Reviews tagging 'Blood'

I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman

46 reviews

picaresquedreamer's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Suicide, Death, and Infertility

Moderate: Bullying, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Terminal illness, Blood, and Mental illness

Minor: Misogyny, Violence, Sexual violence, and Police brutality

evening's review

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Suicidal thoughts, and Confinement

Moderate: Suicide attempt, Terminal illness, Suicide, and Cancer

Minor: Blood

owlribbon's review

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Suicide, Confinement, and Terminal illness

Moderate: Cancer and Blood

Minor: Infertility

196books's review

dark mysterious reflective sad slow-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? No

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Kidnapping, Suicide, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Confinement, and Death

Moderate: Blood and Cancer

Minor: Terminal illness

paperkindle's review against another edition

adventurous medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, Suicide, Abandonment, Medical content, and Confinement

Moderate: Dementia, Kidnapping, and Cancer

Minor: Violence

refrejarator's review

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

3.0

I feel so hopeless after reading this. Madly depressing and terribly mysterious.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Blood, Suicidal thoughts, Abandonment, Excrement, Chronic illness, Confinement, Death, Self harm, War, Cancer, Grief, Police brutality, Suicide, Dementia, and Terminal illness

afternoondreamer's review

challenging dark emotional hopeful sad medium-paced

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

5.0

I really loved this book. It gave so much room for reflection and questioning yourself and what it means to be human. It leaves me speechless.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Death, and Suicide

Moderate: Grief

Minor: Cancer

philippmk's review

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Suicide, Violence, Confinement, Blood, Grief, Cancer, Excrement, and Suicidal thoughts

juli161's review

dark mysterious medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Emotional abuse, Abandonment, Blood, Death, Drug use, Suicide, Violence, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Eating disorder, Suicide attempt, Body horror, Kidnapping, Medical content, Mental illness, and Murder

linneak's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Terminal illness, Death, Injury/Injury detail, and Abandonment

Moderate: Confinement, Cancer, Blood, Sexual content, and Grief

Minor: Alcohol and Gun violence