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rainbopagn's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
I spend through this in about a day. Harpman’s prose totally drowns you in the story, a bit rambling a times and harshly blunt at others. You leave the book thinking about what makes you human. My one complaint is that we never learn our narrators name. I would have liked to see the women help name her given she was their child, whether they liked it or not.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Suicide, Confinement, Cancer, Police brutality, and Terminal illness
milkcoco's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
inspiring
mysterious
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death
Moderate: Grief, Confinement, Suicide, and Suicidal thoughts
amyford's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- 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
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Suicide attempt, Confinement, Death, Suicide, Cancer, Dementia, and Suicidal thoughts
homosexualstudying's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
4.75
A beautiful writing style. a riveting and gripping concept. challenging and reflecting to read.
almost stopped reading because it got a bit too dark for myself, but i’m so glad i continued.
almost stopped reading because it got a bit too dark for myself, but i’m so glad i continued.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death and Suicide
Moderate: Medical content, Trafficking, and Cancer
nadiajohnsonbooks's review against another edition
challenging
dark
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- 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
5.0
In the realm of #speculativefiction I've read a lot of ambiguous endings. In this book, the ending is crystal clear, but the beginning... The beginning is one of the most ambiguous I've ever encountered
The unnamed protagonist is the youngest of 40 women in a cage. None of them remembers how they got there, and while most of them have some recollection of their life before, she was only a child when she was taken and has no memory if anything before the cage
One day, an alarm goes off and their captors flee
The door to the cage is ajar
The child and her companions must then navigate the surface world, which none of them recognize, and build amongst themselves a small society of women
They find other cages, but no survivors
The world Harpman creates is bleak, but it's fascinating to view it through the protagonist's eyes. She has a lot to say about what it's like to exist in a female body, but she (who has never known men) has no conception of gender beyond the limited view of the 39 women she was imprisoned with
She knows nothing of love, either familial or romantic, except what she sees in glimpses
It's important to note that the book was written in the 90s, and the conversations about gender identity that predominated then we're not as nuanced as they are today. Still, I find Harpman's exploration to be both thoughtful and thought provoking
Harpman was born in Etterbeek, Belgium, near my mom's hometown, in 1929 to a Jewish family that fled to Casablanca during WWII
Knowing the personal impact of the Holocaust on Harpman and her family makes the dystopian vision she constructed hit even harder
It wasn't always a pleasant book to read, but it will stick with me forever
The unnamed protagonist is the youngest of 40 women in a cage. None of them remembers how they got there, and while most of them have some recollection of their life before, she was only a child when she was taken and has no memory if anything before the cage
One day, an alarm goes off and their captors flee
The door to the cage is ajar
The child and her companions must then navigate the surface world, which none of them recognize, and build amongst themselves a small society of women
They find other cages, but no survivors
The world Harpman creates is bleak, but it's fascinating to view it through the protagonist's eyes. She has a lot to say about what it's like to exist in a female body, but she (who has never known men) has no conception of gender beyond the limited view of the 39 women she was imprisoned with
She knows nothing of love, either familial or romantic, except what she sees in glimpses
It's important to note that the book was written in the 90s, and the conversations about gender identity that predominated then we're not as nuanced as they are today. Still, I find Harpman's exploration to be both thoughtful and thought provoking
Harpman was born in Etterbeek, Belgium, near my mom's hometown, in 1929 to a Jewish family that fled to Casablanca during WWII
Knowing the personal impact of the Holocaust on Harpman and her family makes the dystopian vision she constructed hit even harder
It wasn't always a pleasant book to read, but it will stick with me forever
Content Warnings
Graphic: Grief, Cancer, Death, and Confinement
Minor: Fatphobia
faehriss's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- 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
5.0
Absolutely stunning piece of literature, which is only enriched after learning the context of Jacqueline Harpman being the child of a family fleeing from the Nazi's in WW2. Spoilers of overarching plot in relation to authorial context: The way the MC grows up knowing only of life in confinement and spends her whole life trying to make sense of her imprisonment only to find no answers that make any of it make sense is a beautiful parallel to the real life experiences of many and is handled in a truly sensitive and exceptional manner here.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Confinement and Death
rachellen's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
sad
slow-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
**** SPOILERS AHEAD!****
This is possibly the best book I’ve ever read, so I am amazed to have found it randomly and not through recommendation. It is simply not spoken about enough!
The way that the story is narrated with such few answers yet so many questions leads you to find your own concocted explanations for human atrocity and cruelty such as unearthly beings or greater goods, yet the end of the story showed me that when humans cause pain to others there doesn’t need to be a reason why when the result is all the same.
The abandoned identical plains that the women roam somehow are not boring at all. I found myself excited when the lead found a book. It was the first time in 140 pages that she found any paper. I was shocked at how much I had found myself experiencing excitement at her finding what I think are obvious necessities, or background noise objects in my own life.
The ending line was what struck me the most, that the character could end it on such an informal, yet profound note: ‘It is strange that I am dying from a diseased womb, I who have never had periods and who have never known men.’ I interpreted this as a kind of scoff at the fact that this woman’s demise was at the cause of her womb, biologically caused by her birth gender, with which never once benefitted her or served her, other than in death. In a way, after leading such a life of captivity she found strength in her fellow women, an exact experience she would not have gotten if not for her matching gender that found her in that exact cage rather than one of men or another cage of which no one escaped due to lacking of the same luck of the guard’s dropped keys, to then be betrayed by her biological sex was so painful to realise. I found that remarkably unfair at first, yet after I read her tone as unperturbed at this inclination, I felt a lesson in her attitude towards her situation and history. She had lived the life she had left exactly as she wanted to or at least as much as she could have wanted to. That in itself was a victory against her dark, victimised past.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Blood and Death
Minor: Cancer
wytnie's review against another edition
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? It's complicated
4.25
I liked it but i feel some things may have gone over my head and i'd love to read it again or get other peoples opinions on what happened.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Grief, Suicide, Murder, Abandonment, Death, and Forced institutionalization
cassidy_rain's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
3.5
“We had survived the prison, the plain and the loss of all hope, but the women had discovered that survival is no more than putting off the moment of death.“
“We were doing nothing, we were going nowhere, we were nobody.”
What a though provoking novel. I Who Have Never Known Men is a very open ended and philosophical story about a group of women who are trapped in a guarded underground bunker, until, by sheer chance, they are able to escape. It reads almost like a diary (there’s no chapters); our narrator being the youngest of the women in the bunker. She has a unique experience, as she’s the only one who’s entire existence (or at least what she remembers) has been spent in this captivity, so she has no real memories or knowledge of the outside world.
When I read the synopsis for this I was super intrigued and I loved the concept! I thought the writing style was wonderful. I also loved the narrators voice, it’s very distinct and unique. We truly get her perception of the world- and how that perception changes with her theories and discoveries. It’s very complex and conflicting. The tone is overall quite bleak, but there’s somehow also a hopeful feeling that prevails. Despite spanning through decades in less than 200 pages, I found the pacing to be quite slow. That said, it will definitely leave you thinking and with lots of questions.
I understand that the novel is written this way on purpose, to provoke questions and feelings. For me, I disliked the open-endedness. I would have personally liked more explanation and closure. If this is one that has caught your eye I would definitely recommend you give it a try though!
“We were doing nothing, we were going nowhere, we were nobody.”
What a though provoking novel. I Who Have Never Known Men is a very open ended and philosophical story about a group of women who are trapped in a guarded underground bunker, until, by sheer chance, they are able to escape. It reads almost like a diary (there’s no chapters); our narrator being the youngest of the women in the bunker. She has a unique experience, as she’s the only one who’s entire existence (or at least what she remembers) has been spent in this captivity, so she has no real memories or knowledge of the outside world.
When I read the synopsis for this I was super intrigued and I loved the concept! I thought the writing style was wonderful. I also loved the narrators voice, it’s very distinct and unique. We truly get her perception of the world- and how that perception changes with her theories and discoveries. It’s very complex and conflicting. The tone is overall quite bleak, but there’s somehow also a hopeful feeling that prevails. Despite spanning through decades in less than 200 pages, I found the pacing to be quite slow. That said, it will definitely leave you thinking and with lots of questions.
I understand that the novel is written this way on purpose, to provoke questions and feelings. For me, I disliked the open-endedness. I would have personally liked more explanation and closure. If this is one that has caught your eye I would definitely recommend you give it a try though!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death and Confinement
Moderate: Suicide
siraels's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
fast-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? Yes
5.0
I don't think a book has ever made me feel so isolated, gloomy and distressed but it also made me feel so many things that I could not rate it in any other way than five stars.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Terminal illness, Confinement, Suicide, Death, Suicidal thoughts, and Infertility