Reviews with content warning for Medical content - I Who Have Never Known Men

Reviews tagging 'Medical content'

I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman

7 reviews

karmapen's review

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challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.75

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peggy_racham's review against another edition

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5.0

"I was forced to acknowledge too late, much too late, that I too had loved, that I was capable of suffering and that I was human after all."

I rarely read bleak dystopias but this one got me. Something about a woman wondering about her own humanity just speaks to me. There are no answers but it doesnt really matter in the end.

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mme_carton's review

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challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense medium-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

4.5

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inlaraland's review

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dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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

5.0

"I Who Have Never Known Men" is a grim dystopian novel. Written as a fictional memoir of sorts, the story follows our unnamed narrator who is trapped in a prison with thirty nine other women. They have no answers as to why they are caged or where they even are. When a chance opportunity of escape arises, the women all jump in to explore the strange world around them.

This dark story is a reflective exploration and thought provoking read that touches on the themes of memories, loneliness, survival, life, death and womanhood. I think what sets this dystopian novel apart from others that I have read is the lack of explanation given. In this novel, what your read is what you get and in many ways it makes the questions you have as a reader far more haunting.

Despite this being a short novel, I had to put this book down a few times because I found the heaviness of it all to be bit too overwhelming. The world is bleak, and it's depressing - something that I would warn readers to keep in mind before picking up the story.

However, it's so worth the pain of enduring in my opinion. This is a story that will stand the test of time, and I interpretated pockets of beauty and hope in the narrator's journey. This book has definitely left an imprint on me, and is one that I would highly recommend to others!

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