Heroes and Villains

warning - contains spoilers

I love a post-apocalyptic dystopian novel and can forgive them almost anything. However, I found this just terribly bland. It was a simple plot buried under pretentious quasi-poetic prose.
Basically, educated city girl is told exotic Barbarians are bad meanwhile Barbarians, stuck in the middle, are taught to fear both the Professors and the mutated Out People. City girl runs away and ends up captured/saved by a beautiful Barbarian man. His tribe fear and distrust her, the man emotionally/physically/sexually abuses her (tableaus painted with abstract imagery interspersed with blunt dialogues). She loves/hates him. He dies, she remains - pregnant with his child and planning to rule his tribe.
Ultimately the title itself sums up and overemphasises Carter's point. There are no Heroes and Villians - everyone is horrific, pitiable and ultimately destroyed. There is no catharsis or hope or even a real ending. Their ugly little world will just continue to turn but I don't need to know any more about it.