Reviews tagging 'Adult/minor relationship'

The Book of the Unnamed Midwife by Meg Elison

39 reviews

reading_rainbows's review against another edition

4.75

adventurous dark relaxing

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

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I listened to this straight and stayed up 2 hours past my bedtime without any idea of how late it was!   I'm generally a fan of post-apocalyptic stories and I really enjoyed this take from this bi/pansexual woman, a reproductive healthcare professional, perspective.  

***Note about CWs: bad things are seen as bad by narrator, and hard topics didn't feel hopeless***

My main content warnings:
Lots of dead bodies, 
Miscarriages/stillborns,
Sexual assault(1 in first person) most are mentions after,
Killing(self defense),
Child abuse(LDS child bride)
Women are traded by men for sex

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Pregnancy

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Slavery, Suicide, Blood, Trafficking, Religious bigotry

Minor: Biphobia, Abortion, Alcohol

alyssatuininga's review against another edition

4.75

adventurous challenging dark emotional sad fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

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 I heard about this one on NPR and it seemed right up my alley- post-apocalyptic, science fiction with a midwife as the main character. There are no zombies, aliens, or evil creatures just a plague that wipes out most of humanity, especially women. The characters were fantastic and it had a very realistic feel to it- tense, sad, lonely, hopeful, and yet utterly painful. Please note that there is a lot of violence, especially sexual violence, and death. I listened to this one on audiobook and didn’t realize when I started that it is a trilogy (from what I understand each book is about a different person in the same world). It wasn’t the most mature writing (and a few of the author’s quirks annoyed me a little) but as it was written as a journal I could mostly let them go. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Child death, Death, Infertility, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Torture, Kidnapping, Grief, Medical trauma, Pregnancy

abbacirc's review against another edition

5.0

adventurous challenging dark sad tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Gun violence, Infertility, Miscarriage, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Kidnapping, Murder, Pregnancy

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Drug use, Infidelity, Abortion

v_nerdbooks's review against another edition

4.0

challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Infertility, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Abortion, Murder, Pregnancy

katrinarose's review against another edition

4.0

dark reflective tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

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Extremely bleak and tough read but I could not put it down. I loved the character of the unnamed midwife and the how well the author also developed even minor characters as they appeared. I also like the alternating style of her journal and omnipresent narrative. I was taken aback at first when we learned about characters and events that the midwife did not know about but it was satisfying (although sad). I like that the author didn’t shy away from the brutal realities of this post-apocalyptic world, and didn’t sugarcoat her view of human nature, as depressing as it was. This book is definitely not for everyone (between the triggering content, narrative style, and somewhat bare plot) but I really liked it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Cursing, Death, Homophobia, Infertility, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, Murder, Pregnancy, Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Confinement, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Grief, Abortion

polo's review against another edition

4.25

challenging dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

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Very entertaining. I wasn't sure what to expect from this one, but it had an interesting main character and I enjoyed the historical perspective, along with the way many stories criss-crossed into one another. 
PLEASE read the content warnings on this one before you start. Not kidding.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Death, Gun violence, Infidelity, Misogyny, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Slavery, Violence, Blood, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Murder, Pregnancy

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Suicide, Torture

erenreads12's review against another edition

4.5

adventurous challenging dark sad tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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How glorious to read a post-apocalyptic novel handled by a woman. The impact of the narrative voice is hugely important and powerful, supporting a tight, dark and surprisingly hopeful story. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Violence, Medical content, Murder, Pregnancy, Outing

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Torture

kat1105's review against another edition

4.5

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Homophobia, Infertility, Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Terminal illness, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Grief, Medical trauma, Abortion, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail

larbster90's review against another edition

4.5

challenging dark sad fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

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Incredible book, very compelling couldn't stop reading it. Definitely increased my anxiety, though.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Blood, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Medical trauma, Murder, Pregnancy

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Drug use, Gun violence, Infertility, Sexism, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Violence, Trafficking, Suicide attempt

leksikality's review against another edition

4.0

dark reflective tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

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Of the plague-decimates-population-via-infertility genre, this one does a pretty good job. It's no wonder it's won an award, and ought to win more.

The main character isn't necessarily likeable but I like her - and the way her attitudes/behaviour changes as the book progresses feels more natural than a lot of post-apocalyptic narratives.

I have read a lot of post-apocalyptic and dystopian fiction from a broad span of time (it's my academic research niche so I'm pretty well exposed to it), this is one of the ones I got excited about reading.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Miscarriage, Violence, Trafficking

Moderate: Rape, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Suicide