This book is going to be huge next year! And probably on my favourite books of 2021 when we finally get there! I loved the premise and I have turned down many books about viruses this year as it felt too “close” but the book seemed prophetic in its plot development that grabbed me in a way I hadn’t expected it to. Its an intelligently written book that felt unique in its approach to post apocalyptic fiction and very realistic as well. The women characters at the forefront of the storyline were well developed, strong and interesting and I followed their journeys with an investment in their future. Some stories were absolutely heartbreaking as women lost the men in their lives but the positive mind sets and determination of some felt inspiring and hopeful.
This is such a brilliant book and I devoured. every single page.

When I first heard about this book, I assumed, wrongly, that it was written by someone attempting to cash in on the current Coronavirus pandemic sweeping the world. Once I realised it had actually been written in 2018 I became curious to read how closely related this work of fiction was to the current reality. Thankfully the fictional world where most of the population of men were wiped out was far worse. However, there were many parallels that amazed me with their foresight and for this the author requires utmost praise. The personal stories were heartbreaking but with incredible resilience many women showed unbelievable strength in the face of adversity. I recommend this book if only as a comparison and although our current situation has been dire and tragic for so many, it does not compare to this fictional world. I enjoyed, if that’s the right word, this book but felt it lost its way a little and moved on too quickly. Maybe there were too many characters but I inderstand the need to tell the story from many different perspectives. However, the conclusion and probable reality that the effects would be felt for many, many years was the correct one.

The End of men is a powerful, thought provoking story of a pandemic that started on the Isle of Bute in Scotland. The pandemic kills 90% of men and women are the carriers. Told in several points of views of people in the far corners of the world and their experiences of it and the grief and loss they endured and the changes they had to make not only in their own lives but in the society they lived in.
Although this was written in 2018, it was quite ironic that some of the things that are in this book are problems that we have presently. I really enjoyed this tale. Learning about the suffering and the way the people changed their lives that were left behind. But I thought the last few chapters were a bit more political than I would have liked. 4 stars from me.

An apocalyptic and timely near future thriller, presenting a terrifying what-if scenario. I was literally holding my breath to read what happens next!

Dr Amanda MacLean in a Glasgow hospital treats a male patient presenting with flu whose body suddenly shuts down. She investigates and realises patient zero came in from Bute a few days earlier .... this starts The Plague of 2025 which only kills men. The story is told via multiple points of view worldwide.

Yes, it’s another pandemic novel and a debut! I really like the format of the book, although there are a lot of characters it clearly shows the dramatic escalation into fear and chaos that this pandemic brings across the continents. This is a four horseman of the apocalypse, epically biblical crisis in scale with the first half showing the horrifying stages of the pandemic and the second depicting the fallout and survival via a vaccine. There are some very good characters especially Amanda who is dogged and intuitive and I also have a particular liking for Dawn, the sixty something civil servant working in British Intelligence whose wry humour is a welcome relief. The novel is extremely well written and the style engaging. It clearly shows the devastating and overwhelming pain and sadness of loss, it’s moving and poignant as it humanises the victims otherwise it’s numbers of such enormity your brain cannot compute. Some characters are very reflective especially on life pre-pandemic which is heartbreaking. The impact worldwide is interesting as woman have to fill roles from refuse collectors to soldiers to world leaders. Especially thought provoking is the drastic action some countries take to protect male babies and how sperm is allocated to ensure the populations future. I like the end as it reinforces the importance of love and remembrance and putting a face to those that are gone but not forgotten.

Overall, yes, this is a devil rides out scenario but it’s also very intriguing, extremely well written and does make you reflect on what’s important as we go through this pandemic.

With thanks to Harper Collins UK/Harper Fiction for the arc for an honest review.

An uncanny thriller to read in 2020 - about a virus that decimates half the populations. The many different perspectives were really well-written, and effective in showing how a broad cross-section of the population was affected. Genuinely unputdownable, but don't read yet if you feel the plot hits too close to home.

A massively thought provoking read. Hotly topical, a virus is rampaging through society killing 90% of males, women are carriers but unaffected. Told from multiple viewpoints we watch as women lose husbands, sons and work colleagues. The race for a vaccine brings moral questions to the fore and the whole of society undergoes a seismic shift. At times I felt the writing was a little clinical and I would have liked a little more emotion and insight into the characters but on the whole it was an excellent read.

In a bizarre twist of fate I started reading The End of Men during a pandemic, on the day my son was confirmed as having Covid, a day later I was also confirmed as having it. Being a mother of two sons and wife in this story I would be set to lose my whole family, it made for uncomfortable reading at times. I found The End of Men a fascinating story, insightful and a warning as to what could happen in a similar scenario to what we are currently experiencing. Featuring lots of characters and their stores, it was truly gripping. I couldn't put it down.

I love this genre and found it quite ironic that it had been written just before COVID19 hit and we were living the reality. The End of Men starts with Dr. Amanda who witnesses patient zero and tries to raise the alarm of a deadly virus that attacks only men. But no one is taking her seriously and the pandemic is too late to contain. Now they are racing to identify a vaccine.

There is a lot right with this book. I love how much thought and intelligence went into imagining the world under this scenario and how different lives are impacted. But I also felt this was its downfall - too many points of views and angles were covered that made the story disjointed for me. I would have preferred a larger focus on a few specific stories. The author tried to cover too much. I also became bored with the political focus versus the personal stories. A brave attempt that provides lots of food for thought.

Thought provoking, clever, diverse, well written and calm in a scenario of panic.

This book hits close to home considering the current World Pandemic and I really thought I was going to be unable to read it. The story is really compelling and there is a feeling of hopefulness, despite the situation, that gave me something to hold on to. On the other hand there were very similar situations from the one we are going through currently - the big pharmaceutical companies trying to find a vaccine which made it a bit difficult to disconnect from the reality of what we are currently living.

I normally struggle with multiple points of view but the characters are well characterised and it became easy to follow:

This dystopian world was really interesting but at the same time scary to think of it as a reality.

Overall, the book is wonderfully written and the plot of fantastic and although I would highly recommend it I think I would have enjoyed it even more if it didn’t remind me so much of the current situation.

I would like to thank Netgalley, Harper Collins UK, Harper Collins Fiction and The Borough Press for an advanced digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest and unbiased review

For me, after reading The End of Men, it made me grateful that the current pandemic we are in is no where near as devastating as the virus described in this novel which is something I never thought I'd say.

The End of Men is about a virus that wipes out 90% of men with women being immune as well as carriers. I started this book thinking it would be interesting to read a story about women ruling the world and how we would manage that. I didn't think I would end up in tears reading stories from mums as they watched their boys dying from the virus.

That aside, it was a very good read, I particularly liked reading different view points from women around the world. I would, however, have liked to have read more about how the world had changed, how jobs were allocated, how women found the elimination of choice in their lives and the psychology behind the decisions in more detail. Still a great book that gave me lots of food for thought!

Not necessarily the most escapist reading in 2020, however definitely the most intriguing, clever and terrifying take on a global pandemic and it’s far-reaching consequences. Can’t stop telling people about this.

No fault of the author but I just couldn't read this. It was just too close to the current situation for me and I felt uncomfortable. Probably an indication of itself how good the book is in one way!

This is a very compelling, timely and interesting read. Funnily it was written before the pandemic, but great timing!
The story is rich with lots of things shaping our current reality like pandemic, social disorder, changing dynamics, etc. Great writing too. I highly recommend.

Although written before Covid-19 hit town, this novel is about a virus that wipes out 90% of the male population of the world.
We dip into events at various dates in the first five years of the pandemic and from various perspectives.
Although there is a large cast, the novel is scenario-driven rather than character-led novel. Many of the characters make brief appearances and do not return for a hundred or so pages. Probably the most developed are Amanda, the accident and emergency doctor who first raises the alarm, and Catherine, an anthropologist who finds herself documenting the emerging society. We meet these women at the beginning of the story, see them suffer terrible loss and then watch them adapt and take on new challenges.
Other characters include: an egotistical virologist working on a vaccine; a Filipina nanny in Singapore who makes a split-second decision to flee; a smallholder on a remote Scottish island who believes her family will survive in splendid isolation, that’s until the Scottish government repurposes her farm; and a male passenger on a ship stranded off Iceland.
Through snapshots of these characters’ lives, we see societies reconfigure as women take on new roles at the same time as mourning loved ones. We see a little of how different countries handle the crisis. Scotland, for example, very quickly declares independence (Who knew?) and New Zealand comes up with a startling way to protect baby boys born before a vaccine is found.
This is a what-if novel. But rather simply asking: What if we faced a global pandemic (Image that), the writer really asks the question: What if the world were run by women? And sneaks in a damning indictment of her (our) pre-virus world where women are underrepresented in so many industries that urgent and mass reskilling is required.
At times, the novel is utopian rather than dystopian. There are minimal references to crime and war in this new world order and what riots there are seem to be started by panicked men at airports and railway stations as they attempt to escape the virus in the early days. However, there are also hints that some women fall into bad habits in their attitudes towards the “weaker” sex. Men, now objects of curiosity in the workplace and on the streets, have to form action groups to protect their interests and stand up against inappropriately gendered language in the office.
A lot of thought has gone into every imagined scenario and the writer provides stimulating options. This book will be widely read, reviewed and debated, and is ripe for an intelligent TV series adaptation..

Many thanks to Net Galley, the author and publisher for the opportunity to read this interesting story.

The End of Men is a timely, at times prescient novel, about a global flu-like pandemic. Split into short sections told by various characters across the world, it's dystopian fiction in the vein of World War Z or The Power.

Covid aside, it's a brilliant premise. The novel starts as a gripping survival narrative, and there is a poignant exploration of trauma. However, a novel split between multiple POVs needs to have a strong sense of character - and in this respect Sweeney-Baird's storytelling fell a bit flat for me. I didn't really engage with any of the narrators, and so I felt detached from their experiences. I didn't get much of a sense of people's day to day lives, and too often, I felt like life-changing policies or discoveries were only ever outlined through the eyes of those in charge, rather than the people they actually affected.

The End of Men is an enjoyable read - but perhaps not as compelling as it could have been.

I began reading this just as we went into a second lockdown for Covid-19. I suspect that added a certain realism and creepy feeling to the plot that may not have been so evident if I had read this last year. The plot centres around an outbreak of a virus in Scotland that quickly spreads around the world. "The Plague" as it becomes known only affects men and women are carriers. Starting with flu-like symptoms, any man or male child that catches it, dies within a couple of days. There is no treatment and no cure. 10% of the worlds male population are immune, all the other are at risk. The book explores the collapse of the political elite throughout the world as the men die and woman take over, it brushes over the difficulties countries face, replacing their workers in male dominated careers, from garbage men to fire-fighters to scientist and how the world needs to retrain and re-develop their education programmes. It looks at how the world can be carried by woman who are grieving the loss of their partners, brothers, fathers and children. It follows the stories of a number of people around the world as societies have to adapt to the new world order and races to find a vaccine. I LOVED this book. The emotions it covered and the whole concept was original and well thought out. It covered topics I would never have thought of which gave it a greater feeling of realism and following the development of the plague through the eyes of the various characters was a good way of covering it. One of those books that will remain with me long after I have finished it. Highly recommended. Deserves every one of my 5 stars. Thank you for allowing me to preview this excellent read

You would think that a book with a title proposing the end of my gender would be cause for concern, possibly misandry, wrong! This is a book about many many different things currently affecting our society, be that misogyny, the pandemic, the fear and paranoia becoming prevalent in society today but it’s also about hope and it’s a very good read

I loved this book and read it in one sitting. It kept me enthralled to the end - and perhaps because of the current pandemic! It was very relevant (and also very scary to see how a situation such as this can be so easily predicted by someone with an imagination - and yet not predicted by governments world wide and to be taken by surprise.). I loved how the book was written by the view points of different women. I would have liked to have seen a bit more in the end about how the world had changed and how the leadership of women had altered everything. The author went it a little bit there, but I would have liked to have seen a bit more. But I really enjoyed the book and couldn't put it down.

I'll be honest, this book ended up being totally unlike anything I expected it to be - but in a really, really good way.

I didn't think I would get so heavily invested in the characters. And I definitely didn't think that I'd be bawling my eyes out less than 20% of the way through.

This was an edge-of-your-seat kind of novel that, while it was written years ago, ends up tapping into the current global situation in a masterful way.

In the year 2025, a mysterious virus has broken out in Scotland - and it seems to affect only men. When Dr. Amanda MacLean reports this phenomenon, she is dismissed as hysterical. By the time her warning is heeded, it is too late and the virus has become a global pandemic, as well as a political one.

The book is an immersive account of the women who have been left to deal with the consequences of the virus, and it's all told in first person narratives. From Dr. MacClean to intelligence analyst Dawn; Catherine, a social historian determined to document the human stories behind the male plague to Elizabeth, one of many scientists desperately working to develop a vaccine, the women give readers insight into the start of the plague and beyond.

It was clear how carefully the author had plotted out the book and how much research had gone into the writing process. It felt like Sweeney-Baird had really done a deep-dive into the possible eventualities from a worldwide pandemic, and how the people around the world may react.