The End of Men Review

The End of Men by Christina Sweeney-Baird

Reading this book reminded me of the intense novel, World War Z, written by Max Brooks, and not surprisingly, the author's afterword cites the influence of his work. But as Max Brooks focused his oral history on retelling how humanity fought a plague, Christina concentrated on sharing how women might face one. It's a different take that focuses more on family and personal relationships and less on the actions and physical struggles.

The story starts with Dr. Amanda Maclean, an emergency physician in Scotland, discovering patient zero of an impeding world-altering plague that kills only men. But the crux of it is that no one initially believes her, and the potential to stop the holocaust is squandered. The author then expertly draws the reader into a layered, intersecting multi-POV storyline that traces how various women learn to live with and tackle a plague that kills their fathers, sons, and husbands as well as male coworkers, employees, and bosses. The surviving women must face grief and pain while dealing with life's challenges and opportunities without men. Though many are emotionally wounded, most are to some degree reborn as they tackle roles they may never have dreamed of taking and are challenged in ways they haven't often been before. While the plague strips many women of their titles like wife, girlfriend, and mother, they learn to recenter their lives around their selves and a female-centric future.

Interestingly, the author wrote this book before the COVID-19 pandemic. At the time, it started as a thought experiment, but the overall isolation and grief she touches upon in her fictional pandemic is something we can all relate to as we endure this one.