Reviews with content warning for Violence - I Who Have Never Known Men

Reviews tagging 'Violence'

I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman

32 reviews

hanmccull's review against another edition

mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Dystopian, bleak, haunting, thought-provoking: it’s not often you describe a book as life-changing. Straight into my list of all-time favourites (despite the epic book hangover). Wouldn’t hesitate to recommend!

Personally I chose to skip the introduction before reading as it was giving too much away, and I’m very glad I did so.

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itsybitsygingie's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

This was an incredibly difficult yet beautiful book to read. It brought forth some incredibly difficult feelings concerning being human and the role of womanhood within society. My one slight of the book was the sheer amount of anti-female sentiments from the main character. Her one consistent thought throughout the book was that she was better because she wasn’t constrained by the supposedly womanly traits of the other characters, and I didn’t see as much growth as I would liked concerning this position.

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whyalice10's review

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challenging dark emotional reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

Dark, dystopian, disturbing. A book to make you think. Themes of death, suicide, loneliness, confusion.

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philippmk's review

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dark hopeful mysterious sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.75

I Who Have Never Known Men manages to be, at times, both deeply depressing yet hopeful. The nameless main character brings in a unique perspective to the strange world she lives in, given it's the only one she's ever known. Though some themes, such as her aversion to touch or her unexplained heritage, could be explored further, her relationships to the other women make for an interesting enough journey in this rather short book.

Though I am typically not a fan of mysteries that remain unsolved, I could see why the protagonist's journey was the main focus all along. Watching her discover the most mundane things about the world that came before, if she even is on that same world, and marvel at books, regardless of their content, simply because she's never had them, was delightful.

Yet still, I wish there had been at least one or two more hints as to what had happened to the world, or at the very least how come electricity in the bunkers remained working. Leaving the desolated characters with decades worth of perfectly well-preserved food, whereas every other luxury, such as toilets, furniture or housing, had to be built from scratch, showing off the versatility and resourcefulness of the forty women, seemed like an odd choice for this story.

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