Afterland

Afterland is a well-developed and well thought-out novel with great characters. Yes, its setting is after a devastating pandemic that kills most of the human males on the planet, but it focuses on a woman (Cole) on the run with her (disguised as a girl) 12-year-old son. They’re pursued by Feds and her sociopathic sister Billie—all across America.

What was it in the air before 2020 that led to so, so, so many pandemic novels? Whatever it was, add Lauren Beukes’s Afterland into the mix, giving us a world where almost the entire male population has been wiped out, and a widowed mother is on the run, trying to protect her son from those who would use him to make a killing. There’s neat ideas here, including the gradual ways that masculine jobs shift their definition, or how reproduction evolves in a world where it’s all but impossible. Frustratingly, though, Afterland uses almost all of that as little more than a backdrop for a somewhat generic thriller, giving us glimpses of interesting ideas but setting them aside for a surprisingly uninteresting villain and a cult that never really comes to life in a satisfying way. I’ve really enjoyed every other Beukes novel I've read, so consider this a fluke; while Afterland is too well-paced and crafted to ever be bad, there’s a sense of wasted potential here that never really went away for me.

I am a Lauren Beukes fan. Mostly because she creates worlds that are strangely familiar to my beloved Johannesburg; and because she creates complex characters I am interested in and often care about.I read Afterland two years into the COVID pandemic. In setting up the context through flashbacks and mockumentary snippets, the book triggered occasional contradictory emotions of too-soon and tedium. Despite my twinges of irritation, the storyline was compelling and the pace was unrelenting, holding my attention until the last page. The frantic flight of an unravelling tiger-mom, Cole, and last-tweenboy-standing, Miles, across the US is described beautifully and there are rich moments of interaction with places and people.I did wish that I was more sympathetic towards the main protagonists. My favourite character in the whole book was the ghost-of-Devon whose teasing, imagined commentary kept Cole going through the toughest circumstances.All in all, this is a recommended read for escapism, but don’t expect it to be light or easy.

This book started really strong with an interesting premise: it's the end of the world and it's run by women and the men that survive are rare. But about a third of the way in, you start to realize the writer is writing for a movie, and for a movie only. It goes real The Handmaid's Tale, too. But even that cannot save it.I found myself speeding through the book just to be done with it. The totally predictable ending made me feel like a sucker for believing the NPR review that made me buy this book. I also do not feel motivated to read anything else by the author, because this book was so poorly developed with the plot, the characters... everything.

Really enjoy lauren's writing style, but this story just felt like it was missing something. If you're a fan of her work, this won't be your favorite read, but her writing style is enough to keep you engaged to the end. Realllllllly enjoyed the intermission section. Very clever