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A review by renadd
I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Diverse cast of characters? No
1.0
The book fell short of my expectations and I found it boring and bleak
the title implies a bit more of a gender investigation, or at the very least some effect of the lack of men on the protagonist. but i found both to be minimal and underwhelming.
The writing itself is silly and feels like the author was attempting a concept larger than what their writing abilities is capable of.
I paused the book multiple times because it got too boring and nothing was happening, but my friends urged me to finish for a plot twist (which i didn’t find)
Despite some people complaining about the mystery aspect, I lost interest in finding out what’s going on so i wouldn’t consider that a negative
Putting this in spoiler in case you want to read without the negative influence
The protagonist, apparently can read destovesky based on her memories of what athena (half-heartedly) taught her about reading, but can’t identify medicine bottles that she assisted i administring.
the premise is unconvincing and tries too hard when the protagonist describes something then adds the addendum that she didn’t know what that was until X.
there was ripe ground for the author to play around with what the protagonist will find intriguing and what skills they will focus on, but made them into a relatively normal person excited about reading and with no major quirks/ specialties except keeping time & counting a lot
The protagonist’s motivation stays presistent for far too long then suddenly vanishes in the last few pages. This could’ve been a shorter story, and many of the parts felt redundant and added nothing for me.
Lastly, this had nothing to do with women or men she was mostly alone in the world. It was about being human not about knowing men, it felt like a last minute framing. Especially with the fantasies thing, that storyline had some life to it but got lost and barely mentioned later on.
the title implies a bit more of a gender investigation, or at the very least some effect of the lack of men on the protagonist. but i found both to be minimal and underwhelming.
The writing itself is silly and feels like the author was attempting a concept larger than what their writing abilities is capable of.
I paused the book multiple times because it got too boring and nothing was happening, but my friends urged me to finish for a plot twist (which i didn’t find)
Despite some people complaining about the mystery aspect, I lost interest in finding out what’s going on so i wouldn’t consider that a negative
Putting this in spoiler in case you want to read without the negative influence
the premise is unconvincing and tries too hard when the protagonist describes something then adds the addendum that she didn’t know what that was until X.
there was ripe ground for the author to play around with what the protagonist will find intriguing and what skills they will focus on, but made them into a relatively normal person excited about reading and with no major quirks/ specialties except keeping time & counting a lot
The protagonist’s motivation stays presistent for far too long then suddenly vanishes in the last few pages. This could’ve been a shorter story, and many of the parts felt redundant and added nothing for me.
Lastly, this had nothing to do with women or men she was mostly alone in the world. It was about being human not about knowing men, it felt like a last minute framing. Especially with the fantasies thing, that storyline had some life to it but got lost and barely mentioned later on.