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The Road to Nowhere #3
The Book of Flora
In this Philip K. Dick Award–winning series, one woman’s unknowable destiny depends on a bold new step in human evolution.
In the wake of the apocalypse, Flora has come of age in a highly gendered post-plague society where females have become a precious, coveted, hunted, and endangered commodity. But Flora does not participate in the economy that trades in bodies. An anathema in a world that prizes procreation above all else, she is an outsider everywhere she goes, including the thriving all-female city of Shy.
Now navigating a blighted landscape, Flora, her friends, and a sullen young slave she adopts as her own child leave their oppressive pasts behind to find their place in the world. They seek refuge aboard a ship where gender is fluid, where the dynamic is uneasy, and where rumors flow of a bold new reproductive strategy.
When the promise of a miraculous hope for humanity’s future tears Flora’s makeshift family asunder, she must choose: protect the safe haven she’s built or risk everything to defy oppression, whatever its provenance.
In the wake of the apocalypse, Flora has come of age in a highly gendered post-plague society where females have become a precious, coveted, hunted, and endangered commodity. But Flora does not participate in the economy that trades in bodies. An anathema in a world that prizes procreation above all else, she is an outsider everywhere she goes, including the thriving all-female city of Shy.
Now navigating a blighted landscape, Flora, her friends, and a sullen young slave she adopts as her own child leave their oppressive pasts behind to find their place in the world. They seek refuge aboard a ship where gender is fluid, where the dynamic is uneasy, and where rumors flow of a bold new reproductive strategy.
When the promise of a miraculous hope for humanity’s future tears Flora’s makeshift family asunder, she must choose: protect the safe haven she’s built or risk everything to defy oppression, whatever its provenance.
332 pages, Kindle Edition
First published April 23, 2019
675 people are currently reading
4344 people want to read
About the author
Meg Elison
48 books1,121 followersMeg Elison is a Hugo, Philip K. Dick and Locus award winning author, as well as a Nebula, Sturgeon, Eugie, and Otherwise awards finalist. A prolific short story writer and essayist, Elison has been published in Scientific American, McSweeney’s, Fantasy & Science Fiction, Fangoria, and Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy. Elison is a high school dropout and a graduate of UC Berkeley. She lives in the Berkshires.
megelison.com
megelison.com
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 392 reviews
May 10, 2019
The Book of Flora is the 3rd volume in The Road to Nowhere trilogy, a dystopia set in the aftermath of a disease that wiped out 98% of the human population. As the name suggest, this book centres around Flora, one of the characters I enjoyed in the 2nd instalment. As such, I was excited to start reading about her adventures. Meg Elison's writing is beautiful as ever, however the book soon became a dictionary of sexual challenges and orientations. While I appreciated a moderate amount of diversity in the other two books this time it seemed that it took over any plot. To be honest, I wished the author stopped after the 2nd volume although I gave this one 3*.
The Book of the Unnamed Midwife 5*
The Book of Etta 4*
I received a copy curtesy of Netgalley and 47North in exchange for an honest review.
The Book of the Unnamed Midwife 5*
The Book of Etta 4*
I received a copy curtesy of Netgalley and 47North in exchange for an honest review.
May 23, 2019
Ok, yeah, no. It almost breaks my heart because it goes against my very nature, but I can't take it anymore.
The writing style hasn't suddenly deteriorated or anything, but I don't care about ANY of the characters here. I don't care about Flora's bad childhood, I don't care about the state of the world all these years after the end which we experienced in book 1, I don't care about the other characters, I don't care about the introduced ideas about sexuality and reproduction, I don't care if there is a chance to rebuild some form of civilisation.
We are still on Earth, many years after the Unnamed Midwife has become the iconic role model for so many woman in this post-apocalyptic world. Women are still either the owners of male slaves (hives), hunted by brutal men who use women as sex slaves, or are in hiding, living a nomadic life. Most still can't conceive at all while those that can often die (just like their babies). But here, at least, we finally hear some theories about the plague.
Overall, Earth is fucked. Humanity has degraded, all genders are completely out of their minds. One group is pointing the finger at another for being discriminating or brutal or whatever else, while they themselves are the same kind of monster.
In this third installment of the series, we meet Etta (and, unfortunately, also Alice) again and therefore get to see the aftermath of what happened in Estiel. But there are also new characters.
Fluid sexuality seems the way to go in this world. We had been introduced tentatively to this in the second book. Here, the idea is fully explored and the author has quite a lot to make the reader think about regarding gender identity. That part I liked mostly as it is a very important topic. However, just like her characters with some of their theories regarding the plague, the author also veered off a bit too far with this idea so it became a bit too wacky for my liking in the end.
Maybe I'm also just tired of this world and the lack of any actual progress. I like dystopias, I like end-of-the-world scenarios, and I don't mind gritty scenes at all if they are done right (which can be seen by the fact that I rated the previous books 5 stars). However, sadly, there was something about this third volume that made me having to drag myself through this gritty version of North America, from Florda (Florida) to Shy (Chicago) and all the way back to San Francisco (Midwife’s Bay). Maybe because we had been on trips twice before. I know the series is called Road to Nowhere but that usually doesn't work in stories and never getting anywhere definitely didn't work for me here.
Like I said, I just couldn't bring myself to care. I was annoyed often. This could also have something to do with the fact that some of the worst characters from book 2 came back and were even more prominent here than before (Alma).
I used to have sooo many questions and was hyped to finally get answers but ... not anymore. *sighs*
DNF at around 75%. Nevertheless, I hope others can enjoy this more than I did.
The writing style hasn't suddenly deteriorated or anything, but I don't care about ANY of the characters here. I don't care about Flora's bad childhood, I don't care about the state of the world all these years after the end which we experienced in book 1, I don't care about the other characters, I don't care about the introduced ideas about sexuality and reproduction, I don't care if there is a chance to rebuild some form of civilisation.
We are still on Earth, many years after the Unnamed Midwife has become the iconic role model for so many woman in this post-apocalyptic world. Women are still either the owners of male slaves (hives), hunted by brutal men who use women as sex slaves, or are in hiding, living a nomadic life. Most still can't conceive at all while those that can often die (just like their babies). But here, at least, we finally hear some theories about the plague.
Overall, Earth is fucked. Humanity has degraded, all genders are completely out of their minds. One group is pointing the finger at another for being discriminating or brutal or whatever else, while they themselves are the same kind of monster.
In this third installment of the series, we meet Etta (and, unfortunately, also Alice) again and therefore get to see the aftermath of what happened in Estiel. But there are also new characters.
Fluid sexuality seems the way to go in this world. We had been introduced tentatively to this in the second book. Here, the idea is fully explored and the author has quite a lot to make the reader think about regarding gender identity. That part I liked mostly as it is a very important topic. However, just like her characters with some of their theories regarding the plague, the author also veered off a bit too far with this idea so it became a bit too wacky for my liking in the end.
Maybe I'm also just tired of this world and the lack of any actual progress. I like dystopias, I like end-of-the-world scenarios, and I don't mind gritty scenes at all if they are done right (which can be seen by the fact that I rated the previous books 5 stars). However, sadly, there was something about this third volume that made me having to drag myself through this gritty version of North America, from Florda (Florida) to Shy (Chicago) and all the way back to San Francisco (Midwife’s Bay). Maybe because we had been on trips twice before. I know the series is called Road to Nowhere but that usually doesn't work in stories and never getting anywhere definitely didn't work for me here.
Like I said, I just couldn't bring myself to care. I was annoyed often. This could also have something to do with the fact that some of the worst characters from book 2 came back and were even more prominent here than before (Alma).
I used to have sooo many questions and was hyped to finally get answers but ... not anymore. *sighs*
DNF at around 75%. Nevertheless, I hope others can enjoy this more than I did.
July 22, 2019
July 2019:
***Y’all need to stop sleeping on this dystopian gem of a series!***
How could anyone who loves books not fall in love with a series that, throughout all the harshness of a post-apocalyptic world, is itself in love with the reading, writing, and safekeeping of books!
December 2018:
*in which she fangirls*
This was insanely good!
I was already a huge fan of Meg Elison’s first two books in this phenomenal “Road to Nowhere” series and having my request for an early reader’s copy approved made me so happy. Not that this is a happy-go-lucky kind of series, I wouldn’t want it to be: it’s dark and sometimes darn brutal, but the characters she created feel so real in their struggle for a kind of “normalcy,” for self-acceptance, even, and self-love, and so hopelessly raw in the way they reach for and take care of each other.
What I loved about these interconnected books was their underlying sense of balance as to who the villain is in whose story: “Are you just taking your own petty pain and spreading it around, rather than finding a way to love and be loved? You really have become a man.” one of the characters asks at some point. It’s something that, to me, other more “hyped” books in this new canon of feminist dystopian/post-apocalyptic narratives had missed the mark on. I was blown away by these women’s stories and I won’t forget them any time soon. It’s not an easy read, you won’t always like or understand these characters’ decisions, but it’s thought-provoking and challenges your own views on the “nature” of things.
The entire “Alexandria” episode left me speechless. It felt like a gift from the writer to her characters and readers alike. That moment was beyond beautiful!
Because I flew through the first two books, without taking notes to be able to comment on all those character parallels, I plan on re-reading them at the beginning of 2019 to be able to catch on all those striking nuances in this new found gender & identity dynamic. Needless to say, this third book made me appreciate The Book of Etta even more and placed “Road to Nowhere” in my all-time favourite series list.
I will read anything Meg Elison writes in the future!
*Thanks to NetGalley, 47North & Amazon Publishing for the opportunity to read a digital ARC in exchange for an honest review. The Book of Flora RELEASED APRIL 23, 2019.*
On December 7, 2018:
A new favourite author!!!
***Y’all need to stop sleeping on this dystopian gem of a series!***
How could anyone who loves books not fall in love with a series that, throughout all the harshness of a post-apocalyptic world, is itself in love with the reading, writing, and safekeeping of books!
December 2018:
*in which she fangirls*
This was insanely good!
I was already a huge fan of Meg Elison’s first two books in this phenomenal “Road to Nowhere” series and having my request for an early reader’s copy approved made me so happy. Not that this is a happy-go-lucky kind of series, I wouldn’t want it to be: it’s dark and sometimes darn brutal, but the characters she created feel so real in their struggle for a kind of “normalcy,” for self-acceptance, even, and self-love, and so hopelessly raw in the way they reach for and take care of each other.
What I loved about these interconnected books was their underlying sense of balance as to who the villain is in whose story: “Are you just taking your own petty pain and spreading it around, rather than finding a way to love and be loved? You really have become a man.” one of the characters asks at some point. It’s something that, to me, other more “hyped” books in this new canon of feminist dystopian/post-apocalyptic narratives had missed the mark on. I was blown away by these women’s stories and I won’t forget them any time soon. It’s not an easy read, you won’t always like or understand these characters’ decisions, but it’s thought-provoking and challenges your own views on the “nature” of things.
“This is the work that women do. We keep the fire of civilization burning, by collecting and protecting stories. It’s what we’ve always done.”
The entire “Alexandria” episode left me speechless. It felt like a gift from the writer to her characters and readers alike. That moment was beyond beautiful!
Because I flew through the first two books, without taking notes to be able to comment on all those character parallels, I plan on re-reading them at the beginning of 2019 to be able to catch on all those striking nuances in this new found gender & identity dynamic. Needless to say, this third book made me appreciate The Book of Etta even more and placed “Road to Nowhere” in my all-time favourite series list.
I will read anything Meg Elison writes in the future!
*Thanks to NetGalley, 47North & Amazon Publishing for the opportunity to read a digital ARC in exchange for an honest review. The Book of Flora RELEASED APRIL 23, 2019.*
On December 7, 2018:
A new favourite author!!!
April 7, 2019
This book is a worthy successor to the previous two that began with The Book of the Unnamed Midwife, but it DOES require some managed expectations.
Such as?
The book is not plotted traditionally. Rather, it reads from the past and present in equal measure and really focuses on the full gamut of gender issues. And I don't mean just men and women but all states of transformation and gender identity.
And it does it in the bleak and dismal post-apocalyptic world that Elison killed us within the first of the trilogy.
Let's back up. Most women are treated like breeding machines, as sub-human, in this world where very few babies are born and women become rare. In the previous book we explored a pretty cool revolution and the reality of Horse Women, or men who are cut to become women-surrogates for the rest of the brutish Man.
This one continues a further exploration of those ideas and develops them carefully. We get friendships and survival and even a fair portion of humor. The bleak world still exists, of course, but there are some interesting cultural modifications and stranger (possibly) biological oddities.
What would our world become if there were no more women? Well, we read this from the PoV's of alternative-gendered people who might, in another world, still be considered women, so all we have is a hard world to swallow.
This is a very hardcore dystopia.
There is blood and horror. But the books are NOT about that. N0t primarily. Look elsewhere for that. Instead, if you want a genuine thought experiment about an utterly transformed world without women (or where women are turned into slaves as a matter of course and then get used up and we can SEE the beginnings of the end of the human race) then look no further. This book is great for this.
Such as?
The book is not plotted traditionally. Rather, it reads from the past and present in equal measure and really focuses on the full gamut of gender issues. And I don't mean just men and women but all states of transformation and gender identity.
And it does it in the bleak and dismal post-apocalyptic world that Elison killed us within the first of the trilogy.
Let's back up. Most women are treated like breeding machines, as sub-human, in this world where very few babies are born and women become rare. In the previous book we explored a pretty cool revolution and the reality of Horse Women, or men who are cut to become women-surrogates for the rest of the brutish Man.
This one continues a further exploration of those ideas and develops them carefully. We get friendships and survival and even a fair portion of humor. The bleak world still exists, of course, but there are some interesting cultural modifications and stranger (possibly) biological oddities.
What would our world become if there were no more women? Well, we read this from the PoV's of alternative-gendered people who might, in another world, still be considered women, so all we have is a hard world to swallow.
This is a very hardcore dystopia.
There is blood and horror. But the books are NOT about that. N0t primarily. Look elsewhere for that. Instead, if you want a genuine thought experiment about an utterly transformed world without women (or where women are turned into slaves as a matter of course and then get used up and we can SEE the beginnings of the end of the human race) then look no further. This book is great for this.
February 28, 2019
***Note: I received a copy curtesy of Netgalley and 47North in exchange for an honest review.
The third and final book picks up where "The Book of Etta" leaves off, in the community of Ommun, the underground mormon city. Present and past alternate, the story going back and forth between an older Flora writing in her diary on the island of Bambritch and flashbacks of Flora’s past journeys.
It was nice to reconnect with this series, although I didn’t enjoy this last installment as much as i did the other two. For me, the focus on gender ‘issues’ gets too much space in this book, and the actual story much less. Okay, I understand that you want to promote gender equality, but it would be nice to have a solid story, not just gender challenged characters (homosexuality, gender dysphoria, 5α-Reductase deficiency, etc) and rumours about asexual reproduction.
Imo, the first book in the series was the best, the second was good, and this one just ok.
The third and final book picks up where "The Book of Etta" leaves off, in the community of Ommun, the underground mormon city. Present and past alternate, the story going back and forth between an older Flora writing in her diary on the island of Bambritch and flashbacks of Flora’s past journeys.
It was nice to reconnect with this series, although I didn’t enjoy this last installment as much as i did the other two. For me, the focus on gender ‘issues’ gets too much space in this book, and the actual story much less. Okay, I understand that you want to promote gender equality, but it would be nice to have a solid story, not just gender challenged characters (homosexuality, gender dysphoria, 5α-Reductase deficiency, etc) and rumours about asexual reproduction.
Imo, the first book in the series was the best, the second was good, and this one just ok.
March 12, 2019
2.5 stars
Meg Elison's sci-fi dystopian trilogy began with The Book of the Unnamed Midwife. A fever has spread, killing the majority of woman and children and making childbirth deadly. In the aftermath, the world is a dangerous place to be a woman. Men roam in packs searching for surviving females, a valuable commodity in post apocalyptic America.
An unnamed woman travels from California dressing as a man and using different names; she describes her journey in a notebook. She's searching for a safe community where she can teach others what she knows about medicine, preventing pregnancy, and assisting in birth. Her greatest hope is that both a woman and infant will survive childbirth.
In The Book of Etta, Etta is raised in the town of Nowhere. Women are still in danger of becoming slaves or dying in childbirth. In Nowhere, mothers and midwives are sacred, and so is the book of the unnamed midwife. Etta dresses as a man and goes by the name Eddy to scavenge surrounding areas for useful objects from the past while dodging slave traders. When Nowhere and the people she loves become the focus of a dangerous and powerful man, Etta risks everything to create an epic uprising and maintain her freedom.
The Book of Flora picks up where book two left off. The surviving residents of Nowhere have found shelter in the underground Mormon city called Ommun.
The people from Nowhere clash with the leader of Ommun on almost everything and the main characters (Eddy, Alice, and Flora) set out in search of a new home.
The journey is told by Flora, a trans woman we met in book two who fell in love with Eddy. She explains her past, from her childhood to how she ended up in Esteil in book two.
On their journey to find a new home, Flora finds Connie, a child who doesn't identify as either gender. Connie eventually leaves when their beliefs clash and Flora grieves the loss at the same time Alice becomes a mother to a living child.
The Book of Flora was all over the place for me. While it's a continuation of the first two books and it's necessary to read those in order to truly understand what's happening in book three, this felt very different. It remains focused on gender identity and equality but an evolution theory that is hinted at throughout and is confirmed at the end of the book left me scratching my head. It felt as if it was introduced as an afterthought and solely to create tension between two characters, leading up to what could be a dramatic ending that honestly fell completely flat and unresolved.
The character Connie wasn't fully developed so their beliefs and motivations made no sense to me. Their return at the end of the book, which had been building suspense, was rushed and lackluster.
Book one, The Book of the Unnamed Midwife, could be read as a standalone; in my opinion it was the strongest book in the trilogy and definitely worth reading for fans of sci-fi/dystopia.
The Book of Etta was a decent continuation of the world we were originally introduced to with brand new characters.
The Book of Flora fell apart for me. I was looking forward to following the characters we met in book two but it felt as if the author was trying to build a dramatic conclusion that was a letdown for me personally because it was unfocused.
We followed Flora's life and feelings and were only briefly introduced to her child, Connie. Connie's return at the end because of a discovery they made just wasn't compelling. If it was supposed to be shocking or dramatic, Connie should've been more central to the plot rather than a footnote.
Thanks to 47North and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for my honest review. The Book of Flora is scheduled for release on April 23, 2019.
For more reviews, visit www.rootsandreads.wordpress.com
Meg Elison's sci-fi dystopian trilogy began with The Book of the Unnamed Midwife. A fever has spread, killing the majority of woman and children and making childbirth deadly. In the aftermath, the world is a dangerous place to be a woman. Men roam in packs searching for surviving females, a valuable commodity in post apocalyptic America.
An unnamed woman travels from California dressing as a man and using different names; she describes her journey in a notebook. She's searching for a safe community where she can teach others what she knows about medicine, preventing pregnancy, and assisting in birth. Her greatest hope is that both a woman and infant will survive childbirth.
In The Book of Etta, Etta is raised in the town of Nowhere. Women are still in danger of becoming slaves or dying in childbirth. In Nowhere, mothers and midwives are sacred, and so is the book of the unnamed midwife. Etta dresses as a man and goes by the name Eddy to scavenge surrounding areas for useful objects from the past while dodging slave traders. When Nowhere and the people she loves become the focus of a dangerous and powerful man, Etta risks everything to create an epic uprising and maintain her freedom.
The Book of Flora picks up where book two left off. The surviving residents of Nowhere have found shelter in the underground Mormon city called Ommun.
The people from Nowhere clash with the leader of Ommun on almost everything and the main characters (Eddy, Alice, and Flora) set out in search of a new home.
The journey is told by Flora, a trans woman we met in book two who fell in love with Eddy. She explains her past, from her childhood to how she ended up in Esteil in book two.
On their journey to find a new home, Flora finds Connie, a child who doesn't identify as either gender. Connie eventually leaves when their beliefs clash and Flora grieves the loss at the same time Alice becomes a mother to a living child.
The Book of Flora was all over the place for me. While it's a continuation of the first two books and it's necessary to read those in order to truly understand what's happening in book three, this felt very different. It remains focused on gender identity and equality but an evolution theory that is hinted at throughout and is confirmed at the end of the book left me scratching my head. It felt as if it was introduced as an afterthought and solely to create tension between two characters, leading up to what could be a dramatic ending that honestly fell completely flat and unresolved.
The character Connie wasn't fully developed so their beliefs and motivations made no sense to me. Their return at the end of the book, which had been building suspense, was rushed and lackluster.
Book one, The Book of the Unnamed Midwife, could be read as a standalone; in my opinion it was the strongest book in the trilogy and definitely worth reading for fans of sci-fi/dystopia.
The Book of Etta was a decent continuation of the world we were originally introduced to with brand new characters.
The Book of Flora fell apart for me. I was looking forward to following the characters we met in book two but it felt as if the author was trying to build a dramatic conclusion that was a letdown for me personally because it was unfocused.
We followed Flora's life and feelings and were only briefly introduced to her child, Connie. Connie's return at the end because of a discovery they made just wasn't compelling. If it was supposed to be shocking or dramatic, Connie should've been more central to the plot rather than a footnote.
Thanks to 47North and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for my honest review. The Book of Flora is scheduled for release on April 23, 2019.
For more reviews, visit www.rootsandreads.wordpress.com
April 28, 2019
This instalment of the series seemed less concerned with the story and more focussed on sexuality. Not the act of having sex (although that was there also) but all the variations on gender. This would have been fine as part of the story but Elison seemed to be really shoving it in your face. You would get a bit of story and then pages of how this character was a girl but not a girl, etc. And it was so anti-heterosexual male. This story seemed to want to say that if you weren’t feminine then your sole purpose in life was to rape and enslave those who are.
I don’t know how such a good story as The Book of the Unnamed Midwife morphed into this. I should have just read it as a stand-alone.
I don’t know how such a good story as The Book of the Unnamed Midwife morphed into this. I should have just read it as a stand-alone.
July 10, 2023
The Book of the Unnamed Midwife was outstanding - truly one is the best books I’ve ever read in the genre. I couldn’t put it down, I still think about it. I’ll read it again. I’ll recommend it over and over again.
I can’t really say as much for the remaining two books in the series - I rated The Book of Etta a 4, but feel it’s more of a 3. And I just wasn’t able to get in to The Book of Flora. I don’t know what happened - the idea and characters are there but I just couldn’t get in to it.
I can’t really say as much for the remaining two books in the series - I rated The Book of Etta a 4, but feel it’s more of a 3. And I just wasn’t able to get in to The Book of Flora. I don’t know what happened - the idea and characters are there but I just couldn’t get in to it.
August 21, 2019
The reason it gets only four stars is that there is not a lot of plot in this book and past storylines are ignored or not given a satisfactory conclusion. With that said, I still thoroughly enjoyed this third book in a trilogy that has been one of my favorite little gems (seriously, more people should, at the very least, give the first book in this series a chance). Meg Elison is such a good writer.
May 21, 2019
„Let’s see what I can grow into, see how long it takes me to reach the light.“
The first three chapters were not an easy read. First Flora‘s pretty horrible childhood and then Ommun and Alma—I am not a fan of her. This book was fighting an uphill battle to make me like it from the start.
Reading this back to back with Book of Etta would probably have work well. I struggled to place everybody, as it was a while since I read Etta and the author made no effort to explain things.
After picking this up and putting it down again for 3 weeks and not even making it halfway, I declare defeat. I do not like any of the characters. I don‘t care what happens next. I don‘t like the plot, it just doesn‘t work for me. I can‘t put my finger on why it doesn‘t. Maybe it‘s me. The first two books got 5 stars each from me. Perhaps I expected too much. I don‘t know, was the plot too aimless? The characters all remained very one-dimensional as well. How can the first book be so great and this one.... not.
DNF at 43%, chapter 18.
I received this free e-copy from 47North via NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review, thank you! And sorry.
The first three chapters were not an easy read. First Flora‘s pretty horrible childhood and then Ommun and Alma—I am not a fan of her. This book was fighting an uphill battle to make me like it from the start.
Reading this back to back with Book of Etta would probably have work well. I struggled to place everybody, as it was a while since I read Etta and the author made no effort to explain things.
After picking this up and putting it down again for 3 weeks and not even making it halfway, I declare defeat. I do not like any of the characters. I don‘t care what happens next. I don‘t like the plot, it just doesn‘t work for me. I can‘t put my finger on why it doesn‘t. Maybe it‘s me. The first two books got 5 stars each from me. Perhaps I expected too much. I don‘t know, was the plot too aimless? The characters all remained very one-dimensional as well. How can the first book be so great and this one.... not.
DNF at 43%, chapter 18.
I received this free e-copy from 47North via NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review, thank you! And sorry.
January 9, 2019
I enjoyed the first two books in the series more. The Book of Flora fell flat for me. I was expecting more. While the story is engaging and the characters are likeable, I just couldn't find a connection.
April 23, 2019
And now we have the very last book in the Road to Nowhere series. It has been quite the ride, journey and experience. This review will hold spoilers for the first two books, but I will try my best not to spoil this last book in this review.
It has been over one hundred years since the Dying has taken place. And the army is on its way to Bambritch Island. The refugees have been pouring in. The leader, sometimes described as a man other times described as a woman, has been destroying cities, killing everyone including pregnant women all in the search for “frags”. Flora had heard of frags, people who can impregnate themselves and have living children, before but had always dismissed it as a myth. As the army comes closer, she reflects on the last 40 years in hopes of understanding why someone could have their sights set on Bambritch.
The suspense was killing me throughout this book! We know that danger is coming but we also have absolutely no idea how Flora ended up on this island and where’s Eddy? Who is this living child Flora speaks of? All of these questions are answered throughout the book through narrative transitions in time. This was the best option for this book and Elison executes it very well. Flora tells her story in both the past and present through diary entries, with some chapters being told in third person. This book more than the other two, was rooted in the idea of evolution and how things evolve. How people and communities evolve to survive. How ideas evolve and persist. How morals change and evolve when they conveniently fit a narrative. How we as humans may one day physically evolve and adapt to survive. Each of these characters has to decide how they will then adapt and evolve with the changing conditions.
I love that this series keeps pushing the envelope when it comes to the ways in which we discuss sexuality, gender, and a changing society. Elison takes so many different aspects and really dissects them from queer relationships, to polyamorous relationships, motherhood, transitioning. It was refreshing to read a book that discusses it so plainly. I am not queer so I can’t speak to how accurate these depictions are. I can only speak to my own experiences and I found her conversations around these topics to be very enlightening and informative and very individual. I love that this dystopian series that originally revolved around a woman trying to help other women survive grew into a series that explored sexuality and gender. I’ve never read a book that focused solely on those aspects in a dystopian and now that I have, it’s puzzling to me that there aren’t more books like this. What a way to end a series. Highly recommended.
It has been over one hundred years since the Dying has taken place. And the army is on its way to Bambritch Island. The refugees have been pouring in. The leader, sometimes described as a man other times described as a woman, has been destroying cities, killing everyone including pregnant women all in the search for “frags”. Flora had heard of frags, people who can impregnate themselves and have living children, before but had always dismissed it as a myth. As the army comes closer, she reflects on the last 40 years in hopes of understanding why someone could have their sights set on Bambritch.
The suspense was killing me throughout this book! We know that danger is coming but we also have absolutely no idea how Flora ended up on this island and where’s Eddy? Who is this living child Flora speaks of? All of these questions are answered throughout the book through narrative transitions in time. This was the best option for this book and Elison executes it very well. Flora tells her story in both the past and present through diary entries, with some chapters being told in third person. This book more than the other two, was rooted in the idea of evolution and how things evolve. How people and communities evolve to survive. How ideas evolve and persist. How morals change and evolve when they conveniently fit a narrative. How we as humans may one day physically evolve and adapt to survive. Each of these characters has to decide how they will then adapt and evolve with the changing conditions.
I love that this series keeps pushing the envelope when it comes to the ways in which we discuss sexuality, gender, and a changing society. Elison takes so many different aspects and really dissects them from queer relationships, to polyamorous relationships, motherhood, transitioning. It was refreshing to read a book that discusses it so plainly. I am not queer so I can’t speak to how accurate these depictions are. I can only speak to my own experiences and I found her conversations around these topics to be very enlightening and informative and very individual. I love that this dystopian series that originally revolved around a woman trying to help other women survive grew into a series that explored sexuality and gender. I’ve never read a book that focused solely on those aspects in a dystopian and now that I have, it’s puzzling to me that there aren’t more books like this. What a way to end a series. Highly recommended.
May 15, 2020
Book of Flora is the last of a lovely trilogy following a community and its members over the first 144 years post-pandemic. This pandemic wiped out most of the population, but especially targeted women. Even those women who survived often died in childbirth. In each book, the characters move around the country, allowing us to see how different communities responded to having women – and babies – be rare and often valued (and often mistreated).
With women rare, they often became objects to possess; their worth depended on their ability to have a live child. This is a feminist series and, in a society where slaving was common and children often bought and sold, the characters are firmly set against being owned.
“We weren’t his and we aren’t yours. We are our own. If we cannot decide what happens inside us, we are slaves." (p. 167)
The central characters were mostly gender misfits in this society – male-to-female, female-to-male, bisexual, polygamous – and explored the many ways that such misfits are oppressed by those more powerful and more privileged. Even in societies like Shy (maybe Chicago???), where women had it well, Flora was uncomfortable if others were not equally free.
Other reviewers were often uncomfortable with the gender bending in Flora, but in a world where gender is everything, it made sense to me. I appreciated Meg Elison's sensitive and three-dimensional drawings of her characters' experiences.
Until the last 30 pages, I'd thought of Book of Flora as a five-star book: it got under my skin and I thought about her characters and their dilemmas when I wasn't reading. It ended explosively, however, just as happened in the second of her trilogy, Book of Etta.
I tend to like quieter books. For me, this ending didn't really follow from what happened earlier and was tonally so different from the earlier part of the book that I was turned off. I suspect some readers really liked this ending and liked it much more than the somewhat quieter, earlier parts of the book.
With women rare, they often became objects to possess; their worth depended on their ability to have a live child. This is a feminist series and, in a society where slaving was common and children often bought and sold, the characters are firmly set against being owned.
“We weren’t his and we aren’t yours. We are our own. If we cannot decide what happens inside us, we are slaves." (p. 167)
The central characters were mostly gender misfits in this society – male-to-female, female-to-male, bisexual, polygamous – and explored the many ways that such misfits are oppressed by those more powerful and more privileged. Even in societies like Shy (maybe Chicago???), where women had it well, Flora was uncomfortable if others were not equally free.
Other reviewers were often uncomfortable with the gender bending in Flora, but in a world where gender is everything, it made sense to me. I appreciated Meg Elison's sensitive and three-dimensional drawings of her characters' experiences.
Until the last 30 pages, I'd thought of Book of Flora as a five-star book: it got under my skin and I thought about her characters and their dilemmas when I wasn't reading. It ended explosively, however, just as happened in the second of her trilogy, Book of Etta.
I tend to like quieter books. For me, this ending didn't really follow from what happened earlier and was tonally so different from the earlier part of the book that I was turned off. I suspect some readers really liked this ending and liked it much more than the somewhat quieter, earlier parts of the book.
October 24, 2021
Well, The Book of Flora was a bit too much for me. It continues the story from Etta and the city of Nowhere, though there are different timelines and all is told from Flora’s perspective. I like Flora, but the countless sex, the bad men vibe, the urge to procreate, the search of identity and finally, the implausible ending took this too far for me. Maybe you’ve seen the Walking Dead ? I stopped watching because another bad guy just replaced another one and so on… I was reminded very strongly of this. Also, I really got it. We need to be more open-minded, I got this far, so please stop shouting at me. Maybe I shouldn’t have read them all in one go, but this is my usual way with series I enjoy. And then this ending, makes me angry because it was so far-fetched and not properly introduced Yeah, so the series is finished, but I would have been done either way. Really sorry how such a promising start ended.
April 23, 2019
5 stars is, unfortunately, the most Goodreads allows me to award this book but in my heart of hearts, it deserves a thousand shiny stars.
****VERY MINOR SPOILERS AHEAD****
This is the final tale in a story that starts in our current time and goes to a future where humanity starts again. In The Book of Flora we finally get to know more about her, a horsewoman, so kind and so used to not being fully wanted nor accepted that she made it her strength. She took what life gave her and turned it into light, into acceptance, into love.
I could not say that Flora is my favorite character in this whole series because there are so many others who have my heart also but she is very close to the title. And I can almost see her in my mind's eye, shy, discreet, accepting it with a nod and a half smile.
And what to say about Eddy, my brother? The one who is so much like me, a transmasculine person who is on the verge of being a man but who was never a woman (although perceived as one by so many) but who is more like...neither? Like Connie, you'll ask... but no, not really. They are filled with a different material. A material rotten by the world, by themselves.
This novel is the closest thing to literary perfection I've read in a long while. It is so touching, I highlighted so many passages, I inked them in my memory so I'll have those scenes and dialogues, monologues with me forever. I feel like I learned and grew just by reading this and the other books in the series.
This novel is a homage to gender diversity. To all kinds of questions and identities that have, as Flora so wisely says, always existed, always been here, even if under different names. Sometimes accepted, sometimes persecuted, sometimes just hidden. We are here and we are not going away.
The journey of these wonderful people ends in this book, which saddens me to no end but I am so thankful that I'll carry forever within me all of them, their stories, their words, their lives, their love, their world.
Meg Elison, thank you so, so much for writing such a marvelous series, and for speaking of gender identities in such a respectful, lyric, poetic way.
I'd like to thank NetGalley and the Publisher so, so much for the opportunity. For sending me and ARC of this novel in exchange for my honest review.
****VERY MINOR SPOILERS AHEAD****
This is the final tale in a story that starts in our current time and goes to a future where humanity starts again. In The Book of Flora we finally get to know more about her, a horsewoman, so kind and so used to not being fully wanted nor accepted that she made it her strength. She took what life gave her and turned it into light, into acceptance, into love.
I could not say that Flora is my favorite character in this whole series because there are so many others who have my heart also but she is very close to the title. And I can almost see her in my mind's eye, shy, discreet, accepting it with a nod and a half smile.
And what to say about Eddy, my brother? The one who is so much like me, a transmasculine person who is on the verge of being a man but who was never a woman (although perceived as one by so many) but who is more like...neither? Like Connie, you'll ask... but no, not really. They are filled with a different material. A material rotten by the world, by themselves.
This novel is the closest thing to literary perfection I've read in a long while. It is so touching, I highlighted so many passages, I inked them in my memory so I'll have those scenes and dialogues, monologues with me forever. I feel like I learned and grew just by reading this and the other books in the series.
This novel is a homage to gender diversity. To all kinds of questions and identities that have, as Flora so wisely says, always existed, always been here, even if under different names. Sometimes accepted, sometimes persecuted, sometimes just hidden. We are here and we are not going away.
The journey of these wonderful people ends in this book, which saddens me to no end but I am so thankful that I'll carry forever within me all of them, their stories, their words, their lives, their love, their world.
Meg Elison, thank you so, so much for writing such a marvelous series, and for speaking of gender identities in such a respectful, lyric, poetic way.
I'd like to thank NetGalley and the Publisher so, so much for the opportunity. For sending me and ARC of this novel in exchange for my honest review.
September 12, 2021
2021 re-read: noticed August 2021 being name dropped in one of the scenes... with everything that is going on around the world at the moment, it is a very earie detail. Really stuck with me on this read-through!
Immediate re-read: Sorry, I couldn't resist it! ( AGAIN!) x
This book is not only a continuation of already great series. it is masterfully written and covers so many very important topics with precision and levels of immersion I didn't even knew could be written into a story - AMAZED!
Immediate re-read: Sorry, I couldn't resist it! ( AGAIN!) x
This book is not only a continuation of already great series. it is masterfully written and covers so many very important topics with precision and levels of immersion I didn't even knew could be written into a story - AMAZED!
December 9, 2018
Being a completist isn’t really all that great when it comes to books. Mostly it gets you stuck reading books all the way through that you might have abandoned otherwise. And yes, it is the completist in me that requested this book on Netgalley and set off reading it, just to see how it all turns out in Ellison’s womencentric dystopia. Small mercies, this was the last in a trilogy, trilogies are infinitely more manageable than series, although not as great as standalones. Book 1 was pretty good and totally worked as a standalone, before the author decided to expand her fictional universe. Book 2 was inferior, decent enough, but not on the same level and apparently utterly unmemorable, because I was unable to recall any of its plot. Thought reading book 3 would jog the memory, but no…nothing. And as a standalone book 3 really doesn’t work, you have to have at least a passing familiarity with this world and its complex gender roles and breeding practices, which I did but from book 1. So ok, if you’ve read the trilogy, you know about this strange world where many died, population ratios are way out of balance and women are now in charge and they live in small communities located in the ashes of civilization and govern themselves by varied rules. The book splits its time about evenly between the various reproduction scenarios and superbly complex gender politics. The protagonist and narrator of this one is on something of a personal odyssey to find a place that’s right for her and the book covers her journey, found destination and looks into the future to offer readers an idea of what’s next…and what’s next is apparently a form of agamogenesis. Sort of appropriate, I suppose, to end that way a trilogy so heavily concentrated on procreation. It’s interesting enough of a concept and would probably ideally be read pretty close together to maintain a working familiarity with characters and plot intricacies. I wouldn’t have continued with this, if Ellison decided to serialize it, but trilogy offered an appealing closure and it was quick enough of a read. Nowhere was there page count available (so frustrating), but if I had to guess, it’s somewhere in the 275 to 300 page range. What’s the deal with trilogies anyway? Are the readers meant to remember the plots for a year or so and then get right back into it? Reread the books before the new one comes out? Seems more practical to just wait for all three to be out. At least if the first book has the decency to announce itself as book 1. Anyway, this was entertaining enough, I found out how it played out, the ending was fairly satisfactory. Not sure it was necessary to expand the original book into a trilogy, but there it is. Ellison is a good writer and it would be interesting to see what she comes up with next now that she’s free of the Nowhere world. Thanks Netgalley.
December 19, 2018
Thanks to Netgalley for providing a copy of this book for review.
The last book in the Road to Nowhere trilogy (although no one lives in Nowhere in this book) is written by Flora, a "horsewoman" who met and fell in love with Eddy in the Book of Etta. Flora is a transwoman. Horsewomen come by this name because they concentrate and use essence of mare urine topically in order to change their hormone levels and make their skins smoother and more womanly. Now, I know that this has indeed been done in the past, but I have a hard time believing that horse estrogen ointment is going to change someone so significantly that they will appear female to the casual viewer. Of course, Flora also dresses female and takes pains to modulate her voice, but Eddy, who is gender fluid himself and is familiar with passing, had no clue that Flora wasn't biologically female until they had a frank conversation/groping session in a cave in the previous book. Even though Eddy himself has had to conceal his gender identity, he got pretty pissed at poor Flora and doesn't treat her especially well in either book.
I had some issues with the book myself. Flora was raised by a slaver and essentially helped to train other young children like herself to sexually service adults and then be sold on. Hence, Flora has a very different attitude to slavers than Eddy does. While Eddy is very black and white on morality, Flora has a more nuanced attitude toward people doing what they need to do to survive. While moral relativism does have a place in the world, and Flora obviously grew up damaged because of how she was trained, once again the author has a damaged character who is differently gendered- is it because this is who they always were or is it because they have been damaged? The two-for-two on sexual abuse = gender fluidity/transgender doesn't sit well with me.
This is another travelogue book. Eddy is searching for the men who trained him as a raider. Nowhere has been destroyed, and the characters in this book (Eddy, Alice his sometime lover, and Flora) don't want to start over.
Flora visits Chicago on her own, and learns the mythology the city has created for itself. It is entirely female (genderwise, not biologically) except for child slaves. Flora makes the astute observation that wherever there is luxury, there is slavery supporting it. That's as much true in this world as in a post-apocalyptic one, to my intense discomfort.
The group ends up traveling up and down the east coast, ends up on a boat in Florida and eventually travels all the way to the coast of the Pacific Northwest (former Washington state). This is a lot of ground to cover (literally) and I wasn't as engaged by the story because there wasn't as much of a focused purpose to it. Once again, the group encounters other odd and unique societies. Flora ends up buying a genderfluid child from a slave auction and decides that she will then mother this teenager. Flora clearly wants a family badly, but she never asks this child if they want to be part of her family ( there are a lot of consent issues in this book) and the child ends up going very, very bad.
This book uses a flashback mechanism. At the beginning, Flora, as a sixty-something year old elder in her community, is writing in her book and preparing the community archives to survive an overwhelming attack from an invading force. Her current preparations are interspersed with her past travels. To the author's credit, I didn't figure out exactly what was happening until shortly before it did.
I did have an issue with the antagonist in the book. I've spoiler-warninged this already, so I'll go ahead and discuss it. The commander of the invading army ends up being Flora's estranged child. They have this idea that women can learn to be able to procreate without men being involved (parthenogenesis) and it turns out that they are right! Magic, for lack of a better term, has made some human women able to do this. So, this person decides that they need to kill all women who CAN'T do this to make room for those who can! Very disturbing and insane. The whole magical virgin birth thing seemed like a bit of a bridge too far from the previous things that have been possible in this series. The whole final confrontation came about because Connie, Flora's adoptee, is still fixated on Alice, who was part of the group that rescued them. Connie had a crush on Alice as a teenager and apparently hadn't gotten over it in the past twenty-plus years? The whole end felt contrived and the beats of the finale felt predictable.
I never connected to Flora the way that I did to Eddy or the Unnamed Midwife. I didn't find her as likable, although she did have some interesting insights. She also had some weaknesses and blind spots that I didn't care for. The travelogue felt less purposeful this time. The best part- Eddy, twenty plus years later, still does not give a fuck what anyone wants to do to him- he just wants to get through the bullshit. He also ends up in the place that I would personally want to end up in this world: a battleship that has been converted into a floating archive and protected place for women who want to be librarians for the archive, off the coast of California. Sounds good to me! Put me in a giant library/fortress that can't be overrun and let me read and record.
The last book in the Road to Nowhere trilogy (although no one lives in Nowhere in this book) is written by Flora, a "horsewoman" who met and fell in love with Eddy in the Book of Etta. Flora is a transwoman. Horsewomen come by this name because they concentrate and use essence of mare urine topically in order to change their hormone levels and make their skins smoother and more womanly. Now, I know that this has indeed been done in the past, but I have a hard time believing that horse estrogen ointment is going to change someone so significantly that they will appear female to the casual viewer. Of course, Flora also dresses female and takes pains to modulate her voice, but Eddy, who is gender fluid himself and is familiar with passing, had no clue that Flora wasn't biologically female until they had a frank conversation/groping session in a cave in the previous book. Even though Eddy himself has had to conceal his gender identity, he got pretty pissed at poor Flora and doesn't treat her especially well in either book.
I had some issues with the book myself. Flora was raised by a slaver and essentially helped to train other young children like herself to sexually service adults and then be sold on. Hence, Flora has a very different attitude to slavers than Eddy does. While Eddy is very black and white on morality, Flora has a more nuanced attitude toward people doing what they need to do to survive. While moral relativism does have a place in the world, and Flora obviously grew up damaged because of how she was trained, once again the author has a damaged character who is differently gendered- is it because this is who they always were or is it because they have been damaged? The two-for-two on sexual abuse = gender fluidity/transgender doesn't sit well with me.
This is another travelogue book. Eddy is searching for the men who trained him as a raider. Nowhere has been destroyed, and the characters in this book (Eddy, Alice his sometime lover, and Flora) don't want to start over.
Flora visits Chicago on her own, and learns the mythology the city has created for itself. It is entirely female (genderwise, not biologically) except for child slaves. Flora makes the astute observation that wherever there is luxury, there is slavery supporting it. That's as much true in this world as in a post-apocalyptic one, to my intense discomfort.
The group ends up traveling up and down the east coast, ends up on a boat in Florida and eventually travels all the way to the coast of the Pacific Northwest (former Washington state). This is a lot of ground to cover (literally) and I wasn't as engaged by the story because there wasn't as much of a focused purpose to it. Once again, the group encounters other odd and unique societies. Flora ends up buying a genderfluid child from a slave auction and decides that she will then mother this teenager. Flora clearly wants a family badly, but she never asks this child if they want to be part of her family ( there are a lot of consent issues in this book) and the child ends up going very, very bad.
This book uses a flashback mechanism. At the beginning, Flora, as a sixty-something year old elder in her community, is writing in her book and preparing the community archives to survive an overwhelming attack from an invading force. Her current preparations are interspersed with her past travels. To the author's credit, I didn't figure out exactly what was happening until shortly before it did.
I did have an issue with the antagonist in the book. I've spoiler-warninged this already, so I'll go ahead and discuss it. The commander of the invading army ends up being Flora's estranged child. They have this idea that women can learn to be able to procreate without men being involved (parthenogenesis) and it turns out that they are right! Magic, for lack of a better term, has made some human women able to do this. So, this person decides that they need to kill all women who CAN'T do this to make room for those who can! Very disturbing and insane. The whole magical virgin birth thing seemed like a bit of a bridge too far from the previous things that have been possible in this series. The whole final confrontation came about because Connie, Flora's adoptee, is still fixated on Alice, who was part of the group that rescued them. Connie had a crush on Alice as a teenager and apparently hadn't gotten over it in the past twenty-plus years? The whole end felt contrived and the beats of the finale felt predictable.
I never connected to Flora the way that I did to Eddy or the Unnamed Midwife. I didn't find her as likable, although she did have some interesting insights. She also had some weaknesses and blind spots that I didn't care for. The travelogue felt less purposeful this time. The best part- Eddy, twenty plus years later, still does not give a fuck what anyone wants to do to him- he just wants to get through the bullshit. He also ends up in the place that I would personally want to end up in this world: a battleship that has been converted into a floating archive and protected place for women who want to be librarians for the archive, off the coast of California. Sounds good to me! Put me in a giant library/fortress that can't be overrun and let me read and record.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 24, 2019
I haven’t read the first two books of The Road to Nowhere series, but I think it’s perfectly fine to read this one on its own. In fact, though there is a carry over of characters and story from the first two books, I think it works really well as a stand alone.
I went into this book with no expectations and was immediately struck by the prose. It’s not flowery at all and is, in fact, easy to read, but there’s a certain cadence to it that I love. It’s the kind of prose that enhances and elevates a story, rather than get in its way. I don’t often find myself waxing on on about prose, but I really dig Meg Elison’s style of writing here. The structure of the book is interesting as well–we spend time alternating between various timelines of the past along with the present as Flora writes down her story to be preserved, telling of what came years before. Because it’s essentially a journal, it’s very slice of life in a lot of ways. Most of the conflict is characters traveling from point A to point B, just trying to find somewhere they can call home. There is major conflict, set up from the beginning as Flora from the present talks about an army coming their way, and as the story progresses the army does as well.
One of the things I loved about The Book of Flora is that it’s feminist to its core. The world has suffered a devastating plague and babies are harder to come by, so what it means to be able to have a child, to be able to carry on the survival of the human race, is super important to some people. What it means to be a woman is questioned over and over. If you weren’t born with female parts, does that mean you’re not a woman? Flora, a trans-woman, knows she’s a woman, even if others can’t accept it. In a way, Flora’s journey is about trying to find a place she can be accepted, a home she can belong to and not have to worry about being hurt for simply being herself.
This book is also very much about Flora’s relationships with the other characters in the book, and how they accept one another, or not. Flora’s relationship with Eddy/Etta is very complex. I probably would have benefited from having read the previous book here, to get the background on their relationship, but even having not read it, it’s fine. We’re getting things from Flora’s POV here, we know something went bad in their relationship and that she’s been seeking to repair it ever since. We get the information we need in order to piece together the puzzle. We know that things are complex between them, and with their fellow friend and survivor, Alice. Even though they’re together, they seem to flit in and out of each other’s lives, connecting and coming apart again like three little magnets. Throughout the story they encounter a lot of other characters as well. New communities, and people who survive on their own. There’s a lot of lessons Flora takes from all of these encounters. There’s also her child, Connie. Mentioned sparsely at first, as if it takes too much out of her to even bring them up, it builds the reader’s curiosity about Connie and what role they play in the narrative. What happened between Flora and Connie to devastate her so? The way this information is imparted to us as readers throughout the book helps build the tension right up to the climax of the story.
If I have a tiny criticism of this book, it’s that the climax felt a little underwhelming after the build up. Also, the ‘villain’….I didn’t find their motivation all that credible? It felt kind of random and I wish this final conflict had been set up a little better earlier on. There were hints, but I don’t think they were strong enough to make the end plausible. That being said, I’m being super nit picky because this was an amazing novel and really, the conflict at the end wasn’t the point anyway. The point is, to quote Jurassic Park, ‘life, uh, finds a way’.
Overall, I really loved The Book of Flora. It can be a hard book to read sometimes because Flora hasn’t lived an easy life. And when she writes about her childhood, full of abuse, it’s so very matter of fact that it feels like a kick to the gut. But this horrific world is what she knows. Over the course of the story I really came to feel for her and want her to be happy, for things to work out. There’s something about Flora’s story that just draws you in, compelling you to keep reading her words. 4.5/5 stars.
MY THANKS TO THE GOOD FOLKS AT WUNDERKIND PR AND THE PUBLISHER FOR PROVIDING A REVIEW COPY. THIS DID NOT AFFECT THE CONTENT OF MY REVIEW IN ANY WAY.
I went into this book with no expectations and was immediately struck by the prose. It’s not flowery at all and is, in fact, easy to read, but there’s a certain cadence to it that I love. It’s the kind of prose that enhances and elevates a story, rather than get in its way. I don’t often find myself waxing on on about prose, but I really dig Meg Elison’s style of writing here. The structure of the book is interesting as well–we spend time alternating between various timelines of the past along with the present as Flora writes down her story to be preserved, telling of what came years before. Because it’s essentially a journal, it’s very slice of life in a lot of ways. Most of the conflict is characters traveling from point A to point B, just trying to find somewhere they can call home. There is major conflict, set up from the beginning as Flora from the present talks about an army coming their way, and as the story progresses the army does as well.
One of the things I loved about The Book of Flora is that it’s feminist to its core. The world has suffered a devastating plague and babies are harder to come by, so what it means to be able to have a child, to be able to carry on the survival of the human race, is super important to some people. What it means to be a woman is questioned over and over. If you weren’t born with female parts, does that mean you’re not a woman? Flora, a trans-woman, knows she’s a woman, even if others can’t accept it. In a way, Flora’s journey is about trying to find a place she can be accepted, a home she can belong to and not have to worry about being hurt for simply being herself.
This book is also very much about Flora’s relationships with the other characters in the book, and how they accept one another, or not. Flora’s relationship with Eddy/Etta is very complex. I probably would have benefited from having read the previous book here, to get the background on their relationship, but even having not read it, it’s fine. We’re getting things from Flora’s POV here, we know something went bad in their relationship and that she’s been seeking to repair it ever since. We get the information we need in order to piece together the puzzle. We know that things are complex between them, and with their fellow friend and survivor, Alice. Even though they’re together, they seem to flit in and out of each other’s lives, connecting and coming apart again like three little magnets. Throughout the story they encounter a lot of other characters as well. New communities, and people who survive on their own. There’s a lot of lessons Flora takes from all of these encounters. There’s also her child, Connie. Mentioned sparsely at first, as if it takes too much out of her to even bring them up, it builds the reader’s curiosity about Connie and what role they play in the narrative. What happened between Flora and Connie to devastate her so? The way this information is imparted to us as readers throughout the book helps build the tension right up to the climax of the story.
If I have a tiny criticism of this book, it’s that the climax felt a little underwhelming after the build up. Also, the ‘villain’….I didn’t find their motivation all that credible? It felt kind of random and I wish this final conflict had been set up a little better earlier on. There were hints, but I don’t think they were strong enough to make the end plausible. That being said, I’m being super nit picky because this was an amazing novel and really, the conflict at the end wasn’t the point anyway. The point is, to quote Jurassic Park, ‘life, uh, finds a way’.
Overall, I really loved The Book of Flora. It can be a hard book to read sometimes because Flora hasn’t lived an easy life. And when she writes about her childhood, full of abuse, it’s so very matter of fact that it feels like a kick to the gut. But this horrific world is what she knows. Over the course of the story I really came to feel for her and want her to be happy, for things to work out. There’s something about Flora’s story that just draws you in, compelling you to keep reading her words. 4.5/5 stars.
MY THANKS TO THE GOOD FOLKS AT WUNDERKIND PR AND THE PUBLISHER FOR PROVIDING A REVIEW COPY. THIS DID NOT AFFECT THE CONTENT OF MY REVIEW IN ANY WAY.
June 27, 2022
Overal a strong continuation of the second book. I felt the ending was a bit rushed.
Edit due to recent developments in the US: read it! This book (series) explores the need for women to have abortions, even when humanity is on the brink of collapse.
Edit due to recent developments in the US: read it! This book (series) explores the need for women to have abortions, even when humanity is on the brink of collapse.
November 27, 2021
The Road to Nowhere trilogy started off with a bang. I genuinely liked The Book of the Unnamed Midwife as a story of one woman surviving in a post-apocalyptic world where women have become so scarce that they are being sold and traded like chattel. The Unnamed Midwife had grit, strength, common sense and a keen instinct for survival. It was so easy to get immersed in her story and root for her.
The second installment, The Book of Etta, had its good moments. However, I wasn't crazy about the structure of the novel. It felt thematically off and the resolution was crammed in in the last two chapters. But many trilogies suffer from the middle book syndrome, so I hoped The Book of Flora would end the series on a high note. Boy oh boy, was I wrong... There were so many problems here.
1) The plot desintegrated in front of my very eyes. Once again, Elison uses the formula of the previous two books, but to little success. It feels like Flora, Etta/Eddy and Alice are just drifting around for a huge chunk of the novel. Their journey feels hollow and its later stages (which are supposed to be the most important, as they settle down) are not fleshed out at all.
2) The majority of characters we already know feel off. Flora, whom we are following in this book, has no palpable presence. Heck, I've got to know her better in The Book of Etta! Also, there is a pod person replacing Etta/Eddy from the previous book.
3) The rest of the main characters are insufferable. I've rarely had the opportunity to read about someone so thoroughly unlikeable as Connie. Alice shows an incredible lack of common sense, waltzing into dangerous situation without any kind of forethought! She has also become a plotbot and has gone on my nerves for the entirety of this novel.
4) The bogus science of
5) The total disregard of established themes.
6) The lack of realism. It feels like the characters were only talking about gender issues throughout the novel, which is not only over the top, but wouldn't happen all the time in this brutal post-apocalyptic society. The characters are in precarious positions and one would think that they ought to focus on other stuff, like not falling into the hands of slavers, acquiring items for trade, food, water, learning useful skills...
7) The novel feels like an utilitarian piece with the sole purpose of including a lot of characters from all sides of the spectrum. These characters are shoehorned inside at the expense of telling a story and to me, that's a cardinal sin.
All in all, if you are keen on reading The Road to Nowhere, just read the first book. You won't miss a thing if you skip the second and especially the third one.
The second installment, The Book of Etta, had its good moments. However, I wasn't crazy about the structure of the novel. It felt thematically off and the resolution was crammed in in the last two chapters. But many trilogies suffer from the middle book syndrome, so I hoped The Book of Flora would end the series on a high note. Boy oh boy, was I wrong... There were so many problems here.
1) The plot desintegrated in front of my very eyes. Once again, Elison uses the formula of the previous two books, but to little success. It feels like Flora, Etta/Eddy and Alice are just drifting around for a huge chunk of the novel. Their journey feels hollow and its later stages (which are supposed to be the most important, as they settle down) are not fleshed out at all.
2) The majority of characters we already know feel off. Flora, whom we are following in this book, has no palpable presence. Heck, I've got to know her better in The Book of Etta! Also, there is a pod person replacing Etta/Eddy from the previous book.
3) The rest of the main characters are insufferable. I've rarely had the opportunity to read about someone so thoroughly unlikeable as Connie. Alice shows an incredible lack of common sense, waltzing into dangerous situation without any kind of forethought! She has also become a plotbot and has gone on my nerves for the entirety of this novel.
4) The bogus science of
5) The total disregard of established themes.
6) The lack of realism. It feels like the characters were only talking about gender issues throughout the novel, which is not only over the top, but wouldn't happen all the time in this brutal post-apocalyptic society. The characters are in precarious positions and one would think that they ought to focus on other stuff, like not falling into the hands of slavers, acquiring items for trade, food, water, learning useful skills...
7) The novel feels like an utilitarian piece with the sole purpose of including a lot of characters from all sides of the spectrum. These characters are shoehorned inside at the expense of telling a story and to me, that's a cardinal sin.
All in all, if you are keen on reading The Road to Nowhere, just read the first book. You won't miss a thing if you skip the second and especially the third one.
April 17, 2019
I received this ARC from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.
First of all, I absolutely loved The Unnamed Midwife and I really enjoyed The Book of Etta. However, this one fell a little flat for me.
The book picks up where The Book of Etta leaves off, with the survivors of Nowhere seeking refuge in the underground city of Ommun. Due to a number of clashes between several of the survivors and the prophet in charge of Ommun, Eddy, Alice and Flora decide to set out on their own to find or build a new settlement elsewhere. The book bounces between that time period and the future where Flora is older and their citizens are preparing for a possible attack.
The beginning of this book was very interesting and I liked it a lot. However, this book put way too much focus on gender issues. There were transgender people, gay people, a character who didn't identify as either gender, etc. I get the need for gender equality and I liked the way gender issues were portrayed and dealt with in the other two books. However, it felt like the author sacrificed plot and character development to deal with those issues. After a while, I just got bored, especially since every single conversation revolved around gender identity and breeding vs. non breeding. Also, in every single town, they had the same conversation about how the townspeople handled slavers and whether they allowed men or not. And inevitably, that discussion would lead to what it means to be a man or a woman. It just felt like the characters kept having the same conversation over and over. It felt like I was being preached to and I got bored. Throughout most of the book, I had to force myself to keep reading because I was not engaged at all. The end of the book involved a sort of surprise twist, but it was over very quickly and it felt a bit unsatisfying. There was also a part of the story that involved the theory of women impregnating themselves without men. This part of the storyline didn't make any sense and I felt like it was another way for the author to say that men weren't needed anywhere. That part of the storyline wasn't developed at all either. I hate to say it because I do love Elison's writing, but this one was a disappointment.
First of all, I absolutely loved The Unnamed Midwife and I really enjoyed The Book of Etta. However, this one fell a little flat for me.
The book picks up where The Book of Etta leaves off, with the survivors of Nowhere seeking refuge in the underground city of Ommun. Due to a number of clashes between several of the survivors and the prophet in charge of Ommun, Eddy, Alice and Flora decide to set out on their own to find or build a new settlement elsewhere. The book bounces between that time period and the future where Flora is older and their citizens are preparing for a possible attack.
The beginning of this book was very interesting and I liked it a lot. However, this book put way too much focus on gender issues. There were transgender people, gay people, a character who didn't identify as either gender, etc. I get the need for gender equality and I liked the way gender issues were portrayed and dealt with in the other two books. However, it felt like the author sacrificed plot and character development to deal with those issues. After a while, I just got bored, especially since every single conversation revolved around gender identity and breeding vs. non breeding. Also, in every single town, they had the same conversation about how the townspeople handled slavers and whether they allowed men or not. And inevitably, that discussion would lead to what it means to be a man or a woman. It just felt like the characters kept having the same conversation over and over. It felt like I was being preached to and I got bored. Throughout most of the book, I had to force myself to keep reading because I was not engaged at all. The end of the book involved a sort of surprise twist, but it was over very quickly and it felt a bit unsatisfying. There was also a part of the story that involved the theory of women impregnating themselves without men. This part of the storyline didn't make any sense and I felt like it was another way for the author to say that men weren't needed anywhere. That part of the storyline wasn't developed at all either. I hate to say it because I do love Elison's writing, but this one was a disappointment.
November 6, 2019
I am big fan of The Book of the Unnamed Midwife and I quite enjoyed The Book of Etta, but The Book of Flora was for me just okay. The prose was still good, but the plot not so much. This novel follow Flora and other characters we met in a Book of Etta, but it isn't anymore a story of survival in a new world, but more of finding your place in it and finding your own identity. I agree that those are important themes and I like when they are appreaciated in a novel, but here there was a little too much repetition of the fact that a person can be both a girl and a boy, or that it's hard to find another queer people who can understand each other.
At the end it dragged a lot and I struggled to finsh the novel. I still think Meg Elison can write beautifuly, but, reading her earlier novels, I can't give this one more that 2 stars.
At the end it dragged a lot and I struggled to finsh the novel. I still think Meg Elison can write beautifuly, but, reading her earlier novels, I can't give this one more that 2 stars.
March 25, 2019
"We have the complete story of our attempts at civilisation, in all the forms it has taken. Every one with the same goals, every one taking a different route to get there. (...) this is the work that women do. We keep the fire of civilisation burning, by collecting and protecting stories. It's what we have always done."
The Book of Flora is a rallying cry to queers, a fierce and unapologetic chronicle of queer love and life in a post-apocalyptic world. It's about love and about loss and jealousy and hatred and all the messy things in between. It’s about finding meaning in a meaningless world; about what it means to be a woman in a world where childbirth means everything.
But mostly its about the human condition, the ugly fuck-ups we are and the beautiful devastation we leave in our wake. It’s about our stories; the memories we have and the role we play in those of others. It’s about preserving queer stories against all odds, about etching out an otherwise erased existence.
There’s a rage boiling under the surface of Elison’s words; an absolute and utter refusal to submit, to accept; to gently go. It picks you up and hurls you through a vicious, broken world where men are monsters. Survival is linked to birth is linked to a legacy and on and on we go, and endless cycle of death and rebirth that leaves you breathless and needing more.
For a book about killing and dying, it is incredibly alive.
I love it, I love it, I love it.
The Book of Flora is a rallying cry to queers, a fierce and unapologetic chronicle of queer love and life in a post-apocalyptic world. It's about love and about loss and jealousy and hatred and all the messy things in between. It’s about finding meaning in a meaningless world; about what it means to be a woman in a world where childbirth means everything.
But mostly its about the human condition, the ugly fuck-ups we are and the beautiful devastation we leave in our wake. It’s about our stories; the memories we have and the role we play in those of others. It’s about preserving queer stories against all odds, about etching out an otherwise erased existence.
There’s a rage boiling under the surface of Elison’s words; an absolute and utter refusal to submit, to accept; to gently go. It picks you up and hurls you through a vicious, broken world where men are monsters. Survival is linked to birth is linked to a legacy and on and on we go, and endless cycle of death and rebirth that leaves you breathless and needing more.
For a book about killing and dying, it is incredibly alive.
I love it, I love it, I love it.
April 23, 2019
I thought the first two books on the Road to Nowhere asked interesting questions about gender and sexuality, but they were just warm-ups for this tour de force.
Having established her characters, Meg unleashes them into her world on a veritable Odyssey. Each stop along the way presents new ideas of what civilization could be. Flora, Eddy, Alice, and their company crisscross the reborn world in search of a place to call home, where they might be judged and valued for their hands and minds rather than their fertility.
This book, like it's predecessors, can be difficult at times. One of Meg's many talents is her ability to frankly tell the world how it is, and her postapocalyptic world let's her draw forth the worst of humanity into the light. There is no glee in this, but instead Meg uses it to show us the good in the world. What we could be as long as we're willing to stay and fight for it.
Having established her characters, Meg unleashes them into her world on a veritable Odyssey. Each stop along the way presents new ideas of what civilization could be. Flora, Eddy, Alice, and their company crisscross the reborn world in search of a place to call home, where they might be judged and valued for their hands and minds rather than their fertility.
This book, like it's predecessors, can be difficult at times. One of Meg's many talents is her ability to frankly tell the world how it is, and her postapocalyptic world let's her draw forth the worst of humanity into the light. There is no glee in this, but instead Meg uses it to show us the good in the world. What we could be as long as we're willing to stay and fight for it.
August 25, 2020
3.5 / 5 stars.
January 8, 2019
As soon as I received this ARC from Netgalley, (so thank you so much for letting me read this for an honest review, NG, you guys are doing the goddess’ work) I immediately read the first two books for context on Kindle Unlimited and then dove into this one. That was 3 books in four days, I’m wiped.
The first book was breathtaking and I loved it but Etta was too hardened for me and Flora was too ambivalent. I wanted to adore these last two books so much, but they both left me wanting.
The Book of Flora gets 3 stars from me. I love the new names for the places we all know so well, although, I will admit, it took another reviewer for me to realize Shy was Chicago and not Cheyenne. Flora picks up the torch of the midwife in this one and I’m a liberal Californian, same as the author, so I found the gender lectures a little “preaching to the choir” for me as I am already well-versed in trans etiquette, so it became noisy for me listening to her drone on about it, we get it, girl, you’re progressive af, power to the queers, now tell your dang story.
The plot felt as meandering as Flora’s journey. I felt the sex in this one was thrown in as fan service and I’m sorry, but I’m not as obsessed with Alice as the author is, she’s ridiculously self-absorbed and letting her steal the ending from the title character was the worst moment in the whole book. It should’ve just been called The Book of Alice.
Flora is a beautiful woman who deserved better than Eddy and Alice, in my opinion. She has such a big heart and her instincts went too long unheeded by Etta, the bully. I feel like the Big Bad in this book made not a lot of sense, so the ending threw me off guard, I saw it coming but I wonder now if the author is a mother and all that that entails. It’s a good end but I’m glad it’s over.
May the Alexandria always be seaworthy and the libraries as pristine as the one in Demons.
The first book was breathtaking and I loved it but Etta was too hardened for me and Flora was too ambivalent. I wanted to adore these last two books so much, but they both left me wanting.
The Book of Flora gets 3 stars from me. I love the new names for the places we all know so well, although, I will admit, it took another reviewer for me to realize Shy was Chicago and not Cheyenne. Flora picks up the torch of the midwife in this one and I’m a liberal Californian, same as the author, so I found the gender lectures a little “preaching to the choir” for me as I am already well-versed in trans etiquette, so it became noisy for me listening to her drone on about it, we get it, girl, you’re progressive af, power to the queers, now tell your dang story.
The plot felt as meandering as Flora’s journey. I felt the sex in this one was thrown in as fan service and I’m sorry, but I’m not as obsessed with Alice as the author is, she’s ridiculously self-absorbed and letting her steal the ending from the title character was the worst moment in the whole book. It should’ve just been called The Book of Alice.
Flora is a beautiful woman who deserved better than Eddy and Alice, in my opinion. She has such a big heart and her instincts went too long unheeded by Etta, the bully. I feel like the Big Bad in this book made not a lot of sense, so the ending threw me off guard, I saw it coming but I wonder now if the author is a mother and all that that entails. It’s a good end but I’m glad it’s over.
May the Alexandria always be seaworthy and the libraries as pristine as the one in Demons.
October 2, 2025
Preferred Eddy’s story in book #2 to Flora’s. Flora is a wet blanket of a character; passive, a follower, without much in the way of her own thoughts and opinions. She wrestles with a lot of important questions, but never gets anywhere near having an answer, or at least, her own answer. The ending felt like it was priming itself for a book #4, but I guess that’s not happening. Still, great writing, and a very quick, engaging read.
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