SCIENCE fiction has been with us for more than 100 years, so it’s rare to find a story that gives you a new twist. This story does.

Its depiction of slavery, prejudice and violence isn’t new, but the victims here are all men.

In this reality, women long ago recognised the dangers of potentially violent, controlling masculinity and have turned the tables. A man’s role in this world is reduced to something between a pet and a slave. Wars don’t exist, rapes and other sexual assaults are rare and the lives of women are dramatically better.

For the dominant females, getting your first man is a rite of passage. Eliza Simmonds has no intention of buying one when she tags along to a slave auction with a friend. But when she sees a vulnerable young man caged and frightened, she makes a spur of the moment decision that changes her life and his.

This book has been compared to both Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale and Veronica Roth’s Divergent series. Those comparisons are understandable, but in its upending of power structures in modern societies, it reminded me of Marjorie Blackman’s Noughts And Crosses books.

The violence in Atwood’s world is mirrored here, but like Blackman’s alternative world, the reader is left feeling upside down.

As a man, I think the striking success of this book is the way it makes a subjugation of males appear as a huge boom to society. Given the number of women suffering violence from male partners in the modern world, the decision to control them it is entirely plausible – if personally concerning! It doesn’t mean that slavery, inequality or prejudice can be justified, but Buys certainly poses a challenging question to all of us.

Aside from a little too much voicing characters thoughts on the page, this is an excellent debut. If you enjoy it, the follow up Are You Worth It? Is available to buy as well. I haven’t read it yet.

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