Kim Deister
Written on Nov 13, 2020
The Matriarch, the first book in the new Women of the Dust series by Annabelle McInness, is a dystopian romance, set in the midst of two warring nations.
The world-building of this book was excellent. It was so well described that I often felt as if I were there. It was more than reading about a place. I almost experienced the heat, the dust and sand of the barren land. And the mythology of the story was really engaging. One nation was male-led, the other female. The Horde of women have struggled to create a safe haven for women and children, taking in only men of the Horde… those born of a Horde woman. They’ve been largely starved of resourse, forcing them to resort to less than humane, although resourceful, means to survive.
I appreciated the fact that the author created no perfect characters. While the story was clearly meant to showcase the strength of women, they weren’t created to be perfect or better than men. People are more complicated than that, so I’m glad that it wasn’t a clearly defined line between the two in relation to good and evil.
However, I was a little conflicted about some aspects to the story. There was a touch of instalove that felt a little bizarre to me. After all of the long-lived animosity between the two nations, it seemed strange that Yolanda would develop trust in Sasha so quickly. It’s not so much that I hate instalove, but that it seemed out of character for her. Second, as much as the strength of women was at the forefront of the story, there were some moments when the heroine felt more like the damsel in distress, needing the man to save the day.
But all of that being said, they were minor issues, nothing that stopped me from enjoying the book and looking forward to the next!
my recommendation: If you love post-apocalyptic/dystopian fiction, this is an interesting read with a great premise.
However, there are definitely some triggery moments with themes of abuse and neglect, graphic violence (including rape), torture.