There are two things of note for me about Bina Shah‘s 2019 novel Before She Sleeps.
First, it is a Pakistani post-apocalyptic novel. Not many of those out there, and additional voices and perspectives in that space are always welcome.
Second, it has a (not unrelated) somewhat unique perspective on gender. Before She Sleeps focuses on women whose value come from the (usually) non-sexual comfort they can provide the powerful men who tightly control their world. It’s an interesting twist, in that the power of these women comes from the human contact they provide, from the safety and emotional calm they can create through their presence.
Before She Sleeps suffers, for me, from the contemporary need for romantic feelings to be irresistible in these stories, and for “love” to be far more important than any other consideration, to the point of overriding basic plot incentives. The degree to which that bothers you–which may just be the degree that you enjoy “traditional romance narratives”–will dictate a lot of your enjoyment of this novel.
For me, the originality of the concept and the skill with which Shah drives the narrative forward overrode what felt like an inevitability in the ultimate plot resolutions.
So, recommended with some reservations.