Reviews tagging 'Pregnancy'

Walk the Vanished Earth by Erin Swan

8 reviews

kyra_hinton's review

Hints at pedophilia, on page assault, and child pregnancy all in the first two chapters. Couldn’t keep going. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness and Pregnancy

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Medical trauma, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

antimony's review against another edition

reflective slow-paced

• Loveable characters? No

2.0

i really wanted to like this — I was hoping for something sorta like station eleven, showing the beauty of humanity despite the postapocalyptic setting, but instead I got a (boring) treatise on how We Must Repopulate The Earth Because Pregnancy Is A Miracle!!!!!!!! also it dragged in the first half so I put it down for a week to read my interlibrary loans and the only thing I felt upon picking it up at the end of said week was dread at the boredom returning. so.

the thing that really drove me crazy abt this book was not that it was boring. there were a few interesting things and if it had just been boring I would have given it three stars but alas! instead almost every character was obsessed with how The Miracle Of Childbirth = The Miracle of Womanhood = Destiny!!!! and like just sliding past how simplistic of a view that is I just did not like reading about it. maybe a mom would appreciate it, idk, but I do not like Repopulating Humanity just as a theme in general. it's very unpleasant like maybe humanity doesn't NEED to be repopulated?? and it always takes a higher roll on women. but then again many of the women in this book seem  delighted to just incubate The Future of Humanity and I just don't like reading that!!! (if this review feels unfairly focused on penelope's storyline that's bc it's most of what I read after my break and the stuff before the break is so far away as to be of no consequence. but the first half was probably 3 stars anyway.)  like penelope is abt to have her daughter and BEFORE SHES EVEN BORN is saying to her You My Daughter Are Destined To Populate The Land and the question of what if said daughter never wants to destroy her body in service of Populating The Land is never considered.

bare minimum i did enjoy that Moon decided NOT to Populate The Land and continue the society (bc her uncles were SOO icky anyway. so thank god) but STJLLL she still heard her whole life that it was her Destiny. overall I did not enjoy this book sorry!!!!

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Pregnancy

Moderate: Incest

hyena's review against another edition

adventurous dark inspiring reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Incest, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Forced institutionalization, Car accident, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Rape, Sexual assault, and Sexual content

hannahcomer4d's review

dark mysterious sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No

1.5

I didn't like any of the characters, I found the plot preposterousness in many places, and there were far too many perspectives, some with so little page time they felt completely unnecessary. Would not recommend.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Pedophilia, Toxic relationship, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, and Abandonment

Minor: Sexual violence

bailey_the_bookworm's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Challenging and weird and very, very grim at times. Climate change, reproductive freedom, and so many other issues are right at the surface here. Gorgeously written and hard to put down, but also tough to read. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Confinement, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Kidnapping, Murder, and Pregnancy

spacebot3000's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated

4.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Pregnancy

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Incest, Mental illness, and Rape

Minor: Confinement, Drug abuse, Infertility, and Cannibalism

exactlyem's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated

3.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Domestic abuse, Pregnancy, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Alcoholism, Animal death, and Murder

lesbianclerics's review against another edition

This book really made me ask myself questions and think. Questions like, "where do we draw the line between dark content and torture porn?" And "At what point is a book so feminist it wraps back around to misogynistic?"

Erin Swan has somehow managed to pass both those points. The first few chapters had me hooked. I was rambling excitedly to my mom about how much i enjoyed the writing style, and I'm generally a fan of books which jump back and forth in time.

Then the uncles got weird about Moon. Then I realized Bea was 12, not 17ish like I had assumed. The final nail in the coffin was Paul's first chapter. I realized that the only thing I cared about at this point was Bea's time in the hospital and her recovery. I read Paul's chapter, barely, but it was so boring i mostly skimmed it and the one-paragraph description about how the doctor basically just gave up on Bea. I decided to follow suit and gave up on the book. Unfortunate, because i really did like the writing style.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Forced institutionalization, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Pregnancy, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Incest, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Medical content, Kidnapping, and Death of parent

Minor: Animal cruelty, Animal death, and War

Most of the things in the moderate list barely slipped out of graphic just because it is described in metaphor and HEAVILY insinuated rather than explicitly described. It is very obvious though, and this is just what i got to in the first 115 pages.