly) biological oddities.

What would our world become if there were no more women? Well, we read this from the PoV's of alternative-gendered people who might, in another world, still be considered women, so all we have is a hard world to swallow.

This is a very hardcore dystopia.

There is blood and horror. But the books are NOT about that. N0t primarily. Look elsewhere for that. Instead, if you want a genuine thought experiment about an utterly transformed world without women (or where women are turned into slaves as a matter of course and then get used up and we can SEE the beginnings of the end of the human race) then look no further. This book is great for this.

I loved the first two books in this series: The Book of the Unnamed Midwife and The Book of Etta (I've reviewed both on my blog). I'm all about a feminist dystopian novel and while some have been weak (*ahem...Red Clocks...ahem*) Meg Elison delivers a post apocalyptic story full of characters who pull you in and make you invested in whatever comes next! Part Mad Max, part The Giver, but all original, this series is really one of my favorites and I can't wait for the next installment already! I definitely recommend this to lovers of Margaret Atwood's Maddaddam series, dystopia lovers, or anyone looking to read about a wide variety of gender identification, themes, and struggles.

Thank you to the publisher and netgalley for this ARC.

This is the strongest of the three book series. I think the focus on 3 characters (Flora, Alice, and Etta) helps the character development where the previous books focused on the title characters and only gave snippets of others.

The Book of Flora picks up where book two left off.  The surviving residents of Nowhere have found shelter in the underground Mormon city called Ommun.  
The people from Nowhere clash with the leader of Ommun on almost everything and the main characters (Eddy, Alice, and Flora) set out in search of a new home.  
The journey is told by Flora, a trans woman we met in book two who fell in love with Eddy.  She explains her past, from her childhood to how she ended up in Esteil in book two.

On their journey to find a new home, Flora finds Connie, a child who doesn't identify as either gender.  Connie eventually leaves when their beliefs clash and Flora grieves the loss at the same time Alice becomes a mother to a living child.  

The Book of Flora was all over the place for me.  While it's a continuation of the first two books and it's necessary to read those in order to truly understand what's happening in book three, this felt very different.  It remains focused on gender identity and equality but an evolution theory that is hinted at throughout and is confirmed at the end of the book left me scratching my head.  It felt as if it was introduced as an afterthought and solely to create tension between two characters, leading up to what could be a dramatic ending that honestly fell completely flat and unresolved. 

The character Connie wasn't fully developed so their beliefs and motivations made no sense to me.  Their return at the end of the book, which had been building suspense, was rushed and lackluster.

Book one, The Book of the Unnamed Midwife, could be read as a standalone; in my opinion it was the strongest book in the trilogy and definitely worth reading for fans of sci-fi/dystopia.  

The Book of Etta was a decent continuation of the world we were originally introduced to with brand new characters.  

The Book of Flora fell apart for me.  I was looking forward to following the characters we met in book two but it felt as if the author was trying to build a dramatic conclusion that was a letdown for me personally because it was unfocused.  
We followed Flora's life and feelings and were only briefly introduced to her child, Connie.  Connie's return at the end because of a discovery they made just wasn't compelling.  If it was supposed to be shocking or dramatic, Connie should've been more central to the plot rather than a footnote.

Thanks to 47North and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for my honest review.  The Book of Flora is scheduled for release on April 23, 2019.

Having read the other two books in this trilogy, I was excited about the third installment. Apocalyptic/Dystopian fiction is a favorite genre of mine, and this book is an excellent example of the category. The writing is superb, told in a narrative style, this volume tells the story of Flora, from her perspective. Sweeping in it's scope, the series deals with gender roles, transgender people, feminism as lenses to look at how might humanity rebuild itself, should society as we know it end. The relationships between well-developed individuals and their emotional connections stand out in this novel. I am looking forward to this author's next project, as this trilogy was entertaining and thought-provoking to experience. I highly recommend this book.

Up until the end, I was thinking this was the best of the trilogy and was considering 5 stars. However, a revelation that strained credibility brought that down a notch. I still recommend the whole series. Not pleasant by any stretch of the imagination, but sometimes tragedy is required to test the mettle of the characters.

The Book of Flora is book #3 in the Road to Nowhere series by Meg Elison. The first book in the series starts off in present day, the second book jumps ahead several generations, and book three picks up where book two leaves off.

I thought this book was a great end to the series. Flora was a fascinating character and she felt very real and genuine. The author did a great job of world building in the first two books and this one focused more on character development and exploration. The conflict was somewhat contrived but parts of it was enjoyable nonetheless.