Jennie Melamed is a psychiatric nurse practitioner who specializes in working with traumatized children. During her doctoral work at the University of Washington, she investigated anthropological, biological, and cultural aspects of child sexual abuse. Jennie lives in Seattle with her husband and their two dogs.
"Gather the Daughters is one of the most gorgeous debut novels of
the summer. While it bears some inevitable comparisons to certain
contemporary favorites - The Handmaid's Tale, The Giver, Never Let
Me Go, even Spring Awakening, - first time author Jennie Melamed
has released a whole new world that spins entirely on its own
axis.... In exquisite prose, Melamed shows us the dark colors of
these serrated boundaries, and how people bleed when they push
against them. The voices and stories of these girls will be seared
permanently into your heart."
--Michigan Daily
"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
"Gather The Daughters is dystopic fiction for a new generation, as
well as a page-turner we couldn't put down."--Refinery29
"A dystopian tale about a reclusive cult community reminiscent of
Margaret Atwood's Gilead, Gather the Daughters introduces readers
to a society maimed by "flame, war, and ignorance," a world where
young women are viewed as vessels for childbearing and nothing
more. Within the pages of this hauntingly compelling debut, coming
of age coincides with public and private acts of rebellion that
lead to irrevocable change for the community that its heroines call
home. A quintessential companion to A Handmaid's Tale and thematic
preface to American Horror Story: Cult, Jennie Melamed's novel is a
dark yet empowering read."--Signature Reads
"A skillful novel of suspense.... The characterisation is strong
and the focus on the leadership and strategic skills of pubescent
girls is refreshing. The narrative moves between three girls and
one woman, and each has a distinctive voice, character and family
background developed in a way that makes her personality plausible
and likable.... Narrative tension builds as skilful
characterisation fills the reader with growing concern for the
central voices."--The Guardian
"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
"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
"Brutal and bold, Gather the Daughters is beguiling.... Melamed
displays remarkable restraint and confidence, masterfully drawing
out the mysteries of the island so that the girls' sense of unease
and confusion is perfectly mirrored by readers. The gradual reveal
about what is really going is suspenseful and satisfying, and
Melamed narrates the tale in dreamy, lyrical prose that provides a
heightened contrast to the nightmarish aspects of the girls'
reality. Chilling in tone and fearless in its storytelling, Gather
the Daughters is a fierce, feminist battle cry."--BookPage
"Chilling.... Fiction lovers and fans of Margaret Atwood's The
Handmaid's Tale won't be able to put this one down."--Real
Simple
"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)
"I've never before read a dystopian fiction that was an extended
analogy for an abusive relationship, and the analogy works quite
well....Melamed's understanding of the psychology of abuse and
recovery is masterful."--Seattle Review of Books
"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
"Jennie Melamed's dark yet satisfying GATHER THE DAUGHTERS
transports readers to a post-apocalyptic colony ruled by tyrannical
men.... Melamed's debut is a captivating meditation on the dangers
of misogyny and fear."--Electric Literature
"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
"Melamed conjures a wildly dystopian future run by an island-bound
cult and plunks four heroines right in the middle. Equal parts
disturbing and inspiring."--Entertainment Weekly
"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
"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)
"Melamed's gorgeous writing lets the details of this fundamentalist
society drip out slowly. Readers will find dread washing over them
as the story unfolds, and will be left catching their breath when
the full backstory dawns on them. This one belongs on every
dystopia reading list."--Booklist (starred review)
"Melamed's haunting and powerful debut blazes a fresh path in the
tradition of classic dystopian works...a searing portrayal of a
utopian society gone wrong...Melamed's prose is taut and precise.
Her nuanced characters and honest examination of the crueler sides
of human nature establish her as a formidable author in the vein of
Shirley Jackson and Margaret Atwood."--Publishers Weekly (starred
review)
"Melamed's plot suggests some real storytelling chops. Crafting a
new society with its own bizarre rules is a big undertaking and the
writing is fast-paced. You get a feel for what the girls face and
how they strain against the island dogma to find their own voices
and freedom."--USA Today
"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
"William Golding's Lord of the Flies wings by in the form of the
wild, sometimes savage summers allowed the youngsters in the cult.
The spirit of Shirley Jackson's short story The Lottery might be
detected here, too, given the claustrophobic society in which the
action takes place.... Melamed, a psychiatric nurse practitioner,
has drawn on her professional background to depict the interior
lives of girls and women caught in such a brutal, cloistered world.
She offers strong and at times poetic images of the natural
environment in which her story takes place."--Seattle Times
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