Called simply “the female”, she is seventeen, one of the few survivors of a worldwide plague known simply as the Sickness—and quite possibly the last woman on earth. She lives in the mountains and forests of northern California, protected by her father. Life is hard, but they’re happy. Until one chilly autumn morning when a violent, racist band of males, led by an ex-elite soldier called Braydon, find them. Overjoyed at discovering a female they can “enjoy”, the men kill the female’s father and take her prisoner.
Life becomes intolerable for the female. Delighted to be in possession of the last woman on earth—or so they believe—they keep her isolated in a cabin of her own, for them to take turns with. Braydon sets up a strict routine to avoid any unrest within the camp—but his own intention is to make her the new Eve, to breed with her and repopulate the Earth. Throughout the winter, the female begins to train—making herself as strong and fit as she can for the spring. She is determined to escape, or die trying.
Dark bleatings, my lovely tribe. I’ve got something a little different to talk about today, a novel written in verse. I have to say, when I started reading I was a little worried, because this style of story telling really isn’t for me. I’m not the most poetic or poetry loving person. However, this is a 5/5 for me (and if you follow me on Goodreads, you might have noticed that my 5/5 ratings have been on the scarce side this year). I simply could not give it any other ranking – I LOVED it.
“Martha” is apparently the last woman alive after some sort of virus or disease wiped the women out. Civilisation has fallen, and she is surviving with her father. Unfortunately, a group of over a dozen men find them, kill her dad, and take her to keep on a sex rotation. All she dreams of is escape.
As situations go, this is one of my personal nightmares. Because I’ve spent so much time fantasising about the zombie apocalypse (any day now, I hear), the fear of stumbling across a group of this type of men has entered my brain a few times, mostly to ruin the fun I was having thinking about doing supply runs with Daryl Dixon. This scenario is terrifying on a hellish scale, so I was immediately on side with the protagonist and extremely invested in her plight.
This is a novella, and because it’s written in verse, is quicker to read than it first appears by the page count, and for that reason I’m finding it difficult to go further into the story as I review it, because I’m avoiding spoilers.
What I can elaborate on a bit more is the writing style and format, though this isn’t my forte, as I mentioned. What I noticed and loved about the writing was that the verse format gave the story a sense of urgency. The run-on sentences eluded to the frantic nature of Martha’s thoughts, always in survival mode, always having to think fast. And then, when sentences were cut short, or many lines were used to convey one piece of information, it felt like the writing reflected the pacing of the overall story. I found that the layout of the words really kept me in step with escalation of the plot, and Martha’s internal struggle.
Additionally, though this is a more poetic framework, the story itself doesn’t feel like poetry (not to me, at least). I usually prefer to be inside the head of a protagonist that takes their time over their thoughts and reflections, but here, things were mostly quite to the point and the writing was never verbose. The reason this worked so well for me was because I’d be comfortably, quickly running with the story, and then every now and then the author dashed the verse with particularly poetic imagery. The more flowery parts were so effective because they were so scarce, amplifying the most important thoughts and feelings of our protagonist.
It’s a brutal scenario, and a generally brutal story, but it’s so full of courage and tenacity that my overall takeaway from it was admiration and hope. I found it to be the much needed breath of fresh air that I wasn’t aware I was craving, and I really loved it.
I’d recommend it to…everyone! If you’d like to check out the book or the author, I’ve popped some links below for you:
Bleeeeat!
Happy Goat Horror 
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