I am a huge fan of gender dystopian fiction. Eleven Percent by Maren Uthaug, describes a world where only eleven percent of the men survive and become marginalized because of their role in the downfall of civilization. While I was very excited about the concept of this book, the execution was poorly done. They spent to much precious space on the page describing menstruation that could have been spent on better character development.

The narration by Cassandra Campbell itself was well done and is probably the reason why I did not DNF this book.

Thank you RBmedia | Recorded Books for the opportunity to listen to this eARC. All opinions are my own.

Rating: 3 stars
Pub Date: Apr 22 2025

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Eleven Percent is an extremely weird novel that seems to mainly show that a women-led society could easily become as sexually fetishized and domineering as real-world male ones, and use the same religious and nature myths to justify it.
The story is told out of order, to emphasize and reveal the ways characters hide their own or others' attributes to try to conform to society, and the twists and turns as things are revealed.
The descriptions are intricate and language evocative, especially when it comes to the snake worship, the conditions under which the 11% of males are kept for breeding purposes, and especially all the ways people change their bodies to play with societal norms -- adding and removing appendages as they see fit for pleasure or survival.
Turn the gender dysmorphia up to 11!

CN. for transphobia, forced gender, including rather graphic bottom surgery, lots of weird stuff with bodily fluids

I received an ARC through NetGalley for an honest review.

An intriguing premise, a blurb that bares little resemblance to the actual plot, and prose that wasn't awful made me stick with this to the end, but I really wish I hadn't.

Likewise, I spent the majority of the book hoping for the plot to appear...and then I wish it hadn't.

I ended up finding this a confusing, boring, probably transphobic nonsense by a possible TERF? (I couldn't find any statements, but people talking about her beliefs and she signed some misogynistic email thing).

Maybe I'm showing my ignorance about what this was trying to say, but it came off as confused, boring, biossentialist nonsense.

Was their actual magic with menstrual blood?
Beyond the reference to Lilith and the Serpent, what were the snakes all about?
The handling and reference to trans masc people was gross and transphobic without seeming to make a point about why being a bigoted scumfuck is bad.
There seemed no real thought behind gender as anything but sex (or asbuse and force)

Inverse Handmaid's Tale, this was not.

More like a half-remembered terfy dream of The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas (derogatory, obviously)

This was a strange story, i was hopping for something like the handmaid tale but from the side of man, or better, how would it be if women took charge, a bit like “the gate to women’s country“ because i really loved that book, but that is not what I got here… this book is a bit like the book of flora, with lots of witchcraft thrown around… all the characters come together to tell just one narrative, in the end, all makes sense and everyone is connected, but how and why that is for me to know and for you all that give this book a chance…

I don’t even know if I could call this book feminist, I got to listen to the audiobook, and maybe this one was one of the few audiobooks I have listen this year that I don’t really care about… maybe because I didn’t understand all the symbols about snakes, and what was supposed to do with the snakes, too much paganism and I had too little information to fully grasp what that really meant for the book, I felt like witches got in a blender with ancient Greece and the story was born… but again maybe its not for me and someone else will love it… I say that this reminds me of the book of flora because there’s a character here, I wont say who or how, was born male, and his own mother was always mistreating him and forcing the male out of him, and even got to the point of operating him and cut his dangly bits out… I don’t feel like the mother loved her own child, so if that was the case, why not leave the boy in the centers… besides this person could never love men or woman… its a sad conclusion to his story…

it was just ok, I felt a bit dissatisfied with the narration, but maybe that had also to do, that I felt a bit freaked out with the way the story was developing…

Thank you Netgalley and RBmedia | Recorded Books, for the free AAC and this is my honest opinion.

I really wanted to enjoy this book, but ultimately it wasn’t for me. I was drawn in by the premise of a reverse Handmaid’s Tale, but it felt like the story didn’t really get going, and was more a long string of description about daily life. I ended up DNFing this.

The first hour primarily seemed to be about snakes, but I pushed through to carry on. Perhaps some of the nuance was lost in translation, but the slow pacing and lack of plot progression in the first 20% made it hard to want to continue. I would have liked a bit more world building, to understand the ‘evolution’ and the dystopian existence.

The narrator was great, and I recognised her voice from other audiobooks - her narration is good and she has a great voice for reading.

I think there should have been some clear trigger warnings - I was taken aback in the first few minutes by a description of an animal death - and ultimately it was details like this that meant this book just wasn’t for me, although I believe the idea has plenty of potential.

thank you netgalley for the free audiobook version is this title. while the premise truly intrigued me, ultimately this book was not for me

Thank you to Netgalley and RBmedia for the advanced reader's audio copy of Eleven Percent by Maren Uthaug.

Eleven Percent is a bold and quite imaginative work that challenges one's conventional narratives and encourages one's self to critically examine societal norms and structures. This novel gave a unique perspective and speculative approach which makes it a good addition to the contemporary dystopian genre. It was pitched as the inverse of The Handmade's Tale, which it is I guess in some fashion. But it felt like so much more than that at times.

I listened to this novel but I could definitely see some readers being squeamish about some of the content. However, it's a pretty thought provoking novel that delves into themes of gender, power, and societal structures, offering what I took as a satirical critique of patriarchy.

Noted as the inverse of Handmaidens Tale is technically acurate in the fact that women run society, I find the rest of the story anything but similar. There should be a content warning for this story. The amount of discussion of genitalia and self pleasure is concerning. The story of the four women and how their lives intertwine is interesting. There seems to be a lot of time spent in the small details that could be left out, but then those small details really do make the book connect later on. The ending is very abrupt. I felt I wanted just a bit more in the ending.

This did not hit the mark for me. I really wish this was just done differently with more captivating characters and plot. Narrator was good.

This book had such a strong concept—a world led entirely by women, where men make up only eleven percent of the population. I was intrigued right from the start. The idea of flipping the script on gender and power dynamics was something I wanted to see explored in a meaningful, layered way. And while the premise was bold, I’m not sure it landed as powerfully as it could have.

One thing I did really enjoy was the way Uthaug dove into the characters. Learning about each one and their backstories—how they became who they were—was fascinating. That was one of the strongest aspects for me. And the world-building around religion, especially the transformation of Christianity, was compelling and cleverly done. It made me think about how belief systems evolve and adapt, especially under different leadership.

That said, the story didn’t feel fully fleshed out. It had all the ingredients for a rich, layered narrative, but it didn’t quite develop into a complete meal. There were threads that felt rushed or under-explored, and I left the book wanting just a bit more.

Overall, Eleven Percent was definitely interesting and had some brilliant ideas, but it felt like it was still finding its feet by the end. A thought-provoking read, but not one that fully delivered on its promise.

Thank you to the publishers, author and NetGalley for the free copy of this audio book.

Not quite sure how I felt with this one! A little weird, a little what did I just read. Overall interesting?

Some books just don’t click with me; unfortunately, this turned out to be one of them. I was genuinely excited going in the premise, especially being described as an inverse of The Handmaid’s Tale, really caught my attention. There were definitely moments of potential and interesting ideas woven throughout.

That said, the writing style didn’t quite vibe with me, and I found it hard to stay fully engaged. The multiple POVs made the story feel a bit scattered, and I struggled to connect with the characters because of it.

One thing that really gave me pause, though, was the transphobic undertones. It’s something I wish had been handled with more care, and it ultimately pulled me out of the story.

I can absolutely see how this book might resonate with other readers, especially those who enjoy speculative fiction with bold, thought-provoking premises. It just wasn’t the right fit for me.

I honestly regret listening to this book. I usually don't mind strange storylines and the description made it sound like something I'd like but I did not at all. So many things made me extremely uncomfortable and it kept getting worse and worse. Sometimes I would think it was just a little weird thing in the story I had to get through but it just kept going downhill.
On top of that, I couldn't even try to summarize this book. Because of the uncomfortable parts I kept getting distracted from what the story was actually trying to tell.

⭐️
at 54 percent audiobook.

I have tried to read this book, actually listen to this book over the course of about four days. I had the audio so it’s pretty straightforward.

I don’t know what it is about this book that I could not get into. It was marketed as a reverse handmaid‘s Tale, which I was down to read and interested in. I wanted to see what a reverse handmaid‘s tale would look like. Honestly this was such a weird book. I don’t know I couldn’t. I tried my hardest. The very beginning was very confusing because it was just about like snake breeding and I literally didn’t understand what was going on then I realize that it was magical.
The fact that they have in this book put this as what the world would look like if it was all women and few men was kind of weird to me. I don’t know. I’m sorry, but this book was 100% not for me and I am down to read all different types of genres and I don’t have anything that really triggers me.

The actual places where they keep the men was very weird. I don’t understand where the thought process with this book was. I could not get into it. This was not for me. I got to 54% of the book and I decided it was not it was enough. I was forcing myself at that point.

This book is very detailed so you do not like mentions of bodily fluids as far as blood, and as they say it in the book “shit” flying everywhere, this book is not for you. The sexuality of the book I had no problem with. It was the whole bodily fluids and the tone of the book that was a big issue for me.

What in the actual…. Did I just listen to?! Wow. I… no. Not for me. The writing style actually wasn’t bad. But that subject and plot.. or non existence of plot? No. Just.. no. This was ridiculous. I received an ALC of this book from NetGalley and this opinion is my own.

Eleven Percent by Maren Uthaug ~ what would happen if the world was run by women and only eleven percent of the population were men? I'd like to think we'd handle it much better than these characters did. There were many things in this book that I loved, there were a few times I laughed and many times I cringed. I do not want to live in this dark and depraved dystopian world.
I've gone back and forth on whether or not I liked this book, so I suppose I am somewhere in the middle. I just don't see women as being this cruel even in the name of protection. I think because of the unbelievable lack of compassion I know women as a whole have, I just couldn't totally embrace it. Somewhere I also felt the pacing was off.
I do think the audiobook was narrated well and I would listen to more books from this voice actor.

Thank you for this ALC.

I really wanted to love this book, especially with the dystopian premise, but it didn’t resonate with me.
I enjoyed the book narrator Cassandra Campbell.


Thank you NetGalley and RBmedia | Recorded Books for the chance to listen to this ALC in exchange for my honest opinion.

What a unique storyline. This book follows four women in a feminist society and each one is hiding something. The world is focused on women, spirituality, community, love and pleasure.

I enjoyed getting to know each of the characters and appreciated the way the story unfolded and intertwined and the deeper character development. As someone with a farmers of snakes, I struggled with some scenes, but I was aware of that going into the book. The narration seemed to match the characters and story and added to the overall experience.

Thank you to NetGalley, RBmedia and Maren Uthaug for the advance reader copy.

This was an odd one for me, I'm not really sure what to think about it. It's thought provoking but I'm not sure it totally hits the way it in which it was intended. The premise is almost like a reverse Handmaid's Tale where women are the rulers and only 11% of the men survive. The story was a bit disjointed and took a while for all of the pieces to come together.

I really wanted to leave this story mind-blown, texting all of my reader friends to check it out, but I simply wasn't. I was left with more of a what was that? It was a bit too out there, a bit too much even for dystopian, in my mind, to really be though provoking with widespread appeal.

I finished this on Saturday and I am still trying to figure it out. I found it strange, which is the point. The women seemed to have no love or concern for the child, which is not what I would expect at all, as humans. It really challenged my understanding of human nature. This book is heavily focused on sex without being smut. I guess it is technical sex stuff.
You would thing a world without men would be less focused on weird body things but they really did a number on Chaplin.
I LOVE the narration.