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aruarian_melody's review
Couldn't get into it. I think it's jus too bleak for my current mood.
jessdone's review against another edition
4.0
I never wrote a review for "The Book of the Unnamed Midwife" because after completing the book I was worn out and conflicted. I'm back a year later after reading the sequel to attempt justice to my thoughts on this work.
First, I recommend the read. There are many concepts to explore that are worth a read. There are several stories and all of them engage. Characters, tension, and plot all work in this book. The style adds to the overall story.
I'm not sure I buy how men are portrayed in these novels and the Mormon community was done a severe disservice with their extended portrayal that discounts many elements of their faith and family bonds. I took exception to a large part of the book because this part was offensive and cliche in all the worst ways. The Book of Etta transforms some of these elements in a way that makes the second book better and highlights how offensive this part is in the first book.
There were a few coincidences that were too much for me. I won't go into detail because it causes spoilers, but I understood that some of them created tragic irony, which I may have felt if I'd liked one of characters involved. As it is, most male characters are so riddled with weakness and lacking will, it's hard to identify with them, a weakness in the book itself as it makes men less human in ways I didn't appreciate.
Despite all else, I identified with the main character and her struggles to be independent and free. How she clings to her past even as she tries to accept her new reality. How she deals with constant abandonment and betrayal but keeps going. She has an indomitable spirit, and I was rooting for her. I understood how she became a lesser God to the community she settled into. It was interesting to see how her life was interpreted a few hundred years later.
First, I recommend the read. There are many concepts to explore that are worth a read. There are several stories and all of them engage. Characters, tension, and plot all work in this book. The style adds to the overall story.
I'm not sure I buy how men are portrayed in these novels and the Mormon community was done a severe disservice with their extended portrayal that discounts many elements of their faith and family bonds. I took exception to a large part of the book because this part was offensive and cliche in all the worst ways. The Book of Etta transforms some of these elements in a way that makes the second book better and highlights how offensive this part is in the first book.
There were a few coincidences that were too much for me. I won't go into detail because it causes spoilers, but I understood that some of them created tragic irony, which I may have felt if I'd liked one of characters involved. As it is, most male characters are so riddled with weakness and lacking will, it's hard to identify with them, a weakness in the book itself as it makes men less human in ways I didn't appreciate.
Despite all else, I identified with the main character and her struggles to be independent and free. How she clings to her past even as she tries to accept her new reality. How she deals with constant abandonment and betrayal but keeps going. She has an indomitable spirit, and I was rooting for her. I understood how she became a lesser God to the community she settled into. It was interesting to see how her life was interpreted a few hundred years later.
jessdone's review
4.0
I love post apocalypse dystopian future books, and "The Book of the Unnamed Midwife" is no exception. I feel there's very little I could talk about in the review without spoiling the book, and this is a book that benefits greatly from the sense that the reader doesn't know what's going to happen next.
The writing itself is solid. It is plain, direct, and straight. All things that one expects in a world where society has crumbled. Long prose and flower description just doesn't belong in this world.
One "issue" I had with the book was that I didn't necessarily buy the human reaction to a plague that seems to target women and children. Some of the reversion, strikes me as false in this book as it did in "Lord of the Flies". Intentionally reveling in the basest most grotesque aspect of man in a manner that I don't think resonates to modern day American society, even as we'd see it in a collapse of all major systems. Some of the descriptions of people after I found stereotypical and biological reductive in a way that I just don't think would happen. I also felt that sometimes Elison cherry picked elements of a group so that she could paint the worst in them without ever really seeing or understand their strengths and how they would rise above said challenges.
While I found it troubling, I do think it's a great conversation starter on how men perceive women and treat them both in modern society and in more extreme environments. And my experience/perceptions aren't the end all be all of the world.
I liked that the catalyst for the world going to shit was beyond human control. Dystopia comes along because humans suck, so we expect the worst in them. In this care the end came from a disease, which at least allowed for us to see how humanity "at it's best" would react to the world's destruction.
I also enjoyed how unlike so much in the genre Elison isn't offering a "warning" or a "solution". While I often revel those elements of post apocalyptic settings ("1984" is an all time favorite in part because of it's messaging with "The Handmaiden's Tale" a close second), they can be tiresome, particularly with the rash of YA dystopias flooding the market. "The Book of the Unnamed Midwife" was a refreshing break. It gently opens conversation without ever preaching. It has a tense, interesting story without ever bordering into what is "wrong" or "right". In many ways it shows compassion and empathy for the human condition in the multiple ways one may deal with the destruction of one's world.
For my taste, the book actually wraps a little too much up. There are many characters introduced and then leaving the main protagonist, and *spoilers* we learn about the life and death of each of these characters in an aside. My sense of completion appreciated "knowing" what happened, but part of me was disappointed. In these kind of books, I like not knowing what happens to characters who leave the protagonist's group. That lingering worry and sense of not knowing, never knowing hangs large and troubling over both the protagonist and the reader. Also some of the endings are waaaaay waaaaaay too much coincidence for my taste, and it would be a stronger story without all that neat bundling.
Still I really liked the intensity and over all story. Would recommend to most anyone a fan of this genre. It's offers a new and interesting experience without straying too far from the post apocalypse genre.
The writing itself is solid. It is plain, direct, and straight. All things that one expects in a world where society has crumbled. Long prose and flower description just doesn't belong in this world.
One "issue" I had with the book was that I didn't necessarily buy the human reaction to a plague that seems to target women and children. Some of the reversion, strikes me as false in this book as it did in "Lord of the Flies". Intentionally reveling in the basest most grotesque aspect of man in a manner that I don't think resonates to modern day American society, even as we'd see it in a collapse of all major systems. Some of the descriptions of people after I found stereotypical and biological reductive in a way that I just don't think would happen. I also felt that sometimes Elison cherry picked elements of a group so that she could paint the worst in them without ever really seeing or understand their strengths and how they would rise above said challenges.
While I found it troubling, I do think it's a great conversation starter on how men perceive women and treat them both in modern society and in more extreme environments. And my experience/perceptions aren't the end all be all of the world.
I liked that the catalyst for the world going to shit was beyond human control. Dystopia comes along because humans suck, so we expect the worst in them. In this care the end came from a disease, which at least allowed for us to see how humanity "at it's best" would react to the world's destruction.
I also enjoyed how unlike so much in the genre Elison isn't offering a "warning" or a "solution". While I often revel those elements of post apocalyptic settings ("1984" is an all time favorite in part because of it's messaging with "The Handmaiden's Tale" a close second), they can be tiresome, particularly with the rash of YA dystopias flooding the market. "The Book of the Unnamed Midwife" was a refreshing break. It gently opens conversation without ever preaching. It has a tense, interesting story without ever bordering into what is "wrong" or "right". In many ways it shows compassion and empathy for the human condition in the multiple ways one may deal with the destruction of one's world.
For my taste, the book actually wraps a little too much up. There are many characters introduced and then leaving the main protagonist, and *spoilers* we learn about the life and death of each of these characters in an aside. My sense of completion appreciated "knowing" what happened, but part of me was disappointed. In these kind of books, I like not knowing what happens to characters who leave the protagonist's group. That lingering worry and sense of not knowing, never knowing hangs large and troubling over both the protagonist and the reader. Also some of the endings are waaaaay waaaaaay too much coincidence for my taste, and it would be a stronger story without all that neat bundling.
Still I really liked the intensity and over all story. Would recommend to most anyone a fan of this genre. It's offers a new and interesting experience without straying too far from the post apocalypse genre.
ashleylillis's review against another edition
4.25
I’m a sucker for apocalyptic books and this one really sucked me in. I have no idea how I would even survive in a world where a sickness made it impossible to have children. It was terrifying and devastating at the same time and really made you think.
saadiyya_reads786's review
2.0
This was a hard book to read...women and girls being raped. I hope if there is a situation like "The Book of the Unnamed Midwife" that men will not turn into a immoral and corrupt beasts that go around raping women and girls. At the end of the book, there was hope.
bibo_noir's review
Love a good post-apocalyptic horror book and this ticked all the boxes. Not too gory but bleak and draining at times in the best ways. Makes you lose faith in humanity and was written very realistic and engaging.
ragingsprite's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
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? Yes
4.5
hamccollom's review
4.0
When I read the excerpt for this book, I was intrigued. An airborne pathogen is quickly wiping out civilization. The rate of women and children are dying at a much faster and larger rate than men.
Women are now a commodity used for trade, barter, and leverage.
The protagonist in this story is a female obstetrician who pulled through the fever. The story follows her as she navigates this new world and the choices she made to survive. It encompasses the loss of love, the desire for companionship, the need to be alone, trust, betrayal, loyalty, and community.
Although the story kept me reading and wanting to see how it ended, there were characters I found it difficult to relate to. One such is Jodi Obermeyer. Her innocence and refusal to accept what is happening in the world around her is almost alarming. There is a turning point where she starts to realize; however in some ways she still held on to hopes versus realities.
There were also sections that I had to re-read several times because I couldn't grasp what the writer was actually trying to convey to the readers. Also, since it portrays her story and the collection of stories from others who ended up together, I'm unsure how the stories of the other characters she crossed paths with ended up being told. Roxanne and Duke left together leaving the midwife to travel alone. How did their stories end up in the book after the separation?
Women are now a commodity used for trade, barter, and leverage.
The protagonist in this story is a female obstetrician who pulled through the fever. The story follows her as she navigates this new world and the choices she made to survive. It encompasses the loss of love, the desire for companionship, the need to be alone, trust, betrayal, loyalty, and community.
Although the story kept me reading and wanting to see how it ended, there were characters I found it difficult to relate to. One such is Jodi Obermeyer. Her innocence and refusal to accept what is happening in the world around her is almost alarming. There is a turning point where she starts to realize; however in some ways she still held on to hopes versus realities.
There were also sections that I had to re-read several times because I couldn't grasp what the writer was actually trying to convey to the readers. Also, since it portrays her story and the collection of stories from others who ended up together, I'm unsure how the stories of the other characters she crossed paths with ended up being told. Roxanne and Duke left together leaving the midwife to travel alone. How did their stories end up in the book after the separation?
ajpratt's review
3.0
This was the first book I read after not reading for at least 20 years. It was pretty good, I found it easy enough to read and I mostly enjoyed it