Review: "Epitaph Road"

Epitaph Road
by David Patneaude
March 23rd 2010
272 pages


From Goodreads:  2097 is a transformed world. Thirty years earlier, a mysterious plague wiped out 97 percent of the male population, devastating every world system from governments to sports teams, and causing both universal and unimaginable grief. In the face of such massive despair, women were forced to take over control of the planet--and in doing so they eliminated all of Earth's most pressing issues. Poverty, crime, warfare, hunger . . . all gone.

But there's a price to pay for this new "utopia," which fourteen-year-old Kellen is all too familiar with. Every day, he deals with life as part of a tiny minority that is purposefully kept subservient and small in numbers. His career choices and relationship options are severely limited and controlled. He also lives under the threat of scattered recurrences of the plague, which seem to pop up wherever small pockets of men begin to regroup and grow in numbers.

And then one day, his mother's boss, an iconic political figure, shows up at his home. Kellen overhears something he shouldn't--another outbreak seems to be headed for Afterlight, the rural community where his father and a small group of men live separately from the female-dominated society. Along with a few other suspicious events, like the mysterious disappearances of Kellen's progressive teacher and his Aunt Paige, Kellen is starting to wonder whether the plague recurrences are even accidental. No matter what the truth is, Kellen cares only about one thing--he has to save his father.

My thoughts: Let me just start off my review by saying that this book came highly recommended by a trusted Borders employee. She suggested several great books, but they were all books that I had already read and loved (one of her suggestions was "The Hunger Games" and we all know how much I loved that one!). She then asked if I had read "Epitaph Road" and she insisted that I would love it since I loved all the other books she had recommended. So I trusted this suggestion with no doubts, and instantly purchased the book and was on my merry way!

Perhaps she shouldn't have compared "Epitaph Road" to the absolutely amazing book, "The Hunger Games"... because I had my expectations set to almost impossible standards when I started reading this book... and the only things these two books have in common is the dystopian setting.

I did enjoy reading about what the world would be like if it was dominated by women, and the conspiracy theories of this dystopian world. I don't exactly want to live in a world like that though, not even in the slightest bit! I loved the history lessons that Kellen and his friends were learning in school about the times before the plague hit. Pretty interesting!

All in all, it wasn't exactly the page turner that I was hoping for when I purchased it, but it's still an interesting read!