Sinéad Wylie's Reviews > I Who Have Never Known Men

I felt the same.

okay i felt the same and i literally felt crazy for seeing all these 5 star reviews and just not getting how it’s THAT good. maybe im used to reading thrillers and NEED an explanation for everything at the end?? but jesus give us SOMETHING.

i feel like that was the whole point of the book though. the narrator says many times “nothing has ever happened to me” so she thinks she’s not capable of love like the other women. but in the end despite her rather repetitive, pointless life, she acknowledges she did learn to love regardless that nothing truly happened in her life compared to what she’d heard of the other women’s life. just my take :)

That’s a good take! I just meant that I needed a tiny bit of a plot rather than endless walking then nothing. Philosophical books just aren’t for me I think 😂

i want to argue that the repetition of events serves as a device to travel gradually from hope to despair. even with the seemingly same thing occurring over and over, there are changes within the protagonist’s thinking processes as she ages with the women. the novel’s intent was not to make the plot go somewhere and expand the world, but rather to focus on the experiences of an individual struggling to understand those around her and survive the world she lives in. rather than a plot driven story, this novel is more of a philosophical character study. there’s place in the world for either (and all that fall within the spectrum), but i do understand people have different tastes and expectations!

Yes 100% agree! I’m such a mood reader. There’s times I want to highlight a book and think critcally about it and other times I just want to get lost in the story. I was probably in the mood for the latter and just felt bored during this. In another universe/mood I probably would have loved ☺️

Thank you. I picked it up because of the synopsis actually sounded like “wow, this could be interesting”. Coupled with the 739202829 rave reviews over the internet. All I can say is thank god it’s pretty short because what a waste of time. It doesn’t feel like it starts, nor does it end. Nothing is answered, and honestly, what’s philosophical about it? I don’t like it, just a bland read.

Thank you for this 😂 I felt the exact same but everyone else’s amazing review has me questioning myself!!

I also don't get the people who say this was "mind blowing" ,what was so mind blowing about it?... I feel deeply deceived

I agree completely and I also felt like I must be mad for not loving it. For a short book it was far too long and I found myself skimming past whole chunks because I could already guess what they said. So very disappointed because after reading the blurb I was sold

Oh thank God I’m not the only one who felt this way! 😅

So nice to see others felt the same 😂

But that’s literally the point.

I know, and I didn’t like that? The point was boring <3

Reading about the author will show the idea behind the book and the true meaning of some of the topics. The book is written as a letter from the future recounting the present, so we can only know as much as the main character, hence why there weren’t always answers. I usually want answers in a book but in this context it makes sense. I get not enjoying it but I have to disagree that it’s boring, I kept discussing it with my friend after we finished it and we kept discovering new things about it. This is a book that would hit harder if it was shared with others as it has so many different interpretations. I wish you could’ve enjoyed it and seen what the hype is about, this left me spiraling.

I love that this was a book you loved. Every book I pick up is something I hope I will love. This just wasn’t the book for me when I read it. I found it very boring, which in turn doesn’t make me want to research it or the author. I also firmly believe that you shouldn’t have to research the author to enjoy a book.

I think it represents the emptiness of our own lives

I genuinely agree with you but please read it again and let yourself live as one of the women while reading it. The first time I did I had the very same thoughts and it took my back to the first time I watched “Dune”. But I went back cause I felt like I couldn’t read a book that small yet feel so unfulfilled.

The premise is that our minds are conditioned from birth to accept, believe and live out the things we experience and are taught. Imagine if you didn’t have anyone to tell and teach you to be a certain way or behave a certain way. Imagine if you had no exposure to the opposite sex and everything that is associated with sexuality. Imagine if there was no such thing as patriarchy or matriarchy. Imagine if you had never heard of a bed and pillow to sleep on, that the concept never occurred to you. We crave things, long for things, fear things, resent things. If those things were completely absent from our knowledge, we would live very differently. Imagine a time a few hundred years ago when there were hunter gatherer tribes with zero contact with other tribes, cultures and technologies and how they could be perfectly happy and peaceful without all that we now crave or loathe.
I would most highly recommend this book to certain people, but not everyone. I think a person has to have had done some level of investigative work into the nature of being in order to begin to fathom what this book is saying.

ah, the classic "you just aren't SMART enough to GET it. it's too DEEP for you, bro." mmm, sure.

or y'know. taste is subjective. happy you enjoyed it paul but being smug and condescending only make you look like the fool :)

I absolutely love that people have given this book 5 stars and feel such a love for it. That’s what I want from every single book I read. I unfortunately didn’t feel that with this book. I understood what the author was doing but the actual writing needs to be compelling for me not just the meaning behind the book. I also will not be going back and re-reading a 1 star book. I have a massive TBR, I’d rather pick up something new that I will hopefully love <3

I was scrolling and scrolling through the reviews to find someone that felt the same way I did about this book. I'm so glad I'm not the only one because I was like, maybe I just dont get it? Lol

I agree. That was exactly my issue with the book. There was no evolution because nothing ever happened. It was stagnant, and living involves constant change. I understood the purpose of the book and appreciate the prose, but I was just extremely dissatisfied. I wanted answers, not more questions.

I agree, a book about nothing...ugh

Thank you! It was interesting then midway it became NOTHING

This is the review I wish I’d read before reading this book!!!!! Couldn’t agree more!!!!

Well as the old saying goes...different strokes for different folks. I really liked the book. I think if it was 300+ pages I might have tired of it, but to me this was a novella. And things did change throughout the book...

That's essentially why it's so interesting. Walk in her shoes: is something going to happen?

Glad you found it interesting Lola ☺️

It went to “she discovered herself” and love. And that is amazing, given her upbringing and the lack of any previous conditioning.

I came to say I felt the same way as you did. I gave it a 2 star strictly for the fact that I believe some people are into books having that “philosophical” nature… but not me.

I think this is the whole point. I felt the same way you describe: unfulfilled, upset, angry even. The reason that i truly love this book is that it forced me to interrogate why I felt these ways, why I look for resolution and meaning in all facets of life. This isn't a book to be read for comfort. Its a book that made me deeply appreciate the uncomfortability that I felt.

But the only thing I was feeling was boredom?

Get her Meredith

You can leaveeeeeeeeeee

It’s a shame you feel this way when confronted with a book that hopes to connect you to womens emotions and feel the mundanity of the lives that they were forced to live - it’s ok that it bored you, that was the point of their lives. It’s ok that you didn’t ’get it’ that’s not for everyone!

I completely agree. I appreciated the note at the end to give it more context and understand the conversations around it but I felt nothing while reading it. A book can be philosophical and also connect the reader to the story. Happy for everyone who enjoyed it though.

That’s kind of the point

💯agree with you

I have no idea what I just read. I understood the emotions throughout the book… but… I guess it didn’t exactly click the way it was meant to. This was very anticlimactic and I did not find it to be moving.

I found myself continually turning the pages, hoping that something transformative would happen. Spoiler alert. Absolutely nothing happens in this book.

Scott I felt the exact same

Completely agree, so boring

i think thats the point! its meant more to convey a feeling than entertain to me, which ive never read before in fiction!! i can see how u feel that way though

Sophia Cox wrote: "i think thats the point! its meant more to convey a feeling than entertain to me, which ive never read before in fiction!! i can see how u feel that way though"

Yes, I understand the point of the book. It was boring AF for me but I'm happy others were able to enjoy it.

Honestly the only thing that drove me to finish the book was so that I could start reading another one after… I did not find it very impressive, what would have been impressive is to convey the same message but with a lot less pages

The whole idea of the book is to feel hopeless and devoid just as they did in the cage! I think it conveys that feeling and message well. It puts you in the exact position that they were in - nothingness and hopelessness!

Well…That’s kind of the point 😅 it gives you Hope but there Is none

I love a book that has no hope. This book didn’t have much of anything else either though. That’s my issue 😂

Yes, worst book I’ve ever read