I’ve been looking forward to feasting my little eyes on this book, if only as a diversion from the reality we’re currently experiencing.

It’s not difficult to draw comparisons with what is happening right here, right now. Many of the observations are spookily accurate and that’s some feat, and one deserving of recognition, so before I move on here’s a virtual round of applause for the author achieving the gift of precognition!

This is a perfectly timed and inventive peek into a future that chips away at the bedrock of society as we know it, highlighting slivers of gender inequality and restructuring our way of life to address the imbalance caused by the phenomenon that is “The End of Men”.

The new world that emerged could have been a precious, speculative oyster. Instead, while their husbands, sons, fathers, and colleagues were expiring, the females developed cliched-behaviour syndrome.

Although the chapter headings were 100% concise I found myself unable to distinguish between the alternating featured characters, and after a while I realised I wasn’t even flicking back through the pages to check their identities.

There were also a few situations I couldn’t quite bring myself to accept. One example is when someone ‘throws cash on the counter’ and never waits for his change, as he’s petrified he’ll contract the virus from it. Damn. A virus is wiping out your entire gender and you choose to handle said cash to pay for stuff? Hello? Could someone help this poor creature apply for a debit card please? ! :)

I’m so gutted I didn’t get on with this one as well as I’d hoped, but I am confident plenty of other readers will hit it off just fine.

I think the timing of this book is a little unfortunate. Maybe some will pick it up because of the current pandemic, and other reviewers seem to have, in the main, been able read it for what it is so maybe not a big problem. It isn't really a book about a virus, it's a thought experiment about how the world would change if 90% of men died. What would a world practically without men look like? What would happen to government, industry, relationships? And, working back, it suggests why the world is the way it is now.

The story is told in the first person by multiple characters through the journal of anthropologist Catherine Lawrence. I found it difficult to keep track of who was who but that's me. The different points of view facilitated a fairly thorough exploration of how life changed when the men died.

It's a great book. I can't help wondering what it would have been like to read if it had reached the shelves before the COVID pandemic. Try as I might I couldn't help being the armchair expert on viruses and vaccines and that made it a slower read and slightly dulled the force of the book. Recommended.
ARC courtesy Netgalley.

In the year 2025 a virus emerges in a hospital in Glasgow, Scotland and it’s killing off the male population.
There is panic and a frenzy to find a vaccine. There is a few men who are immune and there is hope that this will help find a cure.
The author wrote this book in 2018 before our current COVID-19 pandemic and it was a frightening view of a possible future.
I live in Glasgow and I was amused to read that I could be living in The Independent Republic of Scotland in a few years time.
Thank you to NetGalley and HarperCollins UK, HarperFiction for my e-copy in exchange for an honest review.

A very topical on trend plot. Set in the not too distant future a plague descends on mankind or rather man as it only affects males, killing the majority of them.
Told from a variety of aspects it looks at not only the loss of life and how grief affects the survivors but how the fight for survival overcomes everything.
An extremely version of today’s situation an thought provoking read

Written before the current Covid crisis, this makes for a gripping, fascinating and timely read. I couldn't put it down as the pandemic unfolded in a frighteningly accurate reflection of our current daily news broadcasts. A highly emotive story.

If this had been available before the pandemic I would have ignored it, as dystopian novels are not my favourite. However I was curious to read it because of our current situation. It is impossible to read without comparisons with how things unfolded in 2020 and thinking; no, that is wrong, this is not how it goes. There are a couple of really good reviews here which criticize the medical details and this is not my expertise but I thought the fact that one woman took the credit for developing a vaccine and becoming rich from it is a step too far. I also thought that the story was told from a feminist viewpoint and the men's point of view was not explored at all really. There are so many things that just do not ring true and so I gave up on it. A brave try, but the timing is all wrong for this.

An A&E doctor in Glasgow encounters two men and a baby boy with alarmingly similar symptoms of severe 'flu-like illness and all die within a day or two ... marking the start of a global pandemic soon called 'the plague' which affects only men, although women are carriers. The death toll is huge, with 9 out of 10 men dying from the disease worldwide.

Written before the Covid-19 crisis, we recognise in this books echoes of our own situation and familiar stories indeed, although the plague described here is much much worse, to the point where there is a strong possibility that the human race may not survive at all.

The story covers a time arc from the first outbreak to several years further on, allowing the author to cover the initial official dismissiveness of its seriousness, the subsequent panic, the search for its origins and the race to find a cure or at least a vaccine; then, as the years go by, the longer-term consequences and humans having to make adaptations that are beyond our current comprehension.

The author tells the story from the viewpoint of many different people and displays a perception and sensitivity that certainly brought me to tears in places with her realistic portrayals and genuine sense of compassion. There was, though, a bit of a struggle for me to get my head around which character was 'talking' each time as the stories went back and forth. A difficult compromise here or the author between the very good presentation of different characters and perhaps having a few too many for us to get our heads round!

It was certainly really interesting to head so far into the future to see people were adapting to the profound changes in the world, with now very few men in positions of leadership - let alone able to form families and create children. How does it make men feel to be such a minority? How do prejudices change? How do you manage jobs requiring hard physical labour that are the traditional role of stronger males? What happens to online dating sites when all the lookers and takers are women? These and many other extremely interesting questions are explored and again provide much food for thought. Once again, though, I found perhaps a little too much for my wee brain and felt this just went on a bit too long, losing a little impact along the way.

I really do think this was an excellent book, a subject treated intelligently and looking beyond the obvious initial headline issues. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it, my main hesitation and reasoning for the three stars only is that I thought it should have been about three quarters of its current length and the author might have done well to have the confidence to stick to fewer characters.

Set in a world where a plague like flu decimates the male population, killing 9 out of 10 men and boys. This book reminded me of World War Z with its sprawling cast of different protagonists some more central than others and its global view. This is definitely a book for people who enjoy a large cast.

Given the current situation some parts were quite difficult to read and hit very close to home but it also raises some interesting questions such as how far would you be willing to go to ensure the survival of the human race.

The End of Men captured my attention as soon as I read the synopsis and I thought I was settling in for a dystopian novel in the vein of Children of Men-what I got instead was a heartbreaking, topical and terrifying glimpse into what life could be like. Told from many different viewpoints this book probably won't be for you if you're not a fan of alternating points of view but I really found myself caring about each and every character. It's been a long time since a book has made me cry, but on more than one occasion throughout The End of Men I had to put the book down to dry my eyes. Reading the synopsis you'd be forgiven for thinking the plotline is farfetched, but reading the book in early 2021 there is a terrifying realness to it all that really got under my skin. Christina makes sure to emphasise the point that she wrote this before the Coronavirus Pandemic changed the way we live-but it is impossible not to draw parallels between the lives of the people in these stories and the lives of people in our societies that are living through this pandemic.
I devoured The End of Men in one day, I just could not put it down until I knew how every single characters' story ended.
The only reason I have not given 5 stars is the sheer amount of different points of view-even for someone who loves reading from different persepctives there were a bit too much here and it could get confusing at times.

First up, the obvious: it is very strange to be reading a book about a global pandemic during a global pandemic, and that won’t be for everyone. For me it was almost escapism though. I expect the author didn’t think we’d actually be able to compare our real life experiences with that of her fictional pandemic. I have a very different perspective reading it now than I would otherwise. It is still, however, very very good. It reminded me a lot of “The Power” by Naomi Alderman, with the snippets of different global perspectives. The feminist slant here is what happens in a world where 90% of men are wiped out - how that changes society, and family, and relationships. I thought it was brilliantly researched and really interesting.

(Thanks for the publisher for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review)

Episodic and lacking in character development. Subject matter had potential. An opportunity missed. Sorry for the harsh review.

A chilling prior imagining of pandemic world. Better than okay 3.5,

I had very mixed responses to this one. I would have been unlikely to have requested it as an ARC, had we not had our reality encounter with a pandemic. Although I am drawn to post-apocalyptic literature, the writing needs to be exceptional to hold me to the subject matter. On the other way of looking at it – I very much hesitated on whether being within pandemic even made it possible, or advisable to read fiction about it at all. We are too deep in its pain, whether for ourselves, or for the wide world

Sweeney-Baird began writing this before Covid had even been imagined as more than a theoretical exercise by epidemiologists and in-case-of-potential-disaster planners. Some of her ‘what ifs’ are remarkably prescient, even if her specific imagined pandemic is a far more specific and even more virulent, than the one we have.

The challenges with this are that the multiplicity of individual stories and voices as the pandamic and its effects are taken across several years and geographies, are difficult to keep a handle on, especially as the individual voices are not particularly clearly delineated. To be honest, I had to keep doing Kindle searches to see who this or that person was again. Part of the problem of course was exacerbated by the fact that all voices were female – this is a pandemic, as the title explains, which only affects men.

Then there were strange anomalies with the science itself. Firstly, its absolutely obvious that a disease which only affects males, but which women are carriers for, are linked to very particular parts of the genome. So it was a little incredible that her scientists did not immediately unearth that. Secondly…it didn’t feel credible, following the story of her two pregnant females, that there was such complete ‘unknown’ until the moment of birth of the sex of the baby.

I did appreciate the narrative, and the speculative on the effects of this pandemic across the world – there were interesting considerations here – particularly, post-pandemic, on a woman run world and a kind of gender reversal of sexual objectification.

As a clinician I probably shouldn't have read this book
The author needs to learn how to spell resuscitation and the shortened form is RESUSS. not Recuss. Patient's wives do NOT "get in the way" especially one's whose husbands are dying. You don't write off a junior doctor for asking for help. In the UK we call it adrenaline. We don't "pulverise" people during cardiac arrest. The rash in meningitis is a late symptom (being due to sepsis) so you can't conclusively rule out meningitis in someone with no rash. I also can't believe an A+E consultant wouldn't have seen MRSA before. Then there was the moving house-it changed counties twice unless it was two separate houses and I got confused. .
Maybe it's the wrong time to read this book and I might have enjoyed it more if I wasn't on the frontline.

I have just read through the other reviews and I have to say that the review from Nic H is absolutely spot on

If you are not coping well with real life in these difficult times, this is not the book for you. I would have enjoyed it more if we weren't living our own version of a plague right now, but it was an intense and sad reading and I really liked the fast pace. At times I got the characters confused, though, there were really a lot o f them.

Many thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC copy of this novel in return for my honest review.

I approached 'The End of Men' with rather a lot of trepidation. I know that there will inevitably be a deluge of literature about the current Covid-19 pandemic, but I'm looking forward to reading it retrospectively, once we're no-longer in lockdown: when I'm no-longer worrying about what I'm allowed to do, how to keep loved ones safe and, for goodness sake, I'm allowed to leave the house for more than three government-sanctioned reasons. It seems too soon to start reading plague literature and I was really concerned that this book may trigger all of my current anxieties. Strangely, the reverse happened.

If this book had been published in 2019, I would have categorised it as dystopia, possibly even feminist. In 2021 however, it reads as a fictional, exaggerated account of recent history, a point that has not gone unnoticed by the author.

This is not, however, about Covid. In fact it was written just before the current pandemic. 'The Plague' is a readily-spread virus which sweeps through the world at an alarming rate, carried by men and women, young and old. Within hours of the first deaths, a doctor recognises that it is killing its male hosts within days of them contracting it, but only men. And so whilst many things are alarmingly similar to our current situation, so many other things are much, much worse. In a way, my reading of this book has actually settled my nerves as the news no-longer seems quite as extreme.

Outside of the times within which it is being published, this would always have been a great read, and it's one of the best things I've read in ages. The multiple-character perspective sheds light on how a pandemic affects journalists, doctors, scientists, politicians, married and unmarried women, and even one man. It questions how society is constructed, and challenges the role of women within society, without being overtly feminist in its tone, and this is refreshing.

It's a fast-paced, well-characterised and well-plotted science-fiction thriller. I can see it being enormously popular, and 'The End of Men' would sit comfortably next to novels such as 'The Handmaid's Tale', 'Never Let You Go' and 'Nineteen-Eighty-Four'. A fabulous read!

I received a copy of the book from Netgalley to review. Thank you for the opportunity.
An interesting and thought provoking story, that rings all to true today. The writing is good and there is plenty of suspenseful buildup for the action that explodes on the pages.
The characters are not very likable to me and so I didn't engage with them fully which took away some of the power and heartbreak of the story.
A good read.

Great writing and fantastic premise.
It was fascinating to read and at times utterly heart breaking.

I read this in bed whilst my grandson slept beside me and I cried watching his little face grateful that I wasn't a part of this book's narrative.

A really thought provoking book that will break your heart.

This book was written from multiple perspectives, which was somewhat confusing in parts; but overall I loved having the different storylines in place and following along / catching up with them throughout the book.

Being that we're in a pandemic ourselves; the book resonated with me, as it acknowledged some of how I've been feeling so far regarding our situation. Although this is a work of fiction, I feel it captured the situational terror perfectly, and made me acknowledge that although we may not know how or why this is happening, we can always try to remain hopeful.

I found the novel surprisingly uplifting. Possibly because it broached how things continued afterwards; but definitely because of how well written each of the characters were.

There's a quote from within that resonated with me; not just in relation to the pandemic, but with regards to dealing with grief; not just for lost loved ones, but for a number of things that could be lost.

"We can never regain what we have lost and we must accept that, mourn that, grieve what cannot be, and find a new way to exist."

The story of a catastrophic pandemic, spreading swiftly throughout the world, and its impact on the people it doesn’t kill. Infecting only men (while women are carriers), even in the time of the COVID-19 pandemic this tale packs a punch. Across the world, men fall victim and die, leaving women having to recreate order from the chaos that ensues. Told from many perspectives ‘The End of Men’ delivers a gripping storyline, of courage, determination, grief and remembrance. I was hooked from the start and read it in two sittings. It stays with you, as now these events don’t feel quite as improbable as they once would have.
With my thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

If you’d come across this book 18 months ago, you’d have thought it was terrifying and unreal, almost a scifi scenario. Fast forward to 2020 and here we are. A pandemic sweeping the whole world, at breakneck speed.

I found the book terrifying at times, but also reassuring, because life does go on. 97% of the male population die from a deadly virus, women carry it, but don’t succumb to it. The speed with which people die gave no time to help or treat them. Whole families …husbands, sons, grandfathers, all gone. No time to grieve.

But, as I said, life goes on and the world becomes a very different place, where women outnumber men 9-1. It actually felt quite empowering, because going forward, hugely important decisions were being taken mostly by women. And quite different views as a result.

It gave me lots to think about, but I thoroughly enjoyed the book.