Mild Spoilers!!


Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me a copy of The End of Men in exchange for an honest review.


The year is 2025, and a mysterious virus has broken out in Scotland--a lethal illness that seems to affect only men. When Dr. Amanda MacLean reports this phenomenon, she is dismissed as hysterical. By the time her warning is heeded, it is too late. The virus becomes a global pandemic--and a political one. The victims are all men. The world becomes alien--a women's world. (Summary from Goodreads)


In eliminating the world’s men, author Christina Sweeney-Baird is free to explore the grief and loss of those who are left to recover in a broken world. The End of Men is divided into sections that linearly follow the virus’s initial outbreak to how women (and a handful of men) are left to rebuild society. From a worldbuilding and pacing perspective, Sweeney-Baird balances the rush of panic in the early days and the long recovery afterwards.


My only structural complaint is the use of “Day 2”, “Day 105,” etc. to describe how long it took to cure the plague. I found this to be difficult to read after the 60% mark when the dates begin to read long numbers like “Day 1,168.” The days in the thousands gave me little indication of seasons or other yearly indicators, and overall added little to my reading experience.


Though The End of Men had a strong start, the more characters that were added to the story the more I found the narrative difficult to follow. More than a dozen first person narrators from numerous countries make up the cast, yet the characters had very little to differentiate their perspectives. There wasn’t one character with enough emotional depth to pull me into the story, which is unfortunate considering this is a character-driven story.


Furthermore, most of the characters are directly connected to the virus as healthcare professionals, professors, journalists, scientists, and somehow all of them are connected to each other. I was itching to hear more about the everyday lives of the common people, which would have given a wider perspective to the world.


One of the other issues I had with The End of Men stems from the line: “You know, we don’t pretend that women are suddenly all gay now. There’s no doubt that female sexuality is more fluid than male sexuality is.” (300). For context, a tech engineer built an app to connect women after many lost their partners in the pandemic. While she is the only character to say this line, the implication undermines the fluidity of sexuality regardless of gender. This one case is representative of the lack of nuance in the discussion of gender within the book. From the beginning of the book, I wondered how the subject of trans and non-binary people would be treated because to me, to reduce people to their biological sex ignores a lot of the complexities of the human experience.


Turns out, trans people got one chapter in the last quarter of the book. In the chapter, a doctor offers a brief, extremely straightforward explanation of how the pandemic affected the LGBT+ community. To read about the mass deaths and suicides of gay and trans people without actually hearing their first-hand experience past the transwoman who recounts the statistics of their deaths really sucked. The narrator of this chapter, another doctor who is collecting stories of the pandemic, speaks with little emotion and brushes off the doctor’s experience of watching her community break apart as just another tragedy of the pandemic. Out of all the issues I had with The End of Men, this is the one I wish had been resolved.


Both fortunately and unfortunately for Sweeney-Baird, she began to write this book in 2019, months before the COVID-19 pandemic broke out. This fact is super interesting to me because there are parts of The End of Men that reflect exactly what is going on right now in our world, yet there were other parts that felt unrealistic due to my experience with the pandemic. One of the times I actually felt lucky to live in our current world was reading that The End of Men’s vaccine took over 672 days to develop. One of the choices I thought didn’t age well was Sweeney-Baird’s explanation of the origin of the plague. In The End of Men, the plague emerged from an illegal op where a poor fisherman aided in smuggling exotic monkeys into the UK. My issue was that the leader of the operation was blamed for the pandemic. I found this perspective fails to address the other systems that bring about the need for some to choose smuggling. Plus, the surviving smuggler (who is immune to the disease,) is put in jail for life, but the question of who ordered the monkeys is never asked.


Sweeney-Baird’s exploration of the issues and prejudices that could affect a world without men are some of the most interesting parts of the book. For example, women without a husband or children receive hate because they supposedly didn’t lose anything in the plague. It shows how the patriarchy is internalized within so many individuals. The ability to analyze the extent of male dominance and authority over most of the world is furthered once they all die. I also enjoyed the child allotment scandal where sperm donations were planned to be distributed to women in relationships with the resources to provide for their children. The scandal was fixed by creating daycare and education systems to support parents. This was just one of dozens of situations faced by the characters, and definitely kept me interested in what happened next.


Rating 3/5: I’d recommend The End of Men to fans of World War Z, as the two books have a similar storytelling structure. Though there were parts of this book that moved slow or had problematic elements, I genuinely enjoyed the novel's exploration of a pandemic-ridden world.

To read a book about a pandemic in a pandemic might be hard for some people. But this book really puts things into perspective, of how much worse it could have been. I enjoy how the novel follows the story line of various women from the beginning of the pandemic to the near end. It also sheds light on how male dominated our world is, and the need for diversification.

Thought provoking,unsettling and eerily hits too close to what we've been dealing with over the last year. How could this author have had this idea just months before something quite similar comes to our real lives? As you get further into the story it shows how we've taken some things for granted or overlooked how unbalanced the sexes can be. In an evolving world of gender identities it goes to show each individual's importance is in society and what a domino effect that could occur when something is eliminated. You never know what you had until it's gone so this makes you think of all the boys and men in your life and even the ones that just made appearances and wonder would your life would have been or would be different without them. Maybe a bit dark for some but I liked the "what if" scenario to help me appreciate those in my life more or maybe finally ditching the toxic ones.
Being someone who gravitates towards funny or sexy stories this was more of a surprise to me in just choosing it, let alone getting so into it. I won't be giving up my ride-or-die genres but this story may have just opened me up to more options in the future.
I received an advanced copy of this book from Netgalley for my honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley & Penguin Random House Canada for providing me with a copy in exchange for a fair review. I'm looking forward to telling customers in my bookstore about this new release!

The End of Men officially lands in bookstores tomorrow! I was enticed by this release earlier this season by the title (obviously), and synopsis. Even before COVID-19, I've always been a sucker for a good pandemic/post-apocalyptic story. I can't believe that Christina Sweeney-Baird wrote this one from 2018-2019 though, as many of its events indicate an eerie foreshadowing (i.e.: government incompetency at dealing with the virus).

What happens when a virus with an insanely high mortality rate emerges out of nowhere and affects only men? Women are asymptomatic carriers, helplessly watching their sons, fathers, and husbands die around them (except for a miniscule immune amount). The End of Men follows several perpectives of women around the world (an academic, virologist, journalist, the emergency room consultant who identified Patient Zero, etc.) and how they deal with the fallout of the virus ravaging their homes, family, and life.

Reading this in the present moment of COVID made me frankly more emotional than I would have been otherwise. Although I am not a mother, I could only begin to imagine a bit of the pain of losing a life-long lover or family member. Although I have been in the fortunate position to have not lost anyone close to me to COVID, I reckon that this book's contents could be sensitive to those who have. This of course is not the author's fault and there is certainly a niche audience who flock to pandemic-fiction regardless (such as Camus' The Plague flying off the shelves).

For me, after getting past the emotional devastation and sympathizing with these characters, I found the writing very engrossing and easy to immerse myself into. I wouldn't describe this as a 'page-turner', but I never found a dull moment due to the constant change of perspective. The book is divided into short chapters alternating between several perspectives (some who only appear a handful of times) or 'news articles'. This could be a pro or a con. It could have been the ultimate intention, but I only found myself really caring deeply about three of the main characters by the end of the book as a result. Initially, the amount of POVs felt overwhelming and confusing until it settled into an understandable rhythm and format halfway through. Other readers may be more picky about this if they want to identify with or engage with a character's POV and instead find themselves disinterested in any character. In sum though, by the end of the book, this format of switching between over half a dozen perspectives worked for me as I became accustomed to it.

In sum, to determine if this book is right for you or not to pick up, consider your comfort level with reading material that may hit a bit close to home at this present moment. I'm looking forward to reading more by Christina Sweeney-Baird!

This just hit way too close to home with the pandemic. I wanted to like it but I felt like it just stressed me out to read about more people dying in heartbreaking ways. I didn't end up finishing it because it just made me sad.

Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher and the author for an ARC of The End of Men. I really enjoyed this book and found it eerily familiar given the situation the world has been in for the last year. Though the pandemic that the author writes about is a lot more severe, COVID-19 has hit us hard and we are still living with it today.
In reading reviews from others, a lot of people said that they didn't like the number of characters and found it hard to keep track, I actually thought that the number of characters and narratives added to the sense of chaos and frantic energy that is living in a pandemic. By the end of the story you know who the important players are and my favourite narrative was Catherines. I really admired her and Anthony's relationship.
The book details everything in chronological order from Patient Zero, the ensuing panic, the mass death, the creation of immunity tests, the race to develop a vaccine and personal stories from multiple characters whose lives have been upended.
I enjoyed this story because I could relate to the content, I don't know that I would have liked this book as much if we weren't living in a pandemic but since I could relate to the sense of fear, the unknown, the science behind tests and vaccines, lockdowns, panic etc I found myself gripped by this story.
I liked the glimpse we got in regards to life after a pandemic, all the changes in policy and everything. It made me think about what the next few years will look like after COVID-19.
I love how this story is loosely based on gender equality. What would the world look like if it wasn't completely catered to men? This book was relatable and thought provoking and I really enjoyed it given its relevancy in today's society.

It is 2025, and a virus has just been found in Scotland, which is carried by women and attacks men, killing them in about 90% of the cases. Only 10% of the men are immune. Obviously travel exists and this quickly becomes a worldwide pandemic, killing off most of the planet's males.

Hmm, a deadly pandemic, where have I heard of that before? XD

Over more than 1500 days, we follow many different characters, obviously mostly women, including the doctor who first sounded the alarm (and got ignored), an anthropologist writing about people's reactions to the Plague, the Canadian researcher who creates a vaccine...

Many of the stories were accurate and recognizable from what we actually witnessed with COVID (like people dismissing the first whistle-blower, vaccines being protected by patents (did Canadians really have to be the bad guys this time though?)), but others were not. We've seen how selfish human beings really are, so I felt like this book was missing a lot of protests and people complaining. Also, I don't really think that's how vaccines work, where you test it on monkeys, it works, so you go straight to humans. Also, as we now know, when one vaccine is patented, other countries create their own (and then patent them too, but that's not the point...), one vaccine existing doesn't mean every other scientific team grinds to a halt.

That said, I quite enjoyed this book. The short chapters made for quick and easy reading, the multiple points of view meant we got to see many opinions of what was going on. It was a bit like Stephen King's Sleeping Beauties and Naomi Alderman's The Power had a baby, but that baby was actually way better than both its parents put together.

What a dark glimpse into how bad this pandamic really can/could get. I loved the premise that it only affect men and what that would mean for the world. It was terrifyingly real with everything going on in the world. I loved following the different perspectives and seeing how each person was affected differently. Honestly it felt a little too real right now - how things could be if some held the vaccines, how long this could go on for, how the world will look different on the other side. It made it real how different are lives are all going to be. It was so well written and so real. I really enjoyed this story and would he able to easily recommend it!

Disclaimer: I was provided this book at no cost for review but the opinions are mine alone.

As a male I wasn't sure what the orientation of The End of Men would be. Would it be a feminist manifesto declaring that women can get along quite well without us men? Or would it be a doom and gloom story about how necessary men are? Or something else. As it turns out it is a mixture of all three things.

At the start of the story there was a great deal of angst as women lost or expected to lose their husbands and sons. Even worse (in my opinion) for men, as all or most men expected to die soon and had to break all contact with their families with the expectation of dying alone. In the end, the world learned to cope and was fundamentally changed in the process given the different perspectives of women.

It is uncanny how close the description of the pandemic is to the Covid-19 pandemic that we are currently in the midst of, given that the first draft of The End of Men was written in 2018 & 2019, before the current pandemic started. The author says it started just as a thought experiment which turned out to be an accurate prediction of was was coming.

I found the story on the whole to be engaging and quite believable. In a few places the author could have done with some additional input from an immunologist and an epidemiologist as you don't "find" a vaccine, you develop one. In addition, the way that the world reacted to the first reports did not entirely ring true. In the end however this type of thing was not a major distraction for me and likely not at all for most readers.

Recommended.

* Thanks to Penguin Random House Canada and NetGalley for an advance copy for review purposes *

Does Christina Sweeney-Baird have a crystal ball? She finished writing the book by 2019, and it was being edited in 2020, right around the time the pandemic started. The premise of the book is around a pandemic that manifests with flu like symptoms and affects men disproportionately. The virus in this book has a way shorter incubation period and significantly higher mortality rate than COVID-19, and in a few months, wipes out most of the world's male population. The story is told from the point of view of several women - the ER doctor that first encountered cases of the disease, virologists investigating a vaccine, people that are living their every day life and lose their husbands, sons, fathers. It is heart breaking. It is a hard read, but bearable (probably a good idea to wait until a vaccine for COVID-19 was available before releasing this book).

The author clearly put a lot of thought around this and try to imagine what would happen if a catastrophe like this happened. Think of male dominated industries - police, firemen, military, medicine, science, tech, transportation... The transformation of the world as it tries to deal with the pandemic, while major industries are facing serious disruption is gripping. There are feminist themes (a particularly powerful scene involving reversal of power comes to mind), but the major underlying theme is grief and coping with normalized loss.

There are no main characters here, but I particularly enjoyed reading Catherine's story. I appreciated the honesty on depicting her grief and inability to be around what she could no longer have. I think the story could have benefitted by a few less viewpoints - some of them only appeared for a handful of pages, and had little impact; their story could have been told at the museum exhibit.

While the subject can be a little daunting, the author does manage it gracefully, and with hope. I can live with hope.

<spoiler>Because we actually are going through a pandemic now, it is harder to suspend disbelief at some elements. I was surprised that the Canadian virologist was depicted in such a negative light, specially looking at the way vaccine rollouts are happening in the world today. And then, it is a bit weird that other researches dropped off the race when a vaccine was discovered; there is no reason for there to only be a single vaccine. </spoiler>

An unbelievable concept. A virus that affects only men. How will this all turn out for the world. Definitely intriguing.

4.5 stars!
It’s Scotland in 2025 and ER doctor Amanda Maclean is startled when an alarming number of patients who are all men start to rapidly die after appearing with what seemed to be a flu hours before. Amanda sounds the alarm with Scotland Public Health but they ignore her, leading to a global pandemic of what becomes known as the ‘New Plague’ which targets only males. Women are left to restructure society and pick up the pieces after the death of 90% of the male population while grieving for their fathers, husbands and sons. Pub day is today for this nail biter, thanks to @doubledayca and @netgalley for my review copies.

Wow. This one had me in tears, multiple times and I am not normally a crier. It’s heavy but soooo good and so interesting. I was grateful for the author’s note at the end that shared that she wrote and finished this before COVID-19 hit. I think part of what made this such a heavy read is the world we are living in these days. So if you are going to pick this amazing dystopian read up, just make sure you are in the right place mentally. I took a break a few times.

There were so many interesting concepts covered. The idea of a society without men has a lot of ramifications and Sweeney-Baird thought of a lot of small details that never would have occurred to me. The aftermath of the plague causes an overhaul in family dynamics, relationships, sexuality, civil unrest, infrastructure and so much more. This novel is written from multiple points of view, sometimes only getting one or two chapters from a perspective (similar to World War Z) and from characters around the world. Even though we only got intermittent glimpses of characters, I felt they were well developed and intriguing (hate that Lisa woman even though she’s from Toronto). I struggled a bit with the parts really focused on science, but I just found this to be such a fascinating read.

The premise of this book drew me in right away and I couldn't wait to read it. It definitely didn't disappoint! The story follows multiple viewpoints as a brand-new virus starts to infect the world - one in which only men and boys are affected.
It takes you from the start of finding "Patient Zero", to the race to find a vaccine, and finally to the aftermath of how those that are left begin to heal and start over.

** Thanks to NetGalley, the author, and the publisher for a copy of this book. **

I will say it was interesting to read a story about a pandemic while the world is currently in the middle of one. I did enjoy this book. It is a well written story and the characters drew me in. While it was saddening to read of women losing their husbands, sons and other male family members to a quick moving virus, learning about their lives before, during and after actually felt good. Their strength and resilience in the face what was happening around them and across the world actually gave me some hope for what we are all currently going through. A light at the end of the tunnel.

Thought provoking and surprisingly forward looking based on the current world pandemic. The book is written in a series of first-person point of view accounts by a group of characters from varied professions and how the plague affects them. An explosion of cases, which affects only men, sees the virus become a global pandemic with previously inconceivable implications for every aspect of society.

Thank you to NetGalley, Penguin Random House Canada and Doubleday Canada who provided me with a copy of this book. I am voluntarily leaving an honest review.

It's stunning to realize that Christina Sweeney-Baird wrote this novel about a pandemic, before our current pandemic. Eerie parallels and telling differences make it an interesting read, especially right now. By structuring the novel as a report, recording the experiences of a myriad of survivors and victims, she paints a broad story, and therein lies the strength and weakness of the narrative. While I liked witnessing so many different experiences, it was hard to become emotionally invested in any. That problem was exacerbated by a distanced writing technique. That said, there were many heartbreaking, compelling, courageous and maddening stories all woven together to create a highly readable whole. The part I liked best was the ending -- and its commentary on our present. Well done.
#netgalley

A book about a pandemic during a pandemic? Yes please! I would like to thank NetGalley and Penguin Random House Canada for my complimentary copy of "End of Men". I thoroughly enjoyed the story as I could relate to it, as will a lot of other readers. We are all experiencing this pandemic.

"End of Men" is about a plague that only affects men and it's fatal. Imagine knowing that you will have to say goodbye to your husband, sons, brothers, male friends and coworkers; and imagine knowing that you are going to die if you are male. Age is not a factor, if you are male, this plague is fatal. After a few years it becomes apparent that some males are immune but to figure out whether or not they are immune they will have to wait it out. Most of the men are susceptible so chances are, goodbyes will be at the forefront.

There are a variety of characters in this story including doctors, CDC workers, and news reporters. We have the opportunity to see how the plague impacts each of them. The women must learn to adapt and they start to run the world learning how to take over male prominent jobs and roles. It's a different world now for sure.

"End of Men" is a debt novel and it's fantastic. I highly recommend to other readers who like this genre.

Thank you to Netgalley and penguin random house for providing me with this ARC in exchange for an honest review.
I loved this book, and to find that this is the authors debut novel actually shocked me! This book read like something a seasoned author would have written, in my opinion. This book was so thought provoking, well written, and was an absolute page turner.

I was also shocked to find out that the author wrote this novel in 2018, when so much of what was in it was reflective of today’s events. While the nature of the virus in this novel is quite different, it definitely made many connections to what we’re dealing with now.

Now for my favourite part- the characters. This novel follows the perspective of many people in different countries, each one so unique (which I find can be hard for an author to give each POV a distinctive voice). We have the perspective of a doctor, anthropologist, nanny, scientists working on the vaccine, public service agents, etc. This gives you a good understanding of how a virus like this might effect many aspects of the world. The novel also finds great ways to connect the characters (we especially find this in the last half of the book). There were moments of comedic relief, especially from certain characters which kept the heavy subject matter a little lighter. I had moments of tears and laughter.


I liked how this book was also distinctly broken down into different parts- the beginning of the virus, the active time of the virus and then the healing of the population via vaccine, repopulation efforts and filling essential jobs that were male dominated, like waste disposal. It felt like this book addressed any random questions you may have of this theoretical scenario while reading- the “well, what if...” thoughts that pop into your mind are answered.
Overall I definitely suggest this book. The writing was accessible and easy to understand, the characters were all great to read, and it even addressed many issues with today’s society as it is which I appreciated.
Review will be posted to my bookstagram @inkedhemlock on 04/21/21

Special thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a free, electronic ARC of this novel received in exchange for an honest review.
Expected publication date: April 27, 2021
Christina Sweeney-Baird’s novel, “The End of Men” had me completely riveted. To discover it was a DEBUT novel? Colour me impressed.
In 2025, a mysterious plague-like illness is spreading across the globe; it seems to only affect males and very soon, sons, husbands and fathers are dying off. As the world of science scrambles to find a vaccine, the rest of the world waits on bated breath, while trying to put together some semblance of “normal” in a world that is completely different from the one before it.
“The End of Men” is part (reverse) “Handmaid’s Tale”, part “Contagion” and obviously, completely relevant. It is a thought-provoking novel that hits close to home in every way. Sweeney-Baird’s novel has already been optioned for a movie, and there is absolutely no questioning why.
“Men” is not solely a story with feminist themes (although obviously they do arise), it is a story full of loss and grief, desperation, and the human condition (both the positive and negative aspects of it). There is no one who will read this novel, especially in these times, and not have a deep connection and emotional reaction. I found the race for the vaccines (and the self-serving quest to profit from it) to be both eerie and informative.
In most disaster novels or end-of-the-world dramas, especially in movies, the story is centred in the United States, and many other countries either get occasionally mentioned or ignored completely. As a Canadian, I was impressed to see the relevant role that my countrymen (countrywoman actually) played in Sweeney-Baird’s novel (although I apologize, of course, because she was completely unlikable), so props to the author for recognizing the global effect of a pandemic, sans the Hollywood interference.
“Men” is completely page-turning, and the ending provides the bittersweet resolution I expected. Although the subject matter is dismal and grim (so are the times we are living in, am I right?) Sweeney-Baird manages to bring a little bit of levity and hope.
“Perhaps recovery is too great a goal. We can never regain what we have lost and we must accept that, mourn that, grieve what cannot be and find a new way to exist”.
Sweeney-Baird says that she started this novel in 2018, pre-pandemic, and its realism is so startling and shocking, I may consider believing in fortune-telling and psychic abilities. The only thing I’m sure of is I want more from Sweeney-Baird. Hands down, the best debut novel I’ve read in a long time, and one of my all-time faves already from this year!

You’d think by now I’d be sick of reading about a world-wide pandemic, but apparently not! The End of Men hits close to home: it’s an exciting, tragic, impossible-to-put-down, page-turner of a novel about humankind’s fight against its own extinction. In the end, it teaches us what is most important in times like these: to remember those we lost but to carry on fighting for those we haven’t.

The End of Men is a deeply moving story of a deadly virus targeting the male population only, and how the wives, sisters and daughters, and the few remaining men, must learn to adapt to rebuild the world from the ground up. The End of Men is both fascinating by how accurate it was in predicting a global pandemic (it was written from 2018 to 2019) and terrifying when we think we could have faced (and still could one day face) a deadlier virus than COVID-19!

Honestly, every time I’d read something that also happened in our real-world pandemic, like flights being canceled as countries close their borders and certain people being carriers without any symptoms, I’d get a little thrill at feeling like I’ve lived through it as well.

The End of Men is narrated by an array of different characters, living in different countries. There’s the doctor who treated Patient Zero and who tries to find the origin of the virus; there are the virologists and epidemiologists, trying to understand the virus in order to create a vaccine; there are the politicians, working to rebuild the system and keep their countries from falling apart; there’s a journalist, fighting to tell the truth; and there are simply women, who are trying to cope with their losses and carry on with their lives as best as they can.

To say this novel wasn’t an emotional journey would be a lie: but it was also inspiring and a little hopeful. It was great to see the other side too, the after-pandemic. I think we can all use some after-pandemic musing.

I give The End of Men four-and-a-half stars! I really recommend this book, even if you’ve had it with this deadly virus talk: trust me, you won’t regret it.

Warning: this book will also make you want to hug your boyfriends/husbands/fathers/sons/brothers.