Review by kutingtin - I Who Have Never Known Men

kutingtin 's review for:

I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman

5.0

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-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

“No life is ordinary, the book seems to say. No life is without hope, without light, even during the unimaginable.”

Sometimes you read a book and its so good that you don’t want to talk about it. This is one of those books. “The Mistress of Silence” would have been the better title and I wish they have’nt changed it. Some people say that if Station Eleven met The Bell Jar, it'd give you similar vibes to this book. Existential, dystopian, silent but impactful.

I got very hooked from the very beginning and spent the whole night reading this continuously! Forgetting the why of it all and just hanged on to every word from the narrator, just follow her and I’d say the time you spent would already be worth it.

Parts of it will linger in your being for a while. There were many times I’d imagine myself as the main character and the things I would do in her place, it’s imaginative and as the foreword says it’s definitely not the passive reading kind. I would probably survive in a bunker full of books as long as other provisions like food water and electricity are available, but with no one to talk too, who knows 😢

With all this novel’s mystery, intrigue, calm, secrets, intensity, beauty and tragedy, I who have never known men remains one if my most memorable reads this year.

Content Warnings