The Only Ones: A Novel
Ratings3
Average rating3.7
15
Ratings3
Average rating3.7
Inez wanders a post-pandemic world, strangely immune to disease, making her living by volunteering as a test subject. She is hired to provide genetic material to a grief-stricken, affluent mother, who lost all four of her daughters within four short weeks. This experimental genetic work is policed by a hazy network of governmental ethics committees, and threatened by the Knights of Life, religious zealots who raze the rural farms where much of this experimentation is done.
When the mother backs out at the last minute, Inez is left responsible for the product, which in this case is a baby girl, Ani. Inez must protect Ani, who is a scientific breakthrough, keeping her alive, dodging authorities and religious fanatics, and trying to provide Ani with the childhood that Inez never had, which means a stable home and an education.
With a stylish voice influenced by years of music writing, The Only Ones is a time-old story, tender and iconic, about how much we love our children, however they come, as well as a sly commentary on class, politics, and the complexities of reproductive technology.
Reviews with the most likes.
It's about 3.5 stars. I really liked this book but the first fourth to maybe third of the book is tough to read. The main characters style of speech and level of understanding of what's happening around her make it hard for you to suss out what's happening. After that though it really picks up and I blew through the rest of the book.
It's the near future and the world has been ravaged with lethal epidemics. A sizable percent of the global population is dead and many parts of society are crumbling. This is a popular concept these days, and the setting itself is like a milder version of Station Eleven with a touch of Children of Men. Children are becoming increasingly rare in this environment, and illegal experiments in artificial birthing methods and cloning create backlash from fundamentalists.
This is all just backdrop though for a much more personal story about a woman with few means faced with the challenge of raising a child on her own in a hostile world. In this manner, it feels strangely relevant to the world today despite the distopian backdrop. This book makes you think as much about the difficulties of being a single working mom as it does the dangers of epidemics.
What I liked most about the book was the questions it raised: Ethical questions about test-tube babies, gene editing and experimental vaccines, questions about the effects of social and environmental factors on children, and many more. It doesn't seem like an insightful book at first because it's written in first person from a perspective of an uneducated young woman (in fact the narrative can get a little annoying at times) but it's worth pushing through, because the take-home messages can be quite powerful and it will leave you thinking afterward.
