Reviews tagging 'Pregnancy'

Looking for Jane by Heather Marshall

44 reviews

jeebi1506's review

emotional informative medium-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abortion, Suicide, Miscarriage, Pregnancy, and Suicidal thoughts

poisonenvy's review against another edition

emotional informative reflective medium-paced

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

3.5

Looking for Jane is Heather Marshall's first novel, and in many ways, it shows. 

It tells the story of three women whose stories start at different points in history, though all their stories do intersect at certain points: There's Evelyn, a young woman in the sixties who was forced to go to a home for Wayward Girls: aka, women who became pregnant outside of marriage and were forced to give up their babies. There's Nancy, a young woman in the 1980s who becomes pregnant and needs to seek out an illegal abortion, thereby stumbling on the Jane Network: an underground network that provided safe abortions for people who needed them.  And then there's Angela, a woman who's undergoing treatments to become pregnant after she and her wife had struggled with fertility.  The story kicks off with her discovering a letter from a mother, telling her daughter that she'd been adopted, and confessing that she discovered afterward that her birth mother had never wanted to give her up. 

But more than any of these three women, the novel tells the history of abortion rights in Canada. 

And I mean that literally. Unfortunately, none of the characters are especially fleshed out. They very often become mouthpieces, and seemed more like vehicles to relay the history of reproductive rights in Canada than characters that I could really bring myself to care about. 

The prose was often clunky and stilted (and was in third-person present tense, which is my least favourite of all narration styles), and sometimes veered into dangerously purple territory.  And, at times, the story just felt <i>contrived</i> so that we could be sure that the characters were where they needed to be.  There was a surprise twist near the end that surprised me, and <i>not</i> in a good way (the surprise wasn't a bad one, it just didn't feel like it really fit and I wondered if it didn't raise some inconsistencies, though I'm unlikely to do a reread to find out if they're really there or not).

Criticisms aside though, this story is important, and tells a very important part of Canadian history. Marshall has clearly done her research, and while the story sometimes suffers so she could expound on that history/research, it was still very informative. I have no doubt that Marshall could have written a very good non-fiction book on the subject. Clunky writing aside, it's also very easy to read and digest.


And I would absolutely recommend this novel to anyone who cares to learn more about Canada's history with reproductive rights, especially if they would prefer to have that information come in the form of fiction over non-fiction. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abortion, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Infertility, Sexism, Forced institutionalization, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Pregnancy, and Religious bigotry

Moderate: Sexual violence, Misogyny, Sexual assault, Miscarriage, Police brutality, Terminal illness, and Rape

Minor: Death of parent, Dementia, and Infidelity

breanna_gaudaur's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional informative inspiring tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pregnancy, Self harm, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Infertility, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Suicide attempt, Abortion, and Confinement

cc_shelflove's review against another edition

emotional hopeful inspiring 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? No

5.0

Inhale. Exhale. Inhale. Exhale. This is me teaching myself how to breathe again, because I almost forgot. I am simply astounded by what I just read. Looking for Jane is written in a way that makes the reader feel like he or she is a part of something big. Furthermore, to write about true events without conveying the facts like you are writing a research paper is a real skill, and Heather Marshall has mastered it. Inspired by true stories, we follow our main characters through three separate timelines: 1971, 1980, and 2017. There is a ton of foreshadowing in this book, and I STILL did not guess the big giant whopping colossal enormous supercalifragilisticexpialidocious twist at the end. Talk about tears! As mentioned in the author's note, this book is about abortion and the right to choose, but it is also about so much more. I think there is room for a sequel, because something Sister Agatha said to Nancy was not addressed or revisited. I would love to read more. I'm going to go hug my mom now. Wow.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abortion, Medical content, Terminal illness, Suicide attempt, Suicide, Self harm, Miscarriage, Medical trauma, Infertility, Confinement, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Forced institutionalization, and Emotional abuse

Moderate: Rape, Child death, and Grief

Minor: Blood

kawooreads's review

challenging emotional informative mysterious reflective sad slow-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Misogyny, Self harm, Pregnancy, Miscarriage, Sexual assault, Confinement, Gaslighting, Grief, Infertility, Medical trauma, Medical content, Sexism, Suicide, Suicide attempt, and Abortion

Minor: Sexual violence, Misogyny, Emotional abuse, Child death, Domestic abuse, Blood, Rape, Death of parent, and Death

reading_rainbows's review against another edition

emotional hopeful reflective medium-paced

• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

It took a bit to get into, then it was hard to stop.  I stayed up 4 hours later to finish listening to the audio book. I cried a bunch reading this book and loved it.  

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abortion, Suicide attempt, Pregnancy, Medical content, Forced institutionalization, Emotional abuse, and Death

Moderate: Cancer

thrillofthepage's review against another edition

challenging emotional sad medium-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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Abortion, Emotional abuse, Grief, Pregnancy, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Death of parent

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Confinement, Racism, Infidelity, Rape, Self harm, Cursing, Gun violence, Infertility, Abandonment, Child death, and Miscarriage

cailinfitzgerald's review

adventurous emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abortion

Moderate: Blood, Rape, Death of parent, Suicidal thoughts, Abandonment, Death, Grief, Abortion, Infertility, Pregnancy, Miscarriage, Self harm, Suicide, and Suicide attempt

pauluszanna's review against another edition

emotional hopeful informative inspiring mysterious sad medium-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? It's complicated

5.0

 Brilliant storytelling and captivating characters - I loved this book so much.

It was extremely emotional (cried before I reach 100 pages), hopeful and extremely relevant. I hope you all put it on your TBR because it was a beautiful book about womanhood and motherhood.

Every child a wanted child, every mother a willing mother 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Blood, Death, Pregnancy, Murder, Suicide attempt, Abortion, and Suicide

Moderate: Infertility, Grief, and Medical content

arnold_shelby's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful inspiring tense medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abortion and Abandonment

Moderate: Blood, Forced institutionalization, Fatphobia, Confinement, Grief, Medical content, Rape, Sexual violence, Death of parent, Infertility, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Pregnancy, Suicide, Cancer, and Suicide attempt

Minor: Cursing, Infidelity, Emotional abuse, Child death, Medical content, Police brutality, Sexual assault, and Kidnapping

I thought some parts of the book had unnecessary exposition, where it felt like one of the story lines was being used to feed specific aspects of history to the reader, however that was short-lived thankfully. I enjoyed this book, it was raw and a rough read at times but I was glad to have read it.