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I liked that the main protagonist was a much older woman who had lived through the outbreak. Mary brought a breath of fresh air to the proceedings that sometimes you lose with younger ones. As a survivor, she and her friend Olivia had a certain rapport which helped bring some humour to the narrative.
Now matriarchs rule, and men are kept in specially treated dust-free facilities for their safety and the good of society, never able to return to the outside. Mary, who’s now in her 70s, has settled into this new world and takes care of the male residents at her facility. But she still remembers how things used to be and is constantly haunted by her memories. Of her family, of her joy, of… him. Now the world is quiet again, but only because secrets are kept safe in whispers. And the biggest secret of all? No one wants to live inside a cage… Still not sure? Why not read our interview with Garth Nix here to find out more about the one of the masters of fantasy world building. So, what is feminist here? Clearly not the world itself, which paints all men as evil and all women as weak and incapable.This book is different from other feminist dystopian works like 'Widowland' or 'The Handmaid's Tale', in that it's women who hold the power here. As the story progresses, Mary discovers that things in this post-moth world may not be what they seem. The book unearths fascinating ethical questions about personal freedom, the greater good, and hundreds of years of societal patriarchy. Oh, Mary, don’t be ridiculous. Their brains aren’t wired for complex ideas....they’re just men – emotional and fragile." I honestly don’t know. I guess if someone finishes the novel and wants to talk about the ideas in it with someone else who’s read it – that is the absolute best I can wish for. What can you tell us about Book 2 of Moths, Toxxic? Definitely not for the squeamish as there is some content likely to upset those with a sensitive heart. In other words, there is colourful content aplenty. But then again, the world’s going to hell, and society is falling down everywhere you look, so what on earth do you expect. Some images will linger long in the memory. I have read and listened to some of the best horror books around ( Weaveworld being one of my all-time favourite books). I can honestly say Moths ranks up there with the best of them for chills down the spine. The graphic imagery is something that will stay with me for a long time.
I wanted to explore what would happen if a percentage of men suddenly became violent. I wrote the novel at the height of the Me Too movement. Women, frustrated by the mental, emotional, sexual and cultural violence against women and girls that permeates our society, were screaming. Forty years ago, the world changed. Toxic threads left behind by mutated moths infected men and boys around the globe. Some were killed quietly in their sleep, others became crazed killers, wildly dangerous and beyond help. All seemed hopeless. If you do nothing, you will be auto-enrolled in our premium digital monthly subscription plan and retain complete access for 65 € per month. You may also opt to downgrade to Standard Digital, a robust journalistic offering that fulfils many user’s needs. Compare Standard and Premium Digital here.Definitely not for the squeamish, as some content is almost certainly likely to upset those with a sensitive heart. In other words, there is colourful content aplenty. But then again, the world is going to hell, and society is falling everywhere you look, so what on earth do you expect? Some images will linger long in th I do not want to give away spoilers because there are enough in the synopsis to start with. A few too many, in my opinion. Nevertheless, it is enough to be going on with. Moths is a game changer in dystopian fiction. I loved this book. It's a brilliantly disturbing and disturbingly brilliant work of dystopian fiction set in a world radically altered by a catastrophic series of events, which began 40 years before. It's a powerful book nonetheless. The violence enacted by the infected men is horrific beyond measure but also nothing that hasn't been done to a woman by a man in today's world.
Women run all the facilities and government, there are also women running all the facilities and centres, women caring for the men in those centres. Yet the world keeps turning, there are men being born though very few. Women are encouraged to “visit” with the men in the facilities and are rewarded if a child is borne from such a visit. As women are not as good as men in this book, and /obviously/ not that many of them were educated or had important jobs in our current world, they have lost a lot of the infrastructure that used to exist. In fact, the infrastructure like cell service fell apart on the very first day of the pandemic despite that making absolutely no sense (several weeks later the main character is able to use satellite navigation in a car). There are no cell phones, only landlines. There doesn’t appear to be television or computers either, entertainment seems limited to theater of some kind. The roads are in extreme disrepair and after 40 years old transit hubs still exist all busted up in the middle of a supposedly affluent city. Oil can’t be drilled for, so everything is somehow electric now even though that seems incongruous with the rest of their tech abilities, these vehicles have also been made all terrain to deal with the bad roads. Clearly, women don’t know anything about banks either, because there is some kind of barter system that uses paper credit slips and travel vouchers? But if you have an old quarter pre-pandemic pay phones do work. It’s a bizarre collection of circumstances that kind of just shows the narrative thinks women aren’t capable of running a society, and that no thought was put into the worldbuilding’s logic. I can only suspend disbelief if there is internal consistency. Jane Hennigan is an English author, who graduation university after studying English and Philosophy, then began teaching it. Jane began writing with any spare time that she had. Hennigan said: “I devour any and all dystopian fiction, especially feminist dystopias, so when I read an article on a type of toxic caterpillar infesting Europe, I put the two together and the idea for Moths was formed. I wanted my protagonist to be an older woman, flawed but capable, and constantly underestimated by those close to her. I put my book out there with few expectations and was stunned by the overwhelming response from so many readers. This past year, Moths has taken on a life of its own, and I’m delighted that Angry Robot has stepped in to ensure Mary’s story reaches the widest readership possible.”
Success!
Mary has settled into this new world and takes care of the male residents at her facility. But she still remembers how things used to be and is constantly haunted by her memories. Of her family, of her joy, of… him. From dystopian lanscapes and andoid futures to the intersteallar wild west and medieval magic, these books will take you on an adventure to new worlds so fun you’ll not want to return! (Unless you need another cup of tea that is…)
Love blooms, in all its forms, despite the world around it, forming the threads that hold us together. Toxic threads originating from moths infect only those who are biologically male. Once contaminated, the men die or turn violent, leaving the women to form a matriarchal society. I thought very hard about what might remain in the post-infestation world and what might be lost. Some things – like national power grids and international logistics fail, not because it’s only the women left – but because there were not enough people, in general, to keep the infrastructure viable (most of the rest of the world has fallen into post-apocalyptic chaos – dying out without insemination programmes to replenish the population).What I liked most though was how this was dealt with as the men weren’t just dismissed and ignored, they were treated as something that needed protection. This leads to women being the ‘protectors’ and the way they could protect these men was by isolating them and making sure they followed the rules. The way they kept them happy was by indulging them but it becomes clear this is in fact done to control them like men did to women of the past. Sometimes you read dystopian books and whilst the concept may work the execution of life after it seems so extreme that it feels too far fetched but this one kind of makes sense. You have to keep the men safe from being exposed so they have to stay indoors, therefore, women will have to be the gender that runs the world. The gender role reversal in this new world was done subtly but had a big impact as all it did was have the women of the future describe the men how men describe women in this day and age. This stereotyping adds a level of absurdity as it highlights just how ridiculous it is to associate women with certain innate traits, but it is also quite jarring when you realise it feels quite unnatural to read men be described as weak and silly but it doesn’t feel strange reading women be described this way. Add to the fact that these men are staging protests for access to more education, etc, similar to what women had to do in the past to receive basic human rights, but when applied to men it really stands out how wrong and unfair this was. I find, as a woman today, we often accept that we were treated unjustly in the past but often forget how strict and narrow our lives actually were. Putting these same issues on men really makes it stand out how absurd it is to assume one sex is weaker than the other and then use this as a way to control. Cliched perhaps, but – a talking point? How would a country of women, cut off from the old world economies, design a society? How would they treat the men in their care? How would men have acted if the toxin had affected women?
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