A review by casskrug
I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman

5.0

i was not expecting to be as blown away by this one as i was?? i’ve seen so much hype for it but sci-fi adjacent stories aren’t always my cup of tea.

i who have never known men follows the plight of 40 women who were locked in a bunker for reasons unknown to both reader and narrator, who is substantially younger than the rest of the women she’s in captivity with. this is not a book that provides any answers, so if you need context to be explained, this is probably not the book for you. the story is bleak, but the writing is sharp and precise, propelling you through the unknown.

although the novel is dystopian and almost alien, the ideas harpman explores are distinctly rooted in humanity. how do we define what it means to be a person? how are our our perceptions of time and memory altered by cruel and unusual circumstances?

the differences in how the narrator and the 39 other women view their situation is shaped by the face that the narrator knows nothing of life before the bunker - she only has the others’ hazy recollections about normal daily life to go off of. this allows the narrator to take an analytical approach to survival and makes her intensely curious about the women’s previous lives. it was beautiful to see how their relationships evolved, and how they continuously adapted.

this book was absolutely haunting (especially that last line, whew) and i know i’m going to be thinking about it for quite a while.

“is there a satisfaction in the effort of remembering that provides its own nourishment, and is what one recollects less important than the act of remembering?”