Reviews with content warning for Domestic abuse - Femlandia

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Reviews tagging 'Domestic abuse'

Femlandia by Christina Dalcher

20 reviews

rachellelikestoread's review against another edition

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challenging dark sad tense fast-paced

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

3.0

I found the pacing a bit off, some chapters jumping months ahead of the previous. The story had a great start and was very graphic and gruesome in its post apocalyptic descriptions, but as the book progressed, the characters were all so two dimensional. Emma in particular was so quickly manipulated it was hard to believe how quickly that happened. There was a surprising lack of depth to a story discussing nurture vs nature, and ultimately a very hopeless ending. That may have been the author's intent, and this was a very well written story (pacing issues aside), I just felt there was room to explore the grey, rather than focus on the black and white.

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nahal3's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

4.0

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veronica222_'s review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional reflective tense 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

3.75

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laurenbaggy's review

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dark reflective medium-paced

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

3.0

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gloreishun's review against another edition

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challenging dark reflective medium-paced

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

2.25

I do agree with some of themes and more specifically fears that the book touches upon but the execution and handling of them just didn't sit right with me. The main heroine was insufferable as always and I agreed little to none with her world views etc. My main take from this book was that, no matter if you are a woman or a man, we all have the capacity to be monsters.

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annierosebel's review against another edition

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3.5

This was a really interesting concept - but I felt like the pacing was a bit off? I get that we needed to understand the extend and horror of the economic collapse, but I think that took up too much space at the extent of a satisfying arc about Femlandia, without ever explaining how the collapse happened and how or whether it is men's fault. I also wonder if there were just too many rich details squeezed in - I wanted to slow down and sink into elements, but we kept racing ahead. The dark twists were predictable, and the epilogue was deeply unsatisfying - there was no sense of how we got from the end of chapter 78 to the epilogue, it was a wild leap, and also seems to undo half the message of the book in a very contradictory way?

It feels like a really interesting idea but just not terribly well executed, with some red flags that make me worry this isn't the kind of feminism I'm interested in supporting. The idea and the concept of cults kept me interested, rather than the story or writing.

****spoilers****

The epilogue seems to contradict the idea that misogyny and patriarchy is taught/nature, rather than innate and nurture. The second you have men, raised in a female-led community, they raise up in charge and overpower the women? And are misogynistic?

Also, it feels a bit disquieting to me to have transphobic characters and just leave it at that without those views being challenged or really explored - like someone said 'what about trans and non-binary people' and the author made the powerful characters transphobic to avoid having to meaningfully engage with the complexities and non-binary nature of gender.

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beccajdb's review against another edition

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challenging dark tense fast-paced

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

4.0

A page-turner with some thought-provoking ideas about feminism, gender ‘characteristics’ and how we might all behave post-apocalypse. This particular apocalypse is one we can all easily imagine and all the scarier for that.

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hurlyburlywitch's review against another edition

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dark tense medium-paced

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

1.5

There was so much I wanted this book to be, and it decided to be none of it.

The book decides to toss in some arbitrary transphobia, has a mysterious dearth of disabled characters, and contains deeply nauseating and absolutely plot critical

child sexual abuse, torture and neglect.

I was also deeply horrified by an epilogue that

strongly implies biological determinism of misogyny and inequality.

Whilst moderately predictable, I found the characterisation in this book to be inconsistent and extremely variable.

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jennylo's review against another edition

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challenging dark medium-paced

Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No

2.5

The first few chapters tell you the same thing, several times, in essentially the same way (post apocalyptic ish, I hate mummy, my husband was a bit shit). The saving grace being that chapters are very short. I spent most of the book not sure that I liked it, but wanted to know if it could get better. I'm still not sure.

It rang very "not all men", which I just feel is not a point that needs to be made. There's also brief transphobia toward the beginning which was very icky. The protagonist is written as though she doesn't necessarily agree, but doesn't fight the point. It left me wondering about the authors personal views.

I also feel like it completely avoided a whole topic that felt too obvious to me to be ignored, that socialising all new humans in a healthy way would probably make the world a much better place. Instead it's one extreme or the other: either men abuse women, or women abuse men. I get it's a dystopia but the idea wasn't floated until the epilogue

which makes it out that its undeniable human nature that men will take over, they'll always do the heavy lifting, and have the big brains for the important decisions. There is no argument for nurture, DESPITE the repeated story about the bloody gorilla learning sign?!

I think I partially guessed the key twist so was reading more to see if I got it right, than actually enjoying it. I guess it's kind of an interesting take on a female led dystopia, but I won't be recommending it to anyone in a hurry.

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ambb's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional tense fast-paced

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

3.75

I might change this rating 20 more times. I don’t know how to rate this. I don’t know what I just read. What the fuck

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