I have enjoyed Lauren Beukes' books very much in the past. She is creative, insightful, and her writing style is wonderful. I especially liked Broken Monsters (so good at dialogue) and Zoo City (so ... weird, in a good way). This one was a bit less of a "wow" book for me, which may be partly due to its landing during a pandemic. This may have made me more critical of, or less receptive to a plotline based on a devastating pandemic virus (this one an oncovirus rather than a coronavirus, which has at least educated me about the existence of virally-caused cancers). But beyond that I am deeply annoyed by dystopian futures that assume the worst of people and this story seems to follow that narrative, when in fact the present moment (police violence, protests, mutual aid, more police violence) suggests we'd be fine in a crisis if we were just allowed to get on with it. In this case the government is more competent than I believe it would be and the people are less tolerant and cooperative than I believe they are. The other disappointment for me was that the promise of the central concept - what if most men were gone from the population? - just didn't get much play, really, apart from some very screwed up religious nuts who have built an order of penitents because they ... they wish there were men around to tell them what to do? Interesting but I didn't really get it, and that could be my fault. I did like the interplay between the sisters (the bad one has the best lines) and the confusing approach of puberty for a boy who has to pretend to be a girl. But overall - I should try not to have such enormous expectations, perhaps. A good read, but disappointing.