End of Faith by Rena Willemin
Published: August 15th 2012
Page Count: 336
Synopsis: Ninety-five percent of the world’s population perishes in the worst pandemic since the Black Plague and Valentina’s about to find out that surviving means enduring the wrath of a prophet determined to see her dead.
At the onset of the pandemic, Valentina deals with an absent husband, a self-absorbed mother, and grief over another miscarriage. As the death toll rises, the plague claims the lives of everyone she loves. Alongside a coalition of survivors, she fights for diminishing resources and navigates a society where uterus renting is a guaranteed meal ticket. When she rescues a pregnant woman from an attacker, she unknowingly helps the woman escape from her husband, a prophet who has amassed a legion of followers.
With a price on her head, Valentina’s on the run and grappling with feelings of guilt, isolation, and hopelessness. She’s just about given up all faith in humanity until she happens upon a girl left alone to fend for herself. The girl fulfills Valentina’s yearning to be a mother and she vows to protect her. Before she can live up to that promise, she comes face to face with the prophet who gives her a choice: carry his child, or die.
Review: I was given this book in return for an honest review, and boy am I glad I didn't turn it down, and I almost did seeing as though my to-read pile has been getting a little out of hand lately. When I first started this book I didn't get attached to it straight away and that was because from first glances you've got a Prophet and a Rich Girl who are the voices behind the chapters, honestly I'm not too found of religious-ness in books because they often come in two forms - very bad or overly religious or even a combination of both - and I just kind of don't really get either (oh and this is totally the bad kind, think brainwashing young girls ready for breeding programmes) and then of course the Rich Girl, who I feel I should apologise too as I automatically assumed she was your usual rich snob who you can't relate too, but it turns out she's so very far from that and isn't actually all too rich, in fact all the preconceived facts I had about her perfectly describe her mother, and Val herself is headstrong (for the most part) and your ideal pal for wanting to survive the end of the world with. Kind of. I say kind of because well the whole point of this book is the fact she gets mixed up with the wrong kind of things, first of all she helps the pregnant lady mentioned in the synopsis which ends up getting her only friends dead, herself stabbed and homeless and in a bit of a pickle. Luckily there was this really lovely guy - Wayne - who she met earlier on in the book so she stumbles across his house eventually which y'know could be a good thing but after four years of most of the world being dead he does end up only wanting one thing and she has to move on, it was a shame really cause he was pretty in the know with this new world they're living in. But Val doesn't give up, nope she keeps trekking on, surviving and living! Whilst surviving on her own for what seems like an impossible amount of time she seeks refuge in one of many abandoned houses and whilst here a young girl and she takes it upon herself to look after and escape the confines of the prophets rule from here on forth I found it to be a really difficult book to put down as I just had to know how they were going to survive together and escape the never-relenting trackers, of course things don't go as smoothly as planned but I don't want to give much else away but we do get to have more of an insight into the life surrounding the prophet and how bad and low he is willing to stoop to get his own way. Overall I enjoyed the story and it left me wanting to know what life would bring for Val later on, oh and my favourite character was actually Wayne because to me his was important as he was kind of the marker to illustrate just how much time had passed, how much humanity had dissolved and much people were willing to give up on and trade for to have a life similar to the past. I would definitely recommend it and I have high hopes for the sequel.
At the onset of the pandemic, Valentina deals with an absent husband, a self-absorbed mother, and grief over another miscarriage. As the death toll rises, the plague claims the lives of everyone she loves. Alongside a coalition of survivors, she fights for diminishing resources and navigates a society where uterus renting is a guaranteed meal ticket. When she rescues a pregnant woman from an attacker, she unknowingly helps the woman escape from her husband, a prophet who has amassed a legion of followers.
With a price on her head, Valentina’s on the run and grappling with feelings of guilt, isolation, and hopelessness. She’s just about given up all faith in humanity until she happens upon a girl left alone to fend for herself. The girl fulfills Valentina’s yearning to be a mother and she vows to protect her. Before she can live up to that promise, she comes face to face with the prophet who gives her a choice: carry his child, or die.
Review: I was given this book in return for an honest review, and boy am I glad I didn't turn it down, and I almost did seeing as though my to-read pile has been getting a little out of hand lately. When I first started this book I didn't get attached to it straight away and that was because from first glances you've got a Prophet and a Rich Girl who are the voices behind the chapters, honestly I'm not too found of religious-ness in books because they often come in two forms - very bad or overly religious or even a combination of both - and I just kind of don't really get either (oh and this is totally the bad kind, think brainwashing young girls ready for breeding programmes) and then of course the Rich Girl, who I feel I should apologise too as I automatically assumed she was your usual rich snob who you can't relate too, but it turns out she's so very far from that and isn't actually all too rich, in fact all the preconceived facts I had about her perfectly describe her mother, and Val herself is headstrong (for the most part) and your ideal pal for wanting to survive the end of the world with. Kind of. I say kind of because well the whole point of this book is the fact she gets mixed up with the wrong kind of things, first of all she helps the pregnant lady mentioned in the synopsis which ends up getting her only friends dead, herself stabbed and homeless and in a bit of a pickle. Luckily there was this really lovely guy - Wayne - who she met earlier on in the book so she stumbles across his house eventually which y'know could be a good thing but after four years of most of the world being dead he does end up only wanting one thing and she has to move on, it was a shame really cause he was pretty in the know with this new world they're living in. But Val doesn't give up, nope she keeps trekking on, surviving and living! Whilst surviving on her own for what seems like an impossible amount of time she seeks refuge in one of many abandoned houses and whilst here a young girl and she takes it upon herself to look after and escape the confines of the prophets rule from here on forth I found it to be a really difficult book to put down as I just had to know how they were going to survive together and escape the never-relenting trackers, of course things don't go as smoothly as planned but I don't want to give much else away but we do get to have more of an insight into the life surrounding the prophet and how bad and low he is willing to stoop to get his own way. Overall I enjoyed the story and it left me wanting to know what life would bring for Val later on, oh and my favourite character was actually Wayne because to me his was important as he was kind of the marker to illustrate just how much time had passed, how much humanity had dissolved and much people were willing to give up on and trade for to have a life similar to the past. I would definitely recommend it and I have high hopes for the sequel.
You love these gritty apocalyptic-like books. I don't read this so I always look forward to reading vicariously through you.
ReplyDeleteHappy holidays!
braine
Heh thanks, glad you get to kind of read these :3
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