The premise of this book was so good but unfortunately it just did not live up to what it promised. I struggled to get through the story and the plot felt very weak.
Thank you to Netgalley and to the publishers for allowing me to read this advanced copy.

This title sounded extremely intriguing but it was just too strange for my taste. It's like a reverse Handmaid's Tale, where society is way more matriarchal and there are maybe 11% of men who are kept in special centers to "service" the women. This story centers on 4 of these women, Medea, Wicca, Eva and Silence. They are linked by circumstances, fate and their pasts.
I'd like to tack on an extra star but the description of an unskilled castration and the horror this poor child endured through her mother was enough to illicit sympathy but not enough to make me recommend this title. The writing is poignant and visceral, however, and may appeal to female rage.

*Special thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press fort this digital e-arc.*

An intriguing dystopian novel about four women in a world turned inside out from what we know. It won't be for everyone (I wasn't sure it was for me) due to some graphic gross things and attitudes but it is thought provoking. The women are well drawn and the worldbuilding is good. Thanks to netgalley for the ARC. For fans of world fiction and dystopian scenarios.

This was a much darker read than I was expecting, however I really loved the setup and I loved the worldbuilding. I liked how the story was told from four very unique perspectives though I didn't really like any of the characters. I don't think that the blurb for this book captures the "mood" for this book. I was picturing something closer to Yours for the Taking by Gabrielle Korn but this book was a lot darker. That said, I know I have some friends who will love this, I just don't think that it's something you can casually pick up if you don't normally read darker books.

While Eleven Percent is referred to as an “inverse Handmaid’s Tale,” I found the reality of the narrative to be far more complex and compelling than that comparison suggests. Through the perspectives of Medea, Wicca, Eva, and Silence, Uthaug offers more than a speculative power reversal—she invites us to interrogate the very meaning of gender, power, and societal structure in a world where one gender dominates.
This story is, at times, disturbing, distressing, and even outright disgusting—but above all, it’s deeply thought-provoking. Uthaug doesn’t offer utopia; instead, she explores the limits of freedom—for women, for those who don’t fit neatly into binary categories, and for anyone caught outside the newly constructed norms.
Despite the shift in who holds power, the society depicted still carries the burdens of classism, exclusion, and religious control. A flipped hierarchy is still a hierarchy, and those deemed “undesirable” remain marginalized or forgotten. The novel asks: if the system is simply inverted, is anything truly transformed?
The world-building here is brilliantly executed. Rather than relying on exposition or info-dumps, Uthaug unfolds the intricacies of this society gradually, through character perspective. Each new voice adds depth to the reader’s understanding of how this world works—and whom it fails.
While I didn’t love every character, each one served a clear purpose in revealing different angles of life under this matriarchal regime. They’re flawed, human, and often deeply conflicted—either struggling to survive or to conform. Even with the power dynamic reversed, the society they live in feels just as restrictive as any patriarchal one. There may be new rules, but there are still rules.
One aspect I especially appreciated was the casual queerness woven throughout the novel. With men largely absent from society, many characters engage in sapphic relationships as a default. Even the relationships of trans and non-binary characters in this world are depicted with care and validity, even as they face their own unique struggles.
Overall, Eleven Percent is not just a flipped version of a familiar dystopia—it’s a bold, uncomfortable, and intelligent exploration of what power does to people, no matter who holds it.

Not really my thing.

Thank you NetGally and St Martin’s Press for early access in exchange for an honest review.

Publication Date : April 22, 2025

I loved the idea of this book. And I think some of the reviews on it are completely unfair. Especially people not reading it because of the blood cakes but will probably watch a horror movie where a woman gets butchered. But whatever.

I think like others I was just missing the plot. But I love that it is something unique and different when we get so much of the same stuff.

This had the coolest concept for me: reverse Handmaids Tale? A world run by the women? Sign me up for the feminist rage. Translations aren’t my go-to, but I’ve enjoyed them in the past and wasn’t deterred by it with this one.

However, DNF’ing at 40%. I’m struggling to see a plot for this book, it’s feeling kind of directionless — an imaginative scenario that’s sort of just spinning its tires and going nowhere but in a circle. I also took issue with some of the ideas presented… namely, that this book is set in the future, wherein modern society seemingly fell apart without the men; female crews and engineers couldn’t maintain everything? For such a feminist story, I couldn’t stop thinking about this hole.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the arc and alc.

Unfortunately, this book was not for me. I love Cassandra Campbell as an audiobook narrator, but this story was just too boring to get through in my opinion.

Unfortunately I had to DNF. I really wasn't vibing with the story and tried a few times to pick this up. Unfortunately it just wasn't for me.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a gifted ARC of this novel!

This was a partial buddy read for me, and I personally picked this one up because I was intrigued by its premise. After reading though, I’m not sure this was the right book for me. Although there was strong character development and I enjoyed how the characters puzzle-pieced together, I felt as though this book was missing a traditional plot. Additionally, I kept questioning different things that would come up about the evolution or the backdrop to this novel that I feel like weren’t explained for readers. I understand that this book had high reviews elsewhere, but maybe isn’t the right fit for me personally.

I’ve been into reading a lot more translated works and am glad to have added Eleven Percent to the list as well. It’s always a curious thing to think about how much a translation can change the core of the book but given how distinct the storytelling is, I don’t see a lot being changed here.

I am a bit baffled by people’s reviews and the hang up on period blood cakes and find it a bit immature. Period blood and blood rituals have been used for centuries, especially by women and witches and loved the symbolism of the blood spells, rituals, snakes and all the very distinct imagery we got.

My only hang up was the time period of this book. From the comparisons of books like A Handmaids Tale, I expected more of a modern story but this was told in a way that felt very old, mythological and as a period piece. This wasn’t bad in any way but definitely changed a lot of my perspective going in to what I was going to get versus what I got.

Eleven Percent by Maren Uthaug is a captivating tale that kept me guessing right up until the very end. The intricate plot and well-developed characters drew me in from the very first page, making it a truly engaging read.

I just wanted to thank the publisher for giving me the opportunity to read this ARC. However, I have unfortunately DNF’d the book at 15% in. I really tried to get into it and read more but I just couldn’t do it. The premise sounded so interesting but it just truthfully wasn’t for me. It was too weirdly sexual and honestly a bit confusing. There were too many times that I didn’t understand what was going on and when I thought I wasn’t confused anymore, I was just right back to being confused.

After centuries of violence, men have been reduced to as small a percentage of the population as possible without risking inbreeding. Maren Uthaug presents an unsettling future earth where women rule. Women teach their children (almost entirely daughters, as boys don’t count as children in this society) about the evils of the patriarchy, about how males must be controlled so that their testosterone doesn’t cause them to rape and murder. In Eleven Percent, four women, living in what used to be Denmark, tell a story about gender, faith, secrets, and betrayal. This book is masterfully translated by Caroline Waight.

Medea, a witchy woman who raises snakes, bookends the novel. Through her, we learn about the various factions women have split into after the (unexplained) Evolution and the end of the patriarchy. Some women, like Medea and other members of her dwindling coven, deal mostly in herbal medicine and a bit of spellwork. Others, like Medea’s lover Wicca, follow a gender-flipped version of Christianity where Mother has replaced a masculine god. Yet others are trying to create something new by erasing as many remnants of the past as they can. Medea is also unique in her society because she and her sisters, Eldest and Silence, are keeping a very dangerous secret hidden: a young male child. If found, the boy would be taken away to the concentration camps, where men are drugged and kept for breeding or sex. Medea and the others will be sentenced to an oath of silence and forced labor.

When the perspective switches to the spoiled Wicca, we learn more about the appalling fate of men in this woman’s world. Wicca’s only goal is to become a great priest like her mother but, in spite of her impressive bloodline, she doesn’t have the ability to turn snake venom into divine visions. She can’t even keep snakes alive for more than a few weeks. Her cover-ups and blunders are a huge source of conflict in Eleven Percent. To be honest, I was glad when the book moved away from her narrative because I loathed her.

The most interesting narrators for me were Silence and Eva. Their chapters take us into the past and offer further chilling revelations about what happens to those who have the bad luck to be born male in this world. Silence and Eva’s stories are hard to read because they are full of a deep longing for love and for someone to understand them, even though they don’t fit in with the other girls and women. Then, in a flash, everything goes terribly wrong.

I struggled with Eleven Percent. I’ve read other books—Y: The Last Man and The Power—where women were either in the majority or found a way to become the dominant gender. In those books, women also abuse their power over men and other women, arguing that humans will always find a way to oppress a minority given a chance. Where Y: The Last Man turned the premise into a thriller and The Power is clearly satirical, Eleven Percent isn’t written as a story where balance can be restored or as a thought experiment. The lack of literary devices to offer some mental distance, plus some absolutely horrific themes, made this book a very uncomfortable read for me.

Interesting but strange in a way that’s hard to explain. It owes a lot to Greek mythology, but mixing it with modernity and putting it in Scandinavia is just strange. I’m not saying it had to be in the US, but it dampened down the dystopian aspect.

I loved this imaginative dystopian read! It's essentially an inverse Handmaid's Tale which makes for a rich and fascinating world. I was immediately captivated by this story and its multifaceted characters.

The blurb for this sounded so interesting but it honestly started to go downhill on page one when Medea started making bloodcakes with period blood . I had to read the multiple times because I kept thinking I must be reading it wrong .

Just not for me

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for complimentary copy in exchange for an honest review

A very odd book about a matriarchal society that has eliminated all but 11% of men. I found it fascinating all the ways the author turned patriarchy on its head. Labeling men as dangerous and dim-witted and good for nothing but pleasure and occasionally reproduction, to be kept in "Centers" like drug-addled cattle, was really dark....and yet, when you consider just how many novels and movies and other media exists where the women are kept and treated as inconsequential cattle, this doesn't seem so far-fetched. Patriarchy destroyed the world, and women have been battling ever since to restore the planet to a better state. I loved all the little details, especially the fact that this matriarchal society used rounded structures and bases to build their society - straight lines and edges represented the patriarchy and were being knocked down and rebuilt to reflect this new society.

But biggest issue was the characters themselves. I did not find most of them likeable. Wicca in particular was unbearable. Very selfish and self-centered and did not care at all about anyone else around her. She left a bad taste in my mouth. Medea was interesting, as were Silence and especially Eva, and it was fun to read about how their lives intersected.

In a future version of our world, the patriarchal system of government, thought, and even species has been upended. The world is now completely run by women, with males being relegated to clinics, where they are trained and drugged to be compliant and non-aggressive. But four women, Medea, Wicca, Silence, and Eva are all experiencing this world in different ways. Medea, a snake breeder and witch, sees the decline of the males as a perversion of the balance of nature. Wicca, a priestess who's firm religious beliefs blind her to anyone's problems but her own. Silence, a non-verbal young woman who's plagued by guilt over a childhood experience. And Eva, a clinic technician who trains the young males at the clinic, but is hiding a secret to could destroy them all.

An interesting and thought-provoking exploration of what happens when you take today's political and societal atmosphere of a male-dominated world and invert it completely, does our society thrive or stagnate?