Reviews with content warning for Sexual violence - Looking for Jane

Reviews tagging 'Sexual violence'

Looking for Jane by Heather Marshall

14 reviews

tinkeringcheck's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative sad slow-paced

3.25

Read for a book club, and I while this book obviously resonates with many readers it just wasn't for me. The prose is well-written but it's quite heavy without much reprieve (mind the content warnings, they're graphic) and I didn't really feel like the main character voices were distinguishable from each other despite some strong side characters. Even when I started to get sucked in, a few last minute twists and left-field character beats shook me out of the story again. I'm looking at you, future Nancy storyline.

I also feel bad saying this, but I'm not a big fan of books that feel like they were written mainly to Educate the Reader instead of tell a story. I might have bounced off because I know too much about the abortion rights movement in Canada already, but I'm glad this book is making that history more accessible.

Content Warnings

modryzamek's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark emotional informative inspiring reflective sad 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

4.5

Content Warnings

asimonso's review

Go to review page

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

5.0

While a work of fiction, the historical foundation was strong and provided insights and POVs I never considered before or had the knowledge of. The authors ability to connect to the readers was engaging and thought provoking. I also appreciate the authors ending notes and nod to minorities and their experiences as well as calls to action and resources.

Content Warnings

heathere19's review

Go to review page

emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

Powerful and emotional and informative read.

Content Warnings

sometimesalyreadsbooks's review

Go to review page

dark emotional tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

I know what you're thinking: "This looks like a great historical fiction about a female spy during World War II" and you're right to think that, but you're WRONG. This book is set in modern day-ish (2016), 1971 and 1980. So many years, none being the 30s or 40s.

That being said, it IS a great historical fiction! About other years. A teenager in the 70s who finds herself pregnant and forced to give her baby up for adoption, the trauma that she and the other women face, the eventual decision to become a doctor and join an underground abortion network, so that women can have a choice.

Another woman, modern day, desperate for a child of her own - discovers a letter. She decides, like many others, to go looking for Jane.

The plot twist in this book threw me for an absolute loop, I will give it that. I was flabbergasted. Taken back. Shocked.

The plot starts slow, and at time and dialogue at times, was a little too "scripted infomercial" on women's oppression and the fight for reproductive rights, but the plot was beautiful. I cried many times reading this book club pick and I highly recommend it.

Buckle up for the last 20% because the author does rush to tie everything together, but I felt it was well-done and really, all about women and our multitudes. 4.5 stars!

Content Warnings

athenabe's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging emotional informative sad 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

5.0

Content Warnings

poisonenvy's review against another edition

Go to review page

emotional informative reflective medium-paced

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

3.5

Looking for Jane is Heather Marshall's first novel, and in many ways, it shows.

It tells the story of three women whose stories start at different points in history, though all their stories do intersect at certain points: There's Evelyn, a young woman in the sixties who was forced to go to a home for Wayward Girls: aka, women who became pregnant outside of marriage and were forced to give up their babies. There's Nancy, a young woman in the 1980s who becomes pregnant and needs to seek out an illegal abortion, thereby stumbling on the Jane Network: an underground network that provided safe abortions for people who needed them. And then there's Angela, a woman who's undergoing treatments to become pregnant after she and her wife had struggled with fertility. The story kicks off with her discovering a letter from a mother, telling her daughter that she'd been adopted, and confessing that she discovered afterward that her birth mother had never wanted to give her up.

But more than any of these three women, the novel tells the history of abortion rights in Canada.

And I mean that literally. Unfortunately, none of the characters are especially fleshed out. They very often become mouthpieces, and seemed more like vehicles to relay the history of reproductive rights in Canada than characters that I could really bring myself to care about.

The prose was often clunky and stilted (and was in third-person present tense, which is my least favourite of all narration styles), and sometimes veered into dangerously purple territory. And, at times, the story just felt <i>contrived</i> so that we could be sure that the characters were where they needed to be. There was a surprise twist near the end that surprised me, and <i>not</i> in a good way (the surprise wasn't a bad one, it just didn't feel like it really fit and I wondered if it didn't raise some inconsistencies, though I'm unlikely to do a reread to find out if they're really there or not).

Criticisms aside though, this story is important, and tells a very important part of Canadian history. Marshall has clearly done her research, and while the story sometimes suffers so she could expound on that history/research, it was still very informative. I have no doubt that Marshall could have written a very good non-fiction book on the subject. Clunky writing aside, it's also very easy to read and digest.

And I would absolutely recommend this novel to anyone who cares to learn more about Canada's history with reproductive rights, especially if they would prefer to have that information come in the form of fiction over non-fiction.

Content Warnings