Title: The End of Men
Author: Christina Sweeney-Baird
Published: May 5th 2021
Publisher: Harper Collins – GB
Pages: 416
Genres: Fiction, Thriller, Suspense
RRP: $29.99
Rating: 3 stars
Glasgow, 2025. Dr Amanda Maclean is called to treat a young man with a mild fever. Within three hours he dies. The mysterious illness sweeps through the hospital with deadly speed. This is how it begins.
The victims are all men.
Dr Maclean raises the alarm, but the sickness spreads to every corner of the globe. Threatening families. Governments. Countries.
Can they find a cure before it’s too late? Will this be the story of the end of the world – or its salvation?
Compelling, confronting and devastating, The End of Men is the novel that everyone is talking about.
Review:
The latest statistics in the global pandemic fight against COVID-19 reached a terrifying and heartbreaking pinnacle of 3 million deaths just this week. As we continue to live through this worldwide pandemic and we work through issues such as vaccine rates and travel, we now have fictional representations of similar plague like viruses hitting bookstores. The End of Men is Christina Sweeney-Baird’s debut speculative fiction piece. The End of Men is set in the very near future, in the year 2025. Within the pages of this thrilling book the reader learns of the initial origins of this flu like disease, which is first detected in Scotland, killing only males – of any age. As this terrifying disease travels across the globe, the author draws in a number of different perspectives to outline the various stages of this devastating pandemic. Despite the shifts in viewpoints and locations, the same messages are abundantly clear, this is a disease that will change the course of history, alter society as we know it and induce catastrophic loss. Interspersed within the narrative are articles, reports and letters, providing the reader with an extra glimpse into the toll this virus has inflicted on the population at large. The End of Men hit just a little too close to home for me to say I enjoyed it, but it is a veritable tale nonetheless.
The End of Men by Christina Sweeney-Baird is published on 5th May 2021 by Harper Collins – GB. Details on how to purchase the book can be found here.
*Thanks is extended to Better Reading/Harper Collins Australia for providing a free copy of this book for review purposes.
