The Importance of the Book of the Unnamed Midwife Series

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Hey bookworms! Today I wanted to talk about the importance of books like the Book of the Unnamed Midwife and The Book of Etta, both written by Meg Elison and part of the Road to Nowhere series. 

If you haven't read them, I'll briefly sum them up. In the Book of the Unnamed Midwife, the world has been hit by a plague which kills most of the women and prevents the rest from having children. Pregnancy is a death sentence, ending in fever and blood. As you can imagine, women are in great danger in this world. In the Book of the Unnamed Midwife, the story focuses on one woman who goes unnamed. She was a nurse in the pre-plague life and has great knowledge about medicine, birth, and death. She dresses as a man and goes through life on this plaque ridden earth with one mission in mind: save as many women as she can. She gives women birth control to prevent pregnancies and heals them when needed. During her travels, she comes across many different ways of life that are evolving due to the plague. She sees much abuse of women and little girls. She sees some people have evolved into an extreme patriarchal society as well as some have evolved into a matriarchal society. Through all of this, she transcribes her experiences, making: the Book of the Unnamed Midwife. This first book shows just how terrifying it is to be a woman in a world like this, however if you really analyze the book, you'll see the author was showing that things like this happen in our world too. She just created the horror on a greater, magnified scale. This is a fantastic dystopian feminist book which will open your eyes to how things are and could be. 

In the Book of Etta, time has progressed possibly a century from the Book of the Unnamed Midwife. It follows the story of Etta, a highly trained raider who comes from the same village that the Unnamed Midwife settled in. Etta, too, dresses as a man, and travels near and far rescuing women and girls from abuse and awful situations. She brings them back to their safe village, settles them in, and then sets off again. I won't spoil anything about Etta's story because I highly recommend that you read it. In this story, feminist undertones prevail as well as the question that is: what makes a woman? The Book of Etta talks about being transgender and the characters' struggles and views of themselves. It also deals with lesbian and gay relationships in a world where procreating is considered the most important thing. This book was so special and amazing for addressing these topics and really made me think and open my eyes to how people different from me feel about certain things. 

I highly recommend everyone reads this series. It's eye-opening and scary at times, but gentle and informative when it comes to important topics that the author wants more people to address and read about. There's a third book coming out in April called the Book of Flora, which I'm beyond excited to read! I read this series for free on Kindle Unlimited, so if you have access to that, I highly suggest you do too. You won't regret it! 

Alette