Reviews tagging 'Death'

The Book of the Unnamed Midwife by Meg Elison

47 reviews

reading_rainbows's review against another edition

adventurous dark relaxing

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.75

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

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

Minor: Abortion, Biphobia, and Alcohol

alyssatuininga's review against another edition

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

4.75

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

abbacirc's review

adventurous challenging dark sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

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

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

scoobygirl93's review

I was looking forward to reading this and I wanted to love it. It's just spending so much time in the time period of immediately post event, and I'm bored, I'm more interested in the this is how the world is now time period.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Sexual violence, Trafficking, Infertility, Blood, Child death, Misogyny, Sexism, Violence, Miscarriage, Death, Genocide, Gun violence, Murder, Rape, and Medical trauma

v_nerdbooks's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

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

maxx_'s review against another edition

dark tense fast-paced

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

5.0

This book is amazing. If your looking for something that is a realistic take on what would happen to women in the event that the world collapsed,  this is for you. It’s not an easy read because it is pretty graphic but I couldn’t put it down once I started reading it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Trafficking, Slavery, Gore, Sexism, Rape, Misogyny, Death, and Sexual assault

Minor: Child death and Miscarriage

katrinarose's review

dark reflective tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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

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

succmoipp's review

dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny and Rape

Moderate: Death and Miscarriage

Minor: Pedophilia

cawmii's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Sexual assault, Sexism, Gun violence, Child death, Death, and Rape

thechroniclesofnadia's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional tense slow-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Sexual assault, Misogyny, Death, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Murder, Rape, Body horror, Grief, Sexual violence, and Miscarriage

Minor: Suicide and Suicidal thoughts