Gather the Daughters

A Novel

By: Jennie Melamed

Narrated by: Laurence Bouvard

Never Let Me Go meets The Giver in this haunting debut about a cult on an isolated island, where nothing is as it seems.

Years ago, just before the country was incinerated to wasteland, ten men and their families colonized an island off the coast. They built a radical society of ancestor worship, controlled breeding, and the strict rationing of knowledge and history. Only the Wanderers -- chosen male descendants of the original ten -- are allowed to cross to the wastelands, where they scavenge for detritus among the still-smoldering fires.

The daughters of these men are wives-in-training. At the first sign of puberty, they face their Summer of Fruition, a ritualistic season that drags them from adolescence to matrimony. They have children, who have children, and when they are no longer useful, they take their final draught and die. But in the summer, the younger children reign supreme. With the adults indoors and the pubescent in Fruition, the children live wildly -- they fight over food and shelter, free of their fathers' hands and their mothers' despair. And it is at the end of one summer that little Caitlin Jacob sees something so horrifying, so contradictory to the laws of the island, that she must share it with the others.

Born leader Janey Solomon steps up to seek the truth. At seventeen years old, Janey is so unwilling to become a woman, she is slowly starving herself to death. Trying urgently now to unravel the mysteries of the island and what lies beyond, before her own demise, she attempts to lead an uprising of the girls that may be their undoing.

Gather the Daughters is a smoldering debut; dark and energetic, compulsively readable, Melamed's novel announces her as an unforgettable new voice in fiction.

Critic reviews

"A spooky, sure-footed debut...It's a provocative, dystopian page-turner about patriarchy run amok-just the thing to tide you over until the next season of The Handmaid's Tale."—People

"Gather the Daughters shares a genetic code with Kazuo Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go and Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale."—New York Times Book Review

"Melamed hasn't written a simple didactic dystopia; her island is more brutal but also more hopeful than the usual brave new world - if only the four girls facing its horrific rituals can learn the truth in time."—New York Magazine

"Lyrical and ferocious, Jennie Melamed's Gather the Daughters follows the young daughters of an isolated society who start to question the truths of their world. Melamed paints the joys and anxieties of girlhood with visceral force as the puzzle deepens and consequences multiply. An heir to the speculative creations of Margaret Atwood and Shirley Jackson, Gather the Daughters is a darkly compelling read."—Helene Wecker, New York Times bestselling author of The Golem and the Jinni

"Set on an enchanted island where magic is replaced by Freudian nightmare, Gather the Daughters is an eerie, claustrophobic tale in the spirit of Shakespeare's The Tempest and Grimm's fairy tales. In her extraordinary first novel, Melamed pulls no punches. The young girls in this story are both victims of violence and perpetrators of it. They are survivors and warriors. Forget your conventional coming-of-age morality tales--this book is about the gory transition from girlhood to womanhood and how difficult it is to balance animal instinct with the pragmatism of endurance. A gripping and elegantly-crafted read."
—Joshua Gaylord, author of When We Were Animals

"In Gather the Daughters, girls and women face a world that is brutal, insidious, and unjust--and yet, hope and resilience persist. This is a lush, vivid and chilling novel. A remarkable debut."—Edan Lepucki, author of California and Woman No. 17

"Compulsive and suspenseful.... This beautifully and carefully constructed work pulls no punches in its depiction of a bleak future; it will attract fans of Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale and readers who enjoy horror, suspense, and dystopian fiction."
—Library Journal (starred review)

"An intriguing, gorgeously realized and written novel which inexorably draws you into its dark heart."
—Kate Hamer, author of The Girl in the Red Coat

"Melamed is a masterful writer, and she establishes a hauntingly vivid atmosphere.... This is a haunting work in the spirit of The Handmaid's Tale--but Melamed more than holds her own. Hopefully, her debut is a harbinger of more to come. Fearsome, vivid, and raw: Melamed's work describes a world of indoctrination and revolt."
—Kirkus (starred review)

religion

Shows that religion can be evil and terrible. Good story however. I would recommend lightly.

A Hard Hitter

Gather the Daughters is pretty archetypal cult-based fiction, but instead of relying on horrific twists, it relies on dramatic irony. Melamed writes intentionally for her audience to glean meanings from situations, concepts, and conversations that her daring young girls do not understand. I highly recommend this book to anyone who doesn’t mind the occasionalunsettling read. Be forewarned, this book contains violence/rape triggers.

liked the story, disliked the narrator

the story is raw and graphic but somehow still captivating and mesmerizing. not the kind of story for everyone, especially those whom it could trigger due to rape and insest themes, but I enjoyed it. I, however, really disliked the narrator. it's possibly only a preference because I tend to be rather picky, but the narrator detracted a lot from the story for me. there is enough male dialogue that there really needed to be another male narrator for those parts because a woman trying to imitate the gruffness and deepness of a man's voice, especially with such topics this book discusses, was a big mistake in my opinion. she did better with the female voices but, even though these were mostly female children and their voices would be higher pitched, it still seemed strained a bit and to falsetto.

Terrible ending

There’s so much build up for an epic ending and so many ways this book could have gone that would have been fantastic. The ending however is a huge let down. Still a pretty good listen but disappointing in the end.

Not recommended

I found this depressing and pointless. Another post apoplectic drama about how horrible the world will be in the future.