Book Review: The End of Men by Christina Sweeney-Baird

The End of Men explores the spread of the virus and its impact at a personal, social and political level. It has been an interesting process, reading about a fictional pandemic while actually living through one. The author began this novel in 2018, prior to the COVID-19 outbreak, never expecting it would be published during an actual global pandemic.

The victims of this virus are all male with the same devastating result, regardless of age, 90% of cases are fatal. Females are not affected. The race is on to find a vaccine to save half the world’s population and prevent global, economic, political, and social collapse.

Told through first-person narrative each character shares their own story. Dr MacLean, the Scottish doctor who first comes up against the ‘Male Plague’, but struggles to be heard; Elizabeth, one of many scientists working tirelessly to develop a vaccine; intelligence analyst Dawn, tasked with helping government officials shape a new mostly female society, and Catherine, a social historian, determined to collect the human stories of loss, family, love and ultimately hope.

With thanks to Harper Collins New Zealand for providing an advance review copy of the book.