I picked up this book specifically because I want to read more stories with trans characters. I love that the core of the story addresses the (so often ignored) question of what happens to anyone outside the gender binary when an event/illness etc. only affects one gender in media. 

Unfortunately, however, I realised 40% in that the trans rep was pretty much the only thing I was enjoying. One of my main issues was the writing style. It is so incredibly unrefined, bordering on amateurish, in exactly the ways I hate. There are SO MANY long, rambling sentences where the meaning/subject of the sentence is muddled or lost, and so often I found myself losing focus during a single sentence. There are also so many unnecessary words used, for example in places where the reader could easily have implied the meaning without the extra words, or where Felker-Martin is describing something and uses two words that have the same exact meaning right after one another.  

I also thought the worldbuilding in general was pretty lacking. Yes, 50%-ish of the planet dying/turning feral would be a lot to cope with, but I would have thought they’d be a bit more 'back to normal' by now? There was mention of a working nuclear power plant, sometimes there’s electricity, but all of the shops/takeaways are closed/empty etc. Why wouldn’t some of them be open? There also seem to be abundant supplies of some things, with no indication of where they came from. Are factories still producing things, or has that all ground to a halt? Are women incapable of running anything themselves that isn’t a TERF militia? 

There was also basically no discussion about the start of the ‘event’, at least as far as I read to. ‘T-Day’ makes it sound like it hit everyone in one foul swoop, but other small bits of information also suggest that wasn’t the case because people had time to plan etc. This made it difficult for me to get the full picture of what was the most monumental event in every single character’s life. 

I also found it odd that none of the transwomen ever mentioned castration as an option for reducing their testosterone levels. Whether that was Beth/Fran discussing why they couldn’t/didn’t want to do it, or why it wouldn’t work, or the TERFs considering it as an alternative to killing everyone. 

I was also starting to find the constant descriptions of Indi's weight too much. I didn’t mind it in her POV sections, as that’s a character choice, and if she hates her body that much, (like many trans people) it would make sense for her to be thinking about it all the time. My problem came when every single character brought up her weight every time they thought about her. Just seemed hugely unnecessary. 

So, even though I was enjoying the trans rep in here, the story isn’t doing anything for me. As a seasoned dystopia/sci-fi reader, I feel like I’ve seen this all before, and the trans/hormone stuff is just a new layer sprinkled on top of pre-existing stories. And unfortunately, it’s a layer that isn’t strong enough for me to want to continue reading.