Reviews tagging 'Infertility'

I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman

42 reviews

cepbreed's review against another edition

mysterious reflective 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? Yes

5.0

Phenomenal. I hardly have any words to say after finishing this book. What can even be said to encapsulate how amazing this story is? 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Terminal illness, Grief, Mental illness, Suicide, Infertility, Death, and Confinement

Moderate: Sexual content

siraels's review

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.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Terminal illness, Confinement, Suicide, Death, Suicidal thoughts, and Infertility

mandareads222's review against another edition

challenging dark tense slow-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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Confinement, and Cancer

Moderate: Grief, Suicide, Kidnapping, Suicide attempt, and Infertility

Minor: Alcohol and Violence

neliadiedenise's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Body horror, Death, Confinement, Gore, Suicide, Grief, Murder, Blood, Dementia, Infertility, and Terminal illness

picaresquedreamer's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad medium-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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Suicide, Death, and Infertility

Moderate: Bullying, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Terminal illness, Blood, and Mental illness

Minor: Misogyny, Violence, Sexual violence, and Police brutality

owlribbon's review against another edition

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Suicide, Confinement, and Terminal illness

Moderate: Cancer and Blood

Minor: Infertility

sydneylount's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious reflective medium-paced

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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Confinement, Cancer, Death, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Forced institutionalization, and Medical content

Moderate: Terminal illness, Sexual content, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Infertility, and Kidnapping

esztertth's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective 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? No

5.0

This became one of my favourite books alongside the Memory Police and Our Wives Under the Sea. 

Don' t read the preface first, however, Sophie Mackintosh's words summize the novel best:

No life is ordinary, the book seems to say. No life is without hope, without light, even during the unimaginable. (...)
How much of our humanity is intrinsic? How much remains, when all else is stripped away?

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Confinement, Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Forced institutionalization, Infertility, Kidnapping, and Death

kaiulanilee's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective 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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Dementia, Kidnapping, Cancer, Death, Grief, Terminal illness, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Confinement, and Infertility

jeninthebooks08's review

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? No

2.5

Hmm. Bleak and mediocre at best. I like the message of the book and can definitely feel the looming sadness of never knowing the full extent of life.
Some good quotes. Such as:

"[...] under a sky that is nearly always grey, or such a pale blue that it seems to be dying. But a sky does not die, it is I who am dying, who was already dying in the bunker"

Speculative fiction and hypothetical unanswered questions tend to bore me, I guess it's just not for me. 2.5.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death, and Suicide

Moderate: Grief, Kidnapping, Terminal illness, and Infertility