Epitaph Road by David Patneaude

The year is 2097. Thirty years earlier, a mysterious disease called Elisha’s Bear wiped out 97% of males. Women took over to save the world from falling to ruin and gradually changed it for the better. Now there is no poverty, crime, or war. The environment is thriving and renewable energy is embraced. Women seem to have fixed every problem ever created by men. But where does that leave the men who survived, like fourteen-year-old Kellen Dent? He may not have been around for the first outbreak of the Bear, but he’s still living under its shadow, as well as in the shadow of the fairer sex. Kellen has accepted the female-dominated society he lives in with little complaint until he stumbles upon a shocking secret that changes everything. This secret prompts him to leave home to find his outcast father, but from there, Kellen only finds more deadly secrets. Kellen’s supposedly perfect world may not be a utopia after all.

Epitaph Road is a fascinating dystopian thriller. This futuristic novel has all a reader would expect from one like it and then some. The story is filled with secrets and danger in a not-so-perfect world as well as an underlying social question. The social issue presented in Epitaph Road is that of sexism. Historically and even present day, lamentably, male dominance over women has been the rule in many cases. However, Patneaude turns this concept entirely upside down. In his future world, the females have supreme dominance over men. Elimination of poverty and war aside, this isn’t as good a thing as the women of the story promise. Sexism persists in many forms against men, barring them from many jobs and leadership positions and even from having children. This discrimination is clearly wrong even if all the world’s problems are supposedly the fault of men (that was actually the only point of this book I didn’t buy into). As a whole, Epitaph Road is a satisfying read, both for its exciting and suspenseful plot and for its social relevance.

This novel will be enjoyed by fans of The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, Cherry Heaven by L.J. Adlington, Shift by Charlotte Agell, and Unwind by Neal Shusterman.

Rating: 4.5

Review copy from publisher EgmontUSA