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Neena Gathering
A nation divided, turns on itself with brutal, primitive cruelty, unleashing the ghastly mutations of blistering chemical warfare that leave a desolate wasteland where the United States once flourished...
270 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1988
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
February 9, 2019
A different kind of post-apoc story. Hard to rate, but it was good without ever being truly exciting.
Hmmm, maybe that was the point.
It's a slower, more realistic tale than most mild dystopias out there. Not a single , for better or worse. Cue the goat milking and herb gathering!
SUMMARY: A few years after a nebulous Apocalypse, 13 or 14-year-old Neena survives pioneer-style with her Aunt Maura in a remote setting. Ted (Maura's long-lost brother) shows up. Slowly, things start to change. In between, there's a lot of chores, plant naming, . Inserted are a few wee scraps about the past apocalypse -- but not enough detail to paint a good picture.
Oh, and who is this mysterious, scarred 'Barterman,' and what part will he play in all this? And is that little over the hill dangerous, or what?
Ah. Read and see.
There's an interesting and pretty strong protagonist, but in truth, there's only the thinnest of stories here. I could tell the whole story in about 35 seconds.
But forget that. I'm not actually complaining. This book was a nice change-of-pace. It's well written (and sometimes quasi- or actually poetic), in spite of an ending that I've seen too many times in tales of this sort (perhaps it was more novel when originally published c. 1988?)
TRUTH IN COVER ART:
PASS (51%):
This older cover is faithful to the essence of the story -- but where is the long flaming red hair? And there are no in the book. Otherwise, the above scene is OK, if you remove the scorched trees.
FAIL (22%):
(correct hair, everything else wrong).
VERDICT: Around 3 stars (2-star story, 4-star writing). Pretty good for an older book. One of the rarer slow-paced post-apocalyptic novels out there. Could've been 4 stars with higher stakes, intrigue, or world-building, but worth a look if you dig all things post-apoc, or like small "slice of life" tales.
TRIGGER STUFF/PARENTS & PRUDES: It's pretty mild compared to most Apocalyptic novels, though.
Hmmm, maybe that was the point.
It's a slower, more realistic tale than most mild dystopias out there. Not a single , for better or worse. Cue the goat milking and herb gathering!
SUMMARY: A few years after a nebulous Apocalypse, 13 or 14-year-old Neena survives pioneer-style with her Aunt Maura in a remote setting. Ted (Maura's long-lost brother) shows up. Slowly, things start to change. In between, there's a lot of chores, plant naming, . Inserted are a few wee scraps about the past apocalypse -- but not enough detail to paint a good picture.
Oh, and who is this mysterious, scarred 'Barterman,' and what part will he play in all this? And is that little over the hill dangerous, or what?
Ah. Read and see.
There's an interesting and pretty strong protagonist, but in truth, there's only the thinnest of stories here. I could tell the whole story in about 35 seconds.
But forget that. I'm not actually complaining. This book was a nice change-of-pace. It's well written (and sometimes quasi- or actually poetic), in spite of an ending that I've seen too many times in tales of this sort (perhaps it was more novel when originally published c. 1988?)
TRUTH IN COVER ART:
PASS (51%):
This older cover is faithful to the essence of the story -- but where is the long flaming red hair? And there are no in the book. Otherwise, the above scene is OK, if you remove the scorched trees.
FAIL (22%):
(correct hair, everything else wrong).
VERDICT: Around 3 stars (2-star story, 4-star writing). Pretty good for an older book. One of the rarer slow-paced post-apocalyptic novels out there. Could've been 4 stars with higher stakes, intrigue, or world-building, but worth a look if you dig all things post-apoc, or like small "slice of life" tales.
TRIGGER STUFF/PARENTS & PRUDES: It's pretty mild compared to most Apocalyptic novels, though.
September 24, 2013
This is not your typical dystopian novel. You can tell that on the first page. This is a book of fine prose, almost poetic at times. There’s a great deal of descriptive prose, flowery language. That might also be one of the book’s weaknesses. At times, the flowery language detracts from the descriptions of a post-apocalyptic America that has splintered into separate entities. Yes, America is no more. Even though nuclear bombs were banned, various new countries dropped “metachemicals” on each other, wiping entire cities out. Civilization is over.
The main character, Neena (Daneen) Daucherty, is an orphan from Baltimore who was with her mother when the carnage happened. That was roughly eight years ago. She’s been living with her Aunt Maura in the West Virginia hills ever since, learning to pick berries and herbs, gather roots and bark – all good for trading for such things as kerosene and ammunition. Life is difficult, but it’s made a bit more exciting when Uncle Ted shows up out of the blue. He’s a bit of a rebel, with a mysterious background that he doesn’t like to discuss. Ted convinces Maura to let him start distilling alcohol, allegedly for the purpose of its trading value, but more accurately it seems, so he can get drunk. Maura trades with the Barterman, a mysterious “Change” – someone who was there when the bombs were dropped, but survived, only to have his appearance ravaged. He now has a yellow hue to him. Ted hates and fears the Barterman, who witnesses Ted murdering an alleged thief in the woods.
Meanwhile, Neena is growing up. She appears to be about 14 years old, and Ted notices her physical changes. There’s a disturbing feeling of incestuous thoughts running through the novel, and Ted likes to touch Neena, to have him sit on his lap, and she sometimes thinks about it herself. She’s aware of the changes in her, but grows increasingly distressed about Ted, particularly when she witnesses Ted trying to talk Maura into letting him have his way with Neena. Frankly, the scene is fairly disturbing.
Neena has flashbacks at times. Passes out and remembers things from war-torn Baltimore. However, even though the cities are dead and there are scavengers marauding about the countryside, Neiman often doesn’t give us a really good look at it. Instead, we’re treated to intricate descriptions of plants and trees, of nature, of growth and survival. We’re introduced to the family oxen. We see bark being stripped so it can be bartered away. This gives one a feeling of ease instead of the sense of unease the book should possibly be engendering. I think this is one of the book’s weaknesses. You can tell Neiman is a poet, however, because the language, as mentioned, is often poetic, and because poetry plays such a prominent role in the book. Ted introduces Neena to poetry, which she grows to enjoy. Later in the book, Arden, the Barterman, continues Neena’s growth in learning to enjoy poetry.
Midway through the book, Aunt Maura and Neena take a trip to visit the Barterman to trade with him when Maura falls through a hole hidden in the ground, presumably by scavengers bent on evil. At Maura’s urging, Neena goes to the Barterman’s house for help. He comes to save Maura, but Ted shows up too. A fairly climactic scene occurs when Ted reaches for Neena, but Neena pulls away and lets everyone know she’s going to go live with the Barterman now. Ted is livid, and this is a pretty mystifying passage, I must say. Why? Because Neena has had nothing to do with the Barterman before; she doesn’t even know him. Yet she trusts him over her own family. I guess that should tell the reader how much she distrusts and fears her uncle by now, but it’s still somewhat unbelievable to a certain degree.
So Neena goes to live with the Barterman, whose name she finds out is Arden. He’s a former English professor from DC who survived the bombs and came to live in the countryside by himself. He’s a large man, and as a Change, is feared by most. However, Neena is able to see beyond that and comes to love this intelligent, nurturing individual, as well as his big dog. This seems to be a case of Beauty and the Beast in a post-apocalyptic world, but it works. Nieman weaves a linguistic spell that makes it both beautiful and believable. The one disappointment from this union is the night they finally make love. The description is rather limp and disappoints. It’s there, it’s happening, it’s over in a sentence or two. We assume they’re happy. It’s also fair to note that another disturbing aspect to this scene is Neena’s still an adolescent, and Arden knows that. Statutory rape, anyone?
Apparently, though, they are happy because Neena winds up pregnant. She tells her aunt who says she’ll be there for the birth if she can – not much of a family promise – but she does show up, so kudos to her. Meanwhile, a traveler who comes to trade with Arden tells of seeing Ted going to a fanatical and violent religious commune, where he’s baptized in the river and his throat is then cut. Neeena mourns. Surprisingly, so does Arden, although I’m not exactly sure why. Perhaps he feels badly for Neena, because he certainly didn’t like Ted.
The book climaxes in the birth of their child, a girl named Rainelle. The final line of the book gives hope to the reader and the couple: “’Our future,’ he said. ‘Rainelle’s waiting for us.’” While that is an interesting ending to the book, it was sudden and it surprised me. I thought there would be more and didn’t realize the book was coming to its closure. As I’ve pondered it, though, I’ve concluded that the ending is fairly satisfying, that we don’t have to know everything that happens down the road, that we’re given hope for the future and that is enough, just as Nieman intends.
I would not put this book at the top of my favorite dystopian novels (Philip K. Dick takes top honors for me), but it is somewhat unique in its treatment of such fare, and as such, deserves to be read. It’s a good book, written by a talented writer – one featured in our own Ray’s Road Review as a poet before. One of her talents lies in character development, something Dick never really mastered. (So maybe she’s better?) Another is her obvious love of language and its use. I just wish the book hadn’t been so language-intensive at the beginning, because it was difficult to get into. The book plodded at first, but once past those first pages and on into later chapters, the author successfully captures your attention and holds it. It’s a good story and one that she tells pretty well. I’m not certain that this book is for everyone, but because it’s not straight sci fi, it might be more accessible for more readers, and that’s a good thing. This is a book that’s recommended.
The main character, Neena (Daneen) Daucherty, is an orphan from Baltimore who was with her mother when the carnage happened. That was roughly eight years ago. She’s been living with her Aunt Maura in the West Virginia hills ever since, learning to pick berries and herbs, gather roots and bark – all good for trading for such things as kerosene and ammunition. Life is difficult, but it’s made a bit more exciting when Uncle Ted shows up out of the blue. He’s a bit of a rebel, with a mysterious background that he doesn’t like to discuss. Ted convinces Maura to let him start distilling alcohol, allegedly for the purpose of its trading value, but more accurately it seems, so he can get drunk. Maura trades with the Barterman, a mysterious “Change” – someone who was there when the bombs were dropped, but survived, only to have his appearance ravaged. He now has a yellow hue to him. Ted hates and fears the Barterman, who witnesses Ted murdering an alleged thief in the woods.
Meanwhile, Neena is growing up. She appears to be about 14 years old, and Ted notices her physical changes. There’s a disturbing feeling of incestuous thoughts running through the novel, and Ted likes to touch Neena, to have him sit on his lap, and she sometimes thinks about it herself. She’s aware of the changes in her, but grows increasingly distressed about Ted, particularly when she witnesses Ted trying to talk Maura into letting him have his way with Neena. Frankly, the scene is fairly disturbing.
Neena has flashbacks at times. Passes out and remembers things from war-torn Baltimore. However, even though the cities are dead and there are scavengers marauding about the countryside, Neiman often doesn’t give us a really good look at it. Instead, we’re treated to intricate descriptions of plants and trees, of nature, of growth and survival. We’re introduced to the family oxen. We see bark being stripped so it can be bartered away. This gives one a feeling of ease instead of the sense of unease the book should possibly be engendering. I think this is one of the book’s weaknesses. You can tell Neiman is a poet, however, because the language, as mentioned, is often poetic, and because poetry plays such a prominent role in the book. Ted introduces Neena to poetry, which she grows to enjoy. Later in the book, Arden, the Barterman, continues Neena’s growth in learning to enjoy poetry.
Midway through the book, Aunt Maura and Neena take a trip to visit the Barterman to trade with him when Maura falls through a hole hidden in the ground, presumably by scavengers bent on evil. At Maura’s urging, Neena goes to the Barterman’s house for help. He comes to save Maura, but Ted shows up too. A fairly climactic scene occurs when Ted reaches for Neena, but Neena pulls away and lets everyone know she’s going to go live with the Barterman now. Ted is livid, and this is a pretty mystifying passage, I must say. Why? Because Neena has had nothing to do with the Barterman before; she doesn’t even know him. Yet she trusts him over her own family. I guess that should tell the reader how much she distrusts and fears her uncle by now, but it’s still somewhat unbelievable to a certain degree.
So Neena goes to live with the Barterman, whose name she finds out is Arden. He’s a former English professor from DC who survived the bombs and came to live in the countryside by himself. He’s a large man, and as a Change, is feared by most. However, Neena is able to see beyond that and comes to love this intelligent, nurturing individual, as well as his big dog. This seems to be a case of Beauty and the Beast in a post-apocalyptic world, but it works. Nieman weaves a linguistic spell that makes it both beautiful and believable. The one disappointment from this union is the night they finally make love. The description is rather limp and disappoints. It’s there, it’s happening, it’s over in a sentence or two. We assume they’re happy. It’s also fair to note that another disturbing aspect to this scene is Neena’s still an adolescent, and Arden knows that. Statutory rape, anyone?
Apparently, though, they are happy because Neena winds up pregnant. She tells her aunt who says she’ll be there for the birth if she can – not much of a family promise – but she does show up, so kudos to her. Meanwhile, a traveler who comes to trade with Arden tells of seeing Ted going to a fanatical and violent religious commune, where he’s baptized in the river and his throat is then cut. Neeena mourns. Surprisingly, so does Arden, although I’m not exactly sure why. Perhaps he feels badly for Neena, because he certainly didn’t like Ted.
The book climaxes in the birth of their child, a girl named Rainelle. The final line of the book gives hope to the reader and the couple: “’Our future,’ he said. ‘Rainelle’s waiting for us.’” While that is an interesting ending to the book, it was sudden and it surprised me. I thought there would be more and didn’t realize the book was coming to its closure. As I’ve pondered it, though, I’ve concluded that the ending is fairly satisfying, that we don’t have to know everything that happens down the road, that we’re given hope for the future and that is enough, just as Nieman intends.
I would not put this book at the top of my favorite dystopian novels (Philip K. Dick takes top honors for me), but it is somewhat unique in its treatment of such fare, and as such, deserves to be read. It’s a good book, written by a talented writer – one featured in our own Ray’s Road Review as a poet before. One of her talents lies in character development, something Dick never really mastered. (So maybe she’s better?) Another is her obvious love of language and its use. I just wish the book hadn’t been so language-intensive at the beginning, because it was difficult to get into. The book plodded at first, but once past those first pages and on into later chapters, the author successfully captures your attention and holds it. It’s a good story and one that she tells pretty well. I’m not certain that this book is for everyone, but because it’s not straight sci fi, it might be more accessible for more readers, and that’s a good thing. This is a book that’s recommended.
June 4, 2015
This is a really good post-apocalyptic story, set in West Virginia where everything has gone back in technology a couple of centuries due to extensive chemical warfare in the (formerly) heavily populated areas. There are a few modern things from what people can scrounge out of the cities, and the United States has fractured into a number of independent kingdoms and plenty of areas ruled by no one. The main character, Neena, is growing up learning agriculture and herbalism from her aunt.
The writing is quite good, poetic, and the gathering of plants reflects a lot of the mood of the story. It often provides a calming mood, giving the book a more laid-back feel than it might otherwise have. There's a lot of character development, and the story is focused on how conditions and the recent wars have shaped them. There are also a lot of references to literature, and I caught the meaning that Dante and Hardy convey that relates to the story but I missed others. I was also surprised, given the robot-thing depicted on the first edition cover, that the original Frankenstein story wasn't used. Its themes and ideas are directly applicable here.
That first edition cover is really good, except for the dead plant scenery -- which doesn't reflect the setting of the book at all. Still, the images of Neena and that yellow robot guy in the background contributed to my appreciation of the story. And for some reason I love the term "metachemicals". It's used as kind of a catchall for the horrible destruction and damage that occurred in the wars, and is clearly a placeholder because the author doesn't want to focus on exactly how they worked. She wants to focus on the characters themselves, and I'm sure the use of metachemicals would bug some people who don't think it's "realistic", but I enjoyed the author's use of them.
The writing is quite good, poetic, and the gathering of plants reflects a lot of the mood of the story. It often provides a calming mood, giving the book a more laid-back feel than it might otherwise have. There's a lot of character development, and the story is focused on how conditions and the recent wars have shaped them. There are also a lot of references to literature, and I caught the meaning that Dante and Hardy convey that relates to the story but I missed others. I was also surprised, given the robot-thing depicted on the first edition cover, that the original Frankenstein story wasn't used. Its themes and ideas are directly applicable here.
That first edition cover is really good, except for the dead plant scenery -- which doesn't reflect the setting of the book at all. Still, the images of Neena and that yellow robot guy in the background contributed to my appreciation of the story. And for some reason I love the term "metachemicals". It's used as kind of a catchall for the horrible destruction and damage that occurred in the wars, and is clearly a placeholder because the author doesn't want to focus on exactly how they worked. She wants to focus on the characters themselves, and I'm sure the use of metachemicals would bug some people who don't think it's "realistic", but I enjoyed the author's use of them.
July 12, 2022
I picked this up because i read an ad for it in the back of Blood Farm, thinking it was a typical post apocalyptic story. Was NOT expecting the story to be about a young girl trying to avoid the advances of her bigoted pervert war criminal uncle.
I like that this book doesn’t give too much away ever, avoids overexplaining the lore and setting. I think thats kind of refreshing
I like that this book doesn’t give too much away ever, avoids overexplaining the lore and setting. I think thats kind of refreshing
October 7, 2013
I received this book from Goodreads giveaway.
I found this book a bit slow for me,losing me in the many details that the author was using to weave the lives of this family and their neighbours.
I found this book a bit slow for me,losing me in the many details that the author was using to weave the lives of this family and their neighbours.
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October 23, 2025The cities were all gone, the people were gone, too. And the children. All dead. A nation divided, turns on itself with brutal, primitive cruelty, unleashing the ghastly mutations of blistering chemical warfare that leave a desolate wasteland where the United States once flourished... Menaced by roaming bands of scavengers, alone and lonely on a remote West Virginia farm, Neena and her aunt battle to carve a marginal existence from the ashes of an annihilated civilization. Suddenly Neena’s missing uncle arrives out of the north, shattering their uneasy peace with his haunting memories, his worldly ways, and violent passions. Against her will, the woman-child Neena is forced to choose her destiny in the shape of two men. One, handsome and vital, teaches her hatred and fear; the other, horribly transformed by the chemical Change, lays bare the intricacies of the human heart. Will Neena bow to the demands of kin and blood, or brave the gentle path, sowing fresh seeds of hope in a savage future no one can second guess? “[A] charming, unpretentious novel… an auspicious debut.” --Publishers Weekly “A great book and I'm glad I took the time the read it.” --Cosy Catastrophe “A pleasant variation on the post-holocaust form.” --Locus
October 3, 2012
One of the best "after the day" stories ever crafted. If this is your genre, do not miss this one.
Neena and her aunt eke out a life "after". It closely resembles the life of the early pioneers. Handcrafts, some special skills and neighbors you trust helping each other. Appearing on the scene is Neena's uncle Ted who upsets the apple cart in a way that is not acceptable to most humans, no matter what their level of civilization currently is. I won't spoil it but Neena gathers the courage to make her own choice.
Neena and her aunt eke out a life "after". It closely resembles the life of the early pioneers. Handcrafts, some special skills and neighbors you trust helping each other. Appearing on the scene is Neena's uncle Ted who upsets the apple cart in a way that is not acceptable to most humans, no matter what their level of civilization currently is. I won't spoil it but Neena gathers the courage to make her own choice.
July 5, 2014
"This book was a breath of fresh air to me. I would absolutely recommend this book to anyone who was looking for something that’s a little off the beaten path but still spectacular." http://www.germmagazine.com/review-ne...
June 21, 2019
A great read
I first read this book back in the 90's and have enjoyed it more and more each time I read it. Extremely well written !
I first read this book back in the 90's and have enjoyed it more and more each time I read it. Extremely well written !
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews