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m_a_j's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
Graphic: Confinement, Death, Suicide, and Suicidal thoughts
Moderate: Terminal illness, Grief, and Cancer
Minor: Blood, Medical content, Miscarriage, and Sexual content
plantedpaperbacks's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Graphic: Blood, Kidnapping, Suicide, Death, Confinement, and Body horror
cepbreed's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Blood, Terminal illness, Grief, Mental illness, Suicide, Infertility, Death, and Confinement
Moderate: Sexual content
rachellen's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
**** SPOILERS AHEAD!****
This is possibly the best book I’ve ever read, so I am amazed to have found it randomly and not through recommendation. It is simply not spoken about enough!
The way that the story is narrated with such few answers yet so many questions leads you to find your own concocted explanations for human atrocity and cruelty such as unearthly beings or greater goods, yet the end of the story showed me that when humans cause pain to others there doesn’t need to be a reason why when the result is all the same.
The abandoned identical plains that the women roam somehow are not boring at all. I found myself excited when the lead found a book. It was the first time in 140 pages that she found any paper. I was shocked at how much I had found myself experiencing excitement at her finding what I think are obvious necessities, or background noise objects in my own life.
The ending line was what struck me the most, that the character could end it on such an informal, yet profound note: ‘It is strange that I am dying from a diseased womb, I who have never had periods and who have never known men.’ I interpreted this as a kind of scoff at the fact that this woman’s demise was at the cause of her womb, biologically caused by her birth gender, with which never once benefitted her or served her, other than in death. In a way, after leading such a life of captivity she found strength in her fellow women, an exact experience she would not have gotten if not for her matching gender that found her in that exact cage rather than one of men or another cage of which no one escaped due to lacking of the same luck of the guard’s dropped keys, to then be betrayed by her biological sex was so painful to realise. I found that remarkably unfair at first, yet after I read her tone as unperturbed at this inclination, I felt a lesson in her attitude towards her situation and history. She had lived the life she had left exactly as she wanted to or at least as much as she could have wanted to. That in itself was a victory against her dark, victimised past.
Moderate: Blood and Death
Minor: Cancer
ewwa18's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Graphic: Suicide and Death
Moderate: Terminal illness, Confinement, and Blood
neliadiedenise's review
- 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? No
5.0
Graphic: Cancer, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Body horror, Death, Confinement, Gore, Suicide, Grief, Murder, Blood, Dementia, Infertility, and Terminal illness
sakisreads's review
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
I’m puzzled by this one. I could not put it down, even though it explained NOTHING (e.g. why were these women trapped in the bunker?!). I was upset by some of the more graphic scenes (which I’ll detail in the content warnings below), but still wanted it to keep going 😳 Literature is so powerful.
I’m giving this 3.5 out of 5 stars. I’d recommend it if you’re looking for something with a Margaret Atwood energy. Fascinating!
Graphic: Body horror, Blood, Death, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, and Torture
Moderate: Misogyny
picaresquedreamer's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Graphic: Confinement, Suicide, Death, and Infertility
Moderate: Bullying, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Terminal illness, Blood, and Mental illness
Minor: Misogyny, Violence, Sexual violence, and Police brutality
evening's review
5.0
Graphic: Death, Suicidal thoughts, and Confinement
Moderate: Suicide attempt, Terminal illness, Suicide, and Cancer
Minor: Blood
owlribbon's review
4.5
Graphic: Death, Suicide, Confinement, and Terminal illness
Moderate: Cancer and Blood
Minor: Infertility