Epitaph Road is a dystopian lovers' dream. Patneaude takes the reader on a grand adventure by showing the reader both the before and after shots, so to speak. As a reader, it was interesting to witness the events has they were unfolding. And have a realistic understanding of the kind of devastation that the virus was capable of.It is not often that a novel can surprise me, but this one definitely did. Epitaph Road, at its essence, is a novel about sexism. The world that Kellen's father inhabited was a man's world. They held all the high offices and basically ran the world... but that was before the plague. Flash forward a couple years, and the world is now controlled by women. Now I am all for feminism, but reading about feminism from a male writer made it seem a little odd. True, Patneaude does a wonderful job at highlighting the points... but it just felt weird reading about a mostly pro-female world knowing that my writer was male.Despite my issue with this aspect of the novel, it was highly enjoyable read. The writing was done nicely and in a manner that was easy to follow. And the characters were for the most part, fleshed out and engaging. I adored the dystopian element of the novel since it was something that I had yet to see before. And although I had some questions about the motives behind the plague, it was easier just to follow along and enjoy the novel for what it was, then ponder over questions that might never be answered. Epitaph Road was not the best dystopian novel that I have ever read. However, it introduces new themes into a genre that has completely captured my attention, and for that I am grateful.
