Jennie: The idea came to me in college, when so many people I knew- mostly women- were coming forward about the trials they had gone in childhood, at the hands of adults. But it didn’t really blossom until I was working in children’s behavioral health as a nurse. Many of the stories I heard broke my heart, and left me furious. In graduate school, I finally gained the capacity and the resources to explore real-world situations in which scenarios similar to my book had taken place, as well as the more complicated literature about the biological and psychological effects of childhood trauma. As a psychiatric nurse practitioner, I regularly work with children suffering the aftereffects of trauma and trying to navigate growing up in its shadow- and some who are, unfortunately, still living in chaos. It’s hard not to be angry at abusers, angry at adults, and yes, angry at men- because they are most often (although by no means always!) the perpetrators of child abuse. I have seen children who suffered such horrors at the hands of men that I shudder to think of it. JM: I'm thrilled. I love The Handmaid's Tale.I don't think there would be so many comparisons if the show (which I haven’t yet seen) hadn't just finished its first season.That said, it’s always an honor and I'm not going to argue!

Or some thing,” replies Natalie. The glow grows brighter. There are more girls gathered around the doorway now.

This review is going to contain some spoilers, so if you haven’t read this book and are interested in it, please be warned. This book is also heavy with trigger issues, specifically, sexual abuse and violence, along with domestic abuse. Even though Hulu’s Handmaid’s Tale has wrapped up its fourth season, we are still on the edge of our seats with the finale’s cliffhanger. Whether you watched the show or read the book, we’ve got you covered when it comes to sinister stories, rounding up some similar books to keep you busy until the next season starts. Gather the Daughters by Jennie Melamed Gather the Daughters is a haunting tale of a society where women are controlled but children are free, and a young woman on the cusp of that transition discovers something that pulls her ideological foundations out from under her. It’s perhaps not for the faint of heart, but will definitely appeal to fans of engrossing dystopian fiction that lingers in the memory.

First ancestor, bring us strength. Teach us wisdom. Reach to God with your arms, bring Him into our lives, wind Him around our thoughts, bury Him within our breasts. Let the men be strong like trees, and the women like vines, the children our fruit. And when we sink into the earth, gather us into your arms and take us to God’s domain, and let us not look downward into the darkness below.” (c) When a daughter submits to her father’s will, when a wife submits to her husband, when a woman is a helper to a man, we are worshiping the ancestors and their vision. Our ancestors sit at the feet of the Creator, and as their hearts are warmed, they in turn warm His. These women worship the ancestors with each right action, with each right intention. Surely the ancestors will open the gates of heaven, and our grandfathers’ grandfathers will welcome us with open arms.” (c) When the ancestors came to the island, they built a massive stone church before they even built their own houses. What they didn’t know was that such a heavy building would sink down into the mud during the summer rains. Fix the past. Save the present. Stop the future. Alastair Reynolds unfolds a time-traveling climate fiction adventure in Permafrost.An intriguing, gorgeously realized and written novel which inexorably draws you into its dark heart." Eventually she started sleeping curled in an impenetrable ball by the fireplace if it was cold, and sprawled on the roof like a limpet if it wasn’t. Father teased her at first, then pleaded, and then commanded her to sleep in bed at night. (c)

I went into this novel expecting creepy. I expected something bad and disturbing to happen. What I didn’t expect was the entire thing to be creepy and disturbing.

Jennie Melamed

In Gather the Daughters, this island is no ordinary island, and these girls live no ordinary lifestyle. Cut off from the mainland (which they’ve been told has burned to the ground, riddled with disease, sin and destruction, never to be habitable again) they live in a dystopian world without realizing that they really don’t. The “ancestors” brought their people here as an escape, away from the laws and customs of the mainland, and built their own commandments (the Shalt-Nots) and customs for the people to abide by – customs which include no access to outside books or knowledge, a social hierarchy where men reign supreme and women are subservient in every possible way, and a land where fathers have a special relationship with their daughters…

Think about it,” says Janey, slamming her hand into the altar again. “What if we didn’t have to get married? What if we didn’t have to obey our fathers?” A spark in her eyes. “What if we could make it like summer all the time? Wouldn’t you like that?” Balthazar, who’s only five. Her sister brought her along. “We’re not going into the dark,” says Rosie decisively. “We canA lesser novel would revel in that horror and cynicism. Melamed calmly dissects it all, giving us and her characters a chance to understand this world even as we recoil from it. What she denies us is simplicity. The rebellion and its consequences do not lead to the cathartic release you’d expect and desperately want. The characters are revealed to be more nuanced and subtle than even the earlier stages of the book have shown us. The ending, the island in tatters after a viral outbreak, piles tragedy on tragedy and leaves, oddly, with the survivors in a similar situation to the end of Water & Glass. However, there, there is hope for the future. Here there is hope for an eventual absence of horror. G ather the Daughters is set in the alternative reality of a misogynist dystopia. On an island just out of sight of “the Wastelands” (the mainland, or the rest of the world), the descendants of 10 families live in a closed community with no technology later than pen and paper, no money and some disturbing sexual practices.