The XY

This book is so bad that I feel robbed in buying it.

Very pleased

Great kids read

It's a good read!

The XY by Virginia Bergin channels Beyoncé’s fan favorite chorus, “Who run the world?Girls,” offering a different perspective to the utopia/dystopia genre. In this world, the males of the human race have been suddenly, inexplicably, and almost wholly, been struck down by a virus leaving a world populated by only women. Notably, a few males survive and are sent to sanctuaries where they must live a life of useful servitude, contributing to the continued repopulation of the planet. This is for their safety and protection as any contact with a female will likely prove fatal, a risk that cannot be taken. The story opens with a fourth generation protagonist who has never known a boy, never experienced the world of 2018. I’m guessing it is set sometime around 2080, but that’s only a guess based on the approximate age of the grandmumma, the protagonist’s great grandmother, gleaned from her vocabulary and pop culture references. As the story opens River happens across a body in the road and the body turns out to be a very hostile but injured and sick boy. River, although completely confused and freaked out about this encounter, feels an obligation to bring the now unconscious boy home. She doesn’t expect he’ll survive. The virus is deadly and no male had previously survived longer than 24-48 hours so she feels it would be most humane to bring him home since she cannot bear to end his suffering herself. This action, of course, sets in motion the basic conflict of the story. The XY does indeed survive somehow and it appears that he may have been genetically modified to resist the virus. River’s grandmumma and mumma think that the XY’s discovery should be kept from the village for awhile, but it’s not clear why as everyone has been waiting for this miracle to occur, when the males could be brought back. Or so they say. In the absence of males the world has inevitably changed. It is a peaceful place not marked by violence or war. There are tenets that everyone agrees to and things are groovy.The Earth comes first.Every child is our child.We reject all forms of violence.We will all help each other. Knowledge must be shared.We agree that we need to agree.Everyone has the right to be listened to.So that’s the setup. What follows is pretty unambitious storytelling from a very unlikeable, whiny protagonist. Turns out the XYs life in the sanctuaries is pretty rotten, all that testosterone and no place to go, and the mummas are using them and their sperm producing quality as a trading commodity with international partners. Life without men is better in some ways but lacking in many other ways like industry, transportation, agriculture, communications, etc.The story just never takes hold for me. It’s supposedly a “female-dominated world still imperfect with questions over democracy, power, and second-class citizens,” but the character and world building were so poor that I just felt no connection to the book. Bergin says in her preface, “The more I thought about what gender is and the ways in which our ideas about it are created and transmitted—through family and intergenerational influence, through education and other forms of social and cultural transmission—the more I saw gender as an entirely arbitrary construct...So this story is told to you by River, a teenage girl who lives in a world of women but who has never really had to think about gender until the arrival of a boy changes everything.” So, gender bending. In this world, women play all the roles. They are the teachers, engineers, physicists, doctors, lawyers, politicians, and everything in between. And yet, the world they inhabit seems primitive and underdeveloped. Infrastructure is poor, food production is limited. And while there are a couple of references to global climate change and abuse of natural resources from glutinous consumers of yore, it left me thinking that the women just weren’t capable of maintaining or improving upon the physical world they inherited. Instead, they are eating insect soup and riding cantankerous horses. That seemed like a gender slap in the face, the opposite of what Bergin is aiming for. I too wonder how a world with more women in charge would look, sound, feel, and how that plays out against the human condition in general. Does power corrupt? Could there be a world that was not dominated by violence? Could social ills like poor education, healthcare, and poverty be overcome? But I do not feel like Bergin took a very deep dive here. Women are still dying from poor healthcare and a lack of health resources available to all, education seems questionable with pursuits that are more creative or fun exorcized, and representation of opinion is still limited to those in a government position. And River is a highly flawed protagonist and I didn’t find her hero’s journey the least bit plausible nor likely. We know very little about her except that she’s whiny and likes pity parties. I cannot even pin down her age. Somewhere between 11 and 18. And she may or may not have a love interest with Plat, but if so, it’s very superficial. Is she a good student, smart, ambitious, admired, loved, friendly, capable, thoughtful? Is she loving, kind, generous, innovative? Mindlessly obedient and ho hum are all that come to mind.However, I could have overlooked thiese things, perhaps, if the story had been more engrossing, if there had been any actual conflict, and if River could have been more multifaceted and showed the tiniest bit of wonder or curiosity about Mason and how his appearance in her world was not just baffling but significant. The story had potential, but didn’t deliver.

Two stars might be fair, or might be generous. This book was a terrible disappointment. I had enjoyed the author's prior books, so I hoped for something else interesting. Instead, this book failed for me. I would never recommend it to teens, that's for sure! In a world where men are captive and used for only, um, propagation, River finds a boy. The premise was interesting, but the actual story fell flat for me.What we have instead is too much foul language, especially ones that are very offense to many people. Abuse, rape, folks living as captives, one gender taken for granted, a loss of diversity and uniqueness, and lopsided fragile existence that could have humanity wiped out in no time flat are just a few of the things in this book. This reported utopia is a veneer, it's falling apart. There is a horrible lack of advancement. In fact, it's reverted to more of a primal planet. Bugs for dinner anyone? Gross! There's lack of transportation, medical care, forget tech! So these gals running the world aren't doing a good job of it if you ask me. They have fallen way short of an entire bevy of goals, and have failed to even figure out a way to overcome the virus that could end humanity.I also could not connect to most of the characters. They felt flat or two dimensional. I really wanted to like this book, but instead this book was lackluster and missed the mark for me in all the ways that count the most and seemed to turn into a platform for the author to debate conflicted ideology.My copy came from Net Galley. A positive review is never required and this is what I thought about this book.

The concept of the story had me intrigued enough to buy this book off the shelf without ever hearing anything about it. I flipped through a couple of pages to check for things that are red flags for me and didn't see them - I should have looked closer. I would not recommend this book to my family or my children since we share the same values and beliefs. It is unfortunate for gender to be so de-valued as there is truly great purpose and diverse gifts in our genders - things that we are innately really good at and should be cherished, encouraged, and preserved.For Informative purposes:Language - Strong. There are many uses of GD and Jesus as a swear word, b****, sh**, and the f-word. A lot of them are directed toward people in disrespect.Violence/Gore - Mild. There are some fighting/struggle scenes but the detail is limited.Sex - Mild/Moderate. This is a world where a boy and a girl first see each other so there is some natural mention of their physical differences. The book references the belief (from both societies) that the other gender is all about rape and violence, so this comes up many times. There is what seems to possibly be a lesbian relationship but it may be brand new and doesn't go beyond hand holding. There are a few mentions of "sex-vids".Themes/Values - Strong. This author made it very clear that she believes that "...gender [is] an entirely arbitrary concept" (Bergin, p. 326). This women's society perpetuates the stereotypes of all men being violent, angry, and sex-only minded in the two men that are characters in the story and through all of the conversation/actions of the women. Although one of these male character does seem to have the ability to adjust his behavior after many experiences with the women society. There is a list of "agreements" created by this women's society about how the world should be which appear repeatedly (many of them are altruistic and wholesome).