The Book of Flora by Meg Elison
The Book of Flora by
Meg Elison
And now we have the very last book in the Road to Nowhere
series. It has been quite the ride, journey and experience. This review will
hold spoilers for the first two books, but I will try my best not to spoil this
last book in this review.
It has
been over one hundred years since the Dying has taken place. And the army is on
its way to Bambritch Island. The refugees have been pouring in. The leader,
sometimes described as a man other times described as a woman, has been
destroying cities, killing everyone including pregnant women all in the search
for “frags”. Flora had heard of frags, people who can impregnate themselves and
have living children, before but had always dismissed it as a myth. As the army
comes closer, she reflects on the last 40 years in hopes of understanding why
someone could have their sights set on Bambritch.
The
suspense was killing me throughout this book! We know that danger is coming but
we also have absolutely no idea how Flora ended up on this island and where’s
Eddy? Who is this living child Flora speaks of? All of these questions are
answered throughout the book through narrative transitions in time. This was
the best option for this book and Elison executes it very well. Flora tells her
story in both the past and present through diary entries, with some chapters
being told in third person. This book more than the other two, was rooted in
the idea of evolution and how things evolve. How people and communities evolve
to survive. How ideas evolve and persist. How morals change and evolve when
they conveniently fit a narrative. How we as humans may one day physically
evolve and adapt to survive. Each of these characters has to decide how they
will then adapt and evolve with the changing conditions.
I love that this series keeps pushing
the envelope when it comes to the ways in which we discuss sexuality, gender,
and a changing society. Elison takes so many different aspects and really
dissects them from queer relationships, to polyamorous relationships,
motherhood, transitioning. It was refreshing to read a book that discusses it
so plainly. I am not queer so I can’t speak to how accurate these depictions
are. I can only speak to my own experiences and I found her conversations
around these topics to be very enlightening and informative and very
individual. I love that this dystopian series that originally revolved around a
woman trying to help other women survive grew into a series that explored
sexuality and gender. I’ve never read a book that focused solely on those
aspects in a dystopian and now that I have, it’s puzzling to me that there
aren’t more books like this. What a way to end a series. Highly recommended.
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