Review by klymko - I Who Have Never Known Men

klymko 's review for:

I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman

4.75

challenging dark sad slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

This was an extremely strange and compelling work of horror/dystopian/speculative fiction. Set in a world where the narrator’s earliest memories are of being stuck in a cage in an underground bunker with 39 other women (each at least decades older than her, who have memories of a normal life before the catastrophe that led to them being imprisoned), this novella recounts the strange, empty world they encounter after the escaping the bunker. Throughout, the narrator attempts to make sense of her own humanity, separated as she is from any “normal” life, larger culture, and, eventually, other humans.

Content Warnings