Reviews tagging 'Abandonment'

The Book of the Unnamed Midwife by Meg Elison

3 reviews

lexihworth's review against another edition

challenging dark tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Infertility, Infidelity, Misogyny, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Murder, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Biphobia, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Gun violence, Miscarriage, Pedophilia, Sexism, Toxic relationship, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Gaslighting, and Alcohol

Minor: Animal death, Biphobia, Child death, Gun violence, Miscarriage, Grief, Abortion, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, and Alcohol

A large portion of the book is dedicated to a storyline that follows a Mormon settlement, if you have religious trauma related to Mormonism, be aware. This book is HEAVY, but it was also amazingly written and I️ don’t regret reading it.

waitforhightide's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional reflective

• 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

3.5

This book felt like a cross between Stephen King's The Stand and Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale. However, considering those are two of my favorite books, I thought I would like this one more than I did.

Pros:
- references to queerness and transness
- consideration of transness in a gender-centered apocalypse
- polyamory normalization
- the universe itself is quite compelling

Cons:
- the protagonist felt predictable to me throughout the book
- the ending felt rushed somehow?
- at times the references to transness seemed so surface-level they were almost just ornamental; like the author maybe knew some people were wondering how queerness would work in this world and tossed in some crumbs to make us nod and not look too deeply?

That said, I'm interested ENOUGH to take the other two of the trilogy out from the library whenever they get to me and see if anything is expanded on; if so, I will consider coming back and revising the review with the whole series in mind

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Miscarriage, Rape, Pregnancy, and Abandonment

batcaves's review

dark emotional hopeful reflective sad slow-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Gun violence, Infertility, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Grief, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Abortion, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Abandonment, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail