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

Reviews tagging 'Suicide attempt'

I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman

59 reviews

lonelyhyperion's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

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

5.0

I, who doesn't like dystopias, loved this book. It is deeply atmospheric and does a brilliant job of dissecting what it means to be human. I cried at several points.
I think I prefer the fact that you don't really find out anything about how the characters came to be where they are. (If you're the kind of person that needs explanations and closure in novels, beware.) Humans love making narrative sense of things, but really, we all exist in the absurd, which the protagonist embraces. It made me see my own life in a different light.

Content Warnings

alexisgarcia's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

4.0

i did not realize this was dystopian/sci-fi. it was still really good. i do wish there was a little bit more of an explanation/closure.

Content Warnings

ssolov's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

Content Warnings

serena_hien's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous emotional reflective 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? No

3.0

Content Warnings

liesthemoontells's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective relaxing 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? Yes

4.75

This was a beautiful, haunting, moving book. I had put off reading it as the themes sounded incredibly heavy, but after a friend's recommendation and assurance that it was more of a reflective read I decided to tackle it.

While the book's themes are complex, heavy, and at times very dark, Harpman's treatment of the subject matter is more meditative and philosophical than shock provoking. There are many ruminations on what it means to be human, on navigating love, gender, and human connection when you have been given no reference point.

I wouldn't recommend this book to anyone who needs resolutions to their mystery fiction but if you are looking for a powerful and ambivalent piece of speculative literature I could not recommend it more.

Content Warnings

mikathereviewer's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark slow-paced

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

2.0

Literally nothing happens in this book. We get thought-provoking questions, but never answers. We get a little bit of plot (barely) and get no answers and rather plot holes. We get a character-driven story that has flat characters. There were over 40 characters but we only got the names of about 10 and only any information besides that of 3 or 4 (including protagonist!). But weirdly we get explained with great detail how almost all 40 people died instead of just moving on and perhaps trying to make the pace a bit faster in the book as literally everything was slow-paced and even major events weren't faster than medium-paced. You can't tell me that this book was fast-paced. 'Cause so many things repeat itself, especially near the end, which by the way is A LOT dragged, instead of ending it sooner. We get to know due to the protagonist not knowing these things what genital body parts are, where they are, how to write and how to read and so much more but actual questions (which I don't mention to not spoiler) were NEVER answered. One could say it's due to the book wanting us to think, but honestly it feels more like the story wasn't really finished or thought through. I get it when we should get our own answers for thought-provoking questions, but for the plot of this story? Plots are supposed to be explained and as I said, while reading it felt more like a unfinished or not thoufht through story than actually wanting us to make up our own theories.

I gave it 2 instead of 1 star as we get 1 plot related thing actually answered (even though I didn't think about it that much and was rather useless, but we get at least 1 answer so that's fair I guess). I also gave it 2 instead of 1 star as the beginning wasn't actually that bad. The whole though provoking questions and the backstories of that happened before the story started was interesting. And the consequences and rules were interesting too and they also somewhat got explained or we could at least make up our own theories about it, which in this case (since it wasn't a major thing) was actually cool.

15. July 2024

Content Warnings

jess_orjess's review against another edition

Go to review page

reflective slow-paced

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

3.75

This book was a lot more enjoyable than I imagine, even despite the fact the

second half of it was centered around nomadic journeys, and eventually the acceptance that simply nobody will be found, nor will she experience anything different.

I like the pacing; it was complicated for me to explain, as at some points, it was fast and skipped periods of several years, and at other points, it was slow. The lack of action, however, made the majority of it feel slow.

I also liked the philosophical ramblings, the irony of the end, the dwindle of hope present.

I’ve only rated it 3.75 simply because there truly wasn’t a lot of anything in the book, which was the point I know! But still, you go in expecting a great forest of adventure adventure, and find only green grass and shrubs.

Content Warnings