The Book of the Unnamed Midwife

Trigger warnings: Spoilerrape, attempted rape, rape of a minor, female genital mutilation

This book! Gah, so intense and interesting. If you're looking for literary SF, this would probably qualify. I'm surprised it's not being talked about more with how popular The Handmaid's Tale has been this year and given the relative popularity of The Passage. As denoted above, there are a ton of potential triggers for readers in this book, so just something to consider. It's not a light book but once you get started, you will probably just read it in one sitting like I did.

When I started reading this book I had that feeling of deja-vu and post apocalypse fatigue but within a very short time it was clear that there is something different about it that separates it from the rest. This is down to the point of view the book is written from. Not only is the main character a woman, which we've seen before, but the entire lens that the book is read through is from the female perspective. I have read many books where the fact that the main character is a woman only affects the pronouns used and other than that could be applied to any other ‘walking dead' scenario but this was a real study of what it would mean to be a woman in an uncivilised world. I really recommend it.

By the end of this I just felt an overwhelming sense of....eh?

So the start of the book makes a deal of this being a journal, but then within a few paragraphs just changes to a normal third person past perspective so seemed pointless.

There was very little likeable about the main character apart from the fact she wanted to help the few women she came across with birth control.

I did like the whole apocalyptic setting and some of the interactions with people she met but it didn't save the book for me.

It just didn't do a great deal so I'm not really understanding the rave reviews and awards.