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A review by tiffani_reads
Who Runs the World? by Virginia Bergin
2.0
This book to me was very mediocre, I honestly don't know how to rate it. I didn't love it, that's for sure. This book had so much unexplored potential, that it's almost infuriating at the path it took. I didn't hate it either, not like Wuthering Heights or Pride & Prejudice that infuriated me so much that I threw the books at the wall. It was just.... meh. I kept reading because I kept telling myself at some point it has to get better. Then I notice that I was 3/4 through the book and I knew it wasn't. There are so many things that make it hard to connect with this book. Which I will list below.
1. Never once do you get a full description of River, the best you can assume is she looks like a boy because Mason mistakes her for one. You also don't get a description of what Mason looks like either. It makes it hard to connect with main characters when you can't picture them in your head.
2. There is little to no world building, all you know is that there was a virus 60 years ago that wiped out most of the male population and that women had to figure out how to rebuild the world. But they struggled for years because men pretty much did everything to keep the world working before they died off *cue massive eye roll* and no one has seen a male since because the world is still toxic to them so they live in sanctuaries.
3. It is assumed that all men a evil, vicious monsters who given the chance would rape and murder us all. However, this doesn't apply to Mason because he has a tiny sliver of Y chromosome on his X chromosome making him immune to the virus and the inherent terrible qualities that all men possess.
4. Lastly, the story literally goes nowhere. It is told in a immature and childish way. For as bright as River is portrayed to be, she does not seem to grasp anything that is told to her, either out of stupidity or ignorance. The author would like you to think it comes full circle by mirroring the first chapter with the last but it doesn't.
This book had so much potential, so many plot avenues were left unexplored. Here I thought I was going to read a powerful and uplifting book about the triumph of women in the face of adversity but that was not the case. I for one, am very disappointed.
1. Never once do you get a full description of River, the best you can assume is she looks like a boy because Mason mistakes her for one. You also don't get a description of what Mason looks like either. It makes it hard to connect with main characters when you can't picture them in your head.
2. There is little to no world building, all you know is that there was a virus 60 years ago that wiped out most of the male population and that women had to figure out how to rebuild the world. But they struggled for years because men pretty much did everything to keep the world working before they died off *cue massive eye roll* and no one has seen a male since because the world is still toxic to them so they live in sanctuaries.
3. It is assumed that all men a evil, vicious monsters who given the chance would rape and murder us all. However, this doesn't apply to Mason because he has a tiny sliver of Y chromosome on his X chromosome making him immune to the virus and the inherent terrible qualities that all men possess.
4. Lastly, the story literally goes nowhere. It is told in a immature and childish way. For as bright as River is portrayed to be, she does not seem to grasp anything that is told to her, either out of stupidity or ignorance. The author would like you to think it comes full circle by mirroring the first chapter with the last but it doesn't.
This book had so much potential, so many plot avenues were left unexplored. Here I thought I was going to read a powerful and uplifting book about the triumph of women in the face of adversity but that was not the case. I for one, am very disappointed.