Moths: A chilling dystopian thriller and a must-read debut for 2021

Product Information

It's more common in dystopian novels for women to be the repressed/ inferior sex (Only Ever Yours, The Handmaid's Tale, Future Home of the Living God) so I was really looking forward to exploring this concept. Moths is told using a dual timeline, mixing the moments when the pandemic was starting and the present, fourty years after. While the pacing at the present time tends to be slower and calmer, the memories of our characters tend to depict more tense moments, and it balances pretty well.

The threads spell doom for humanity – half of it, at least. All around the world, men are dying in their sleep or turning into rage-fuelled killers. The world, as we know it, ends. However, humanity adapts and society moves on. On the 9th of July 2019. I know so precisely because that is when I read an article on the BBC titled Toxic processionary caterpillar plague spreads across Europe. I was planning to write an apocalypse book that flipped the gender power dynamic – I just needed a narrative vehicle. A moth plague presented itself as the perfect villain. Did you do much research before you started writing? Love blooms, in all its forms, despite the world around it, forming the threads that hold us together. Toxic threads originating from moths infect only those who are biologically male. Once contaminated, the men die or turn violent, leaving the women to form a matriarchal society. What I liked most though was how this was dealt with as the men weren’t just dismissed and ignored, they were treated as something that needed protection. This leads to women being the ‘protectors’ and the way they could protect these men was by isolating them and making sure they followed the rules. The way they kept them happy was by indulging them but it becomes clear this is in fact done to control them like men did to women of the past. Sometimes you read dystopian books and whilst the concept may work the execution of life after it seems so extreme that it feels too far fetched but this one kind of makes sense. You have to keep the men safe from being exposed so they have to stay indoors, therefore, women will have to be the gender that runs the world.

Before I start, if you get a chance to listen to the audiobook, do so as Juanita McMahon does an incredible job with the various voices, young and old. The way she switches instantly between the age groups is impressive, especially the older Mary. I wanted to imagine and write about a society that wasn’t governed by men and to escape preconceived notions of hetero normativity and feminine essentialism. So, I needed a vehicle to get rid of the vast majority of men for an extended period of time. I considered a disease, but I wanted it to be fast-moving and airborne, surrounding the world in days rather than weeks. Then I saw the article on the BBC about toxic caterpillars and began tentatively plotting out the story. As I wrote I leaned into the creepy reputation of moths to create atmosphere. I realised moths are perfect for this kind of dark storytelling – how they swarm around a light, how they sit dead still on surfaces as if lying in wait. There’s something about caterpillars that give me chills. The spiky hairs and the bright colours – it’s like an instinctive part of me screams don’t touch them!

He didn’t. He was too busy doing the dishes and considering the latest trends in navy blue M&S trousers, to worry his pretty little head about such things. How do you treat the trans community in the novel?Rating 3.5) —- I’ve read a lot of feminist dystopian books and books were the gender roles have been reversed and lately I’ve found it hard to find one with a unique concept but the premise of this book is really unique and like nothing I had read before.

I wanted to explore what would happen if a percentage of men suddenly became violent. I wrote the novel at the height of the Me Too movement. Women, frustrated by the mental, emotional, sexual and cultural violence against women and girls that permeates our society, were screaming. I liked that the main protagonist was a much older woman who had lived through the outbreak. Mary brought a welcoming breath of fresh air to the proceedings that sometimes you lose with younger ones. As a survivor, she and her friend Olivia had a certain rapport which helped bring some humour to the narrative. I imagine what Mary and many others went through would evoke strong emotions within every mother tugging at their heartstrings. I will admit that the main reason I read this book is because my friend's mum wrote it and he has been telling me about it for over eight months now (I have been getting very hyped). BUT I will be making my mum and grandma read it next. Toxic threads originated from moths only those who are biologically male. And there's no cure, leading the infected to either die or become extremely violent; all of this has evolved into a matriarchal society. Decades after the outbreak, we are going to be following Mary and Olivia, who were present the moment all began.All around the world men are turning into crazed killers or dying in their sleep, as toxic threads find passage on every breath of wind. I have read several pieces of pandemic fiction that have a similar premise with a virus that causes individuals to become violent. I hated all those previous books. I chose to take a chance on another book like this and I'm so glad I did. There is a sequel! I’m writing it now and I am very pleased with how it’s going (so far!). Sign up for the newsletter and I will give you updates on how it’s coming along, as well as additional content. Could the Moth thing really happen? Cliched perhaps, but – a talking point? How would a country of women, cut off from the old world economies, design a society? How would they treat the men in their care? How would men have acted if the toxin had affected women?