Reviews with content warning for Sexual assault - Femlandia

Reviews tagging 'Sexual assault'

Femlandia by Christina Dalcher

20 reviews

hattie's review against another edition

Content Warnings

secanno's review

I found this book and its protagonists difficult to stomach, so I went looking for reviews to see if I should continue reading. From this review it is clear that the book doesn’t get better: https://app.thestorygraph.com/reviews/6269a7f0-8e3c-4703-a2b6-7b554523f39b

Also, it’s possible this changes later in the book, but as far as I can tell, the main characters are all white cis people. The book conflates feminists with misandrists, in a way that is overblown and makes it seem like the norm in feminist movements, rather than an extremist viewpoint held by a select few. And, despite the book’s portrayal of feminism and the patriarchy as two sides of the same unreasonable coin, the author somehow completely ignores the very real, very common power dynamics within feminist movements and how white cis feminism perpetuates racism, ableism, and transphobia. At this point in the book it’s as if Black, Indigenous, and people of color don’t exist, nor do disabled and/or trans/ nonbinary folks.

Content Warnings

lsbonnie's review

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challenging dark reflective tense medium-paced

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

5.0

I'm putting 5 stars because that's what I put for books I have truly enjoyed reading and would read again.
I'm not saying that this book is perfect, but I like that it got me questioning, sometimes agreeing with one side, sometimes with the other, sometimes leaving me not knowing what to think.
I couldn't put the book down. The story was gripping, and sometimes very intense, a real page turner. I don't know if I'm really into the dystopian genre, but as a feminist I was excited to read this.

I like that the characters are deeply flawed therefore deeply human. Let's take Miranda, the main character. At times, yes, she is frustrating because she doesn't get the need for feminism, was a kept woman and because she understands why Nick did what he did. But at times she is also angry at him and at men, she is not completely blind. She has a very moderate point of view when it comes to feminism, it's true, but surprise surprise, it's still the case of many women nowadays. A lot of them don't really have problems with men, or they roll their eyes playfully at them and their antics, without thinking much about it. They know there is violence against women, including sexual, but they don't see it as being spread in the whole world. They don't get it, as Win would say. Maybe they're blind or society (men?) made them blind, maybe they're not educated enough, maybe they think it's normal ("hardwired"), maybe they accept their situation and are happy with it (what's wrong with being a kept woman if you enjoy it?). But these women exist, and there are many of them.
Also, can you really blame Miranda for her difficult relationship with feminism/her mother, when

her mother killed her father who yes was a shitty husband but a good father? When she has seen her mother's view distort the world and causing pain, like the innocent employee tying Miranda's shoe turned into a pedophile for her profit?

Win too is a complicated character. Yes her view of the world is extreme and raises issues. But I also understand why she

murdered her husband. You sometimes hear that kind of stories, of women who were abused over and over and ended up snapping and killing their husbands. Who can blame them?

When you start really going into feminism, truly look at the numbers, at all the violence men cause women... Yes, I believe a part of you end up hating men a little. It's overwhelming, it's scary. And it can be difficult to find good men. You may start to think that a society without them would be better. I am not saying that's what I think, but that I understand how Win may have gone there. And why some (non fictional) women would think this way, too.

Contrary to what some people wrote in the reviews, I don't think that the author's point was to say "boo extreme feminism is bad!" or that "men are good, poor men, mean women". I honestly think Christina Dalcher wanted to question what kind of world is possible, what we want, how far we would go in our thinking.
I do agree with people saying that the "big" twist was a bit predictable, but I still think that it is worth a read. Be mindful of the content warnings, though.

About the epilogue:

I've read some reviews and I guess we see it differently. I do agree with the fact that it felt rushed. But I don't think the idea was to say "we are bound to act like this according to our gender", to me it felt more like a question: was re-integrating men the solution? Did they ruin Femlandia, turning it into Landia? Even if treating boys like this was awful, wasn't it better for women?
As we got closer to the ending, I imagined something like just a few years later. With boys reintroduced in the society, turning into teenagers then men, would violence and sexual assault against women happen again? And how would that be handled by the society?
Alternatively I imagined the boys/teenagers/men living within Femlandia, but being second-class citizens, at least for the next generations as they would still be wary of men. But this could have carried on, just like in our world women have been treated as second-class citizens for generations/centuries.

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booktwinning's review

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challenging dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

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

3.75

Content Warnings

shaziareads's review against another edition

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adventurous dark fast-paced

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

1.5

ok this was ..... something. this book takes place in a dystopian america, where money has no value and society has mostly fallen apart. miranda knows she needs to find a safer place to live for her and her daughter emma and after some travel they end up in femlandia - a women-only colony built by miranda's estranged mother, win. in femlandia, life is thriving but things seem off. and this is basically where i started to feel more and more iffy about this book until i was just wanting it to finally end.

i won't go too into my thoughts about this book but overall i just feel like this had so much potential, and instead christina dalcher went about it in the worst way possible. warning that the rest of my review is going to contain spoilers. femlandia is supposed to be a safe haven for all women, and most of its inhabitants are women who have been victims of abuse, violence, and more by the hands of the men in their life. however, win's vision of this perfect place to live was blinded by her pure hatred of men and this is where things got really weird for me, especially since our protagonist miranda was like, an apologist for men? so on one hand we have a character that hates men and claims they are inherently evil, and then on the other hand we have a character that is great but also gives off these heavy "feminists are dumb" vibes. like why ......... couldn't there be a more normal character in this book lol?

i'm kind of bummed out that i didn't like it cause i really do think it could have been a great book. i also felt there were some parts where the writing was weak. i want to end this on a positive note though so i will say that the narrator of the audiobook was really good and i don't normally notice that kind of thing so there's that. i wouldn't recommend this book but if anyone i know happens to read it i would love to discuss.

Content Warnings