I'm behind, so you get this.

I've read a lot of books this past July and August, and I've been too behind on writing about them. I feel guilty!! But here's the last three I read in a shorter review style.

I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman

This book has been on my TBR list for a while, so I was happy to finally get the chance to read it.

I Who Have Never Known Men is, in my opinion, a kind of fucked-up love story. It's kind of one of those books that explores the feeling of discovering that you are able to love and be loved.

It follows a group of women who are mysteriously held in an underground bunker for years, so long that the nameless protagonist was born and raised there. They don't know why they're being held there, how they got there, who's behind their captivity, or when this all started. However, the other women remember a time before all this. They remember the luxuries of the world they had lived in, but the young woman knows nothing but her own existence, growing up in the cage surrounded by 39 other women.

Patrolled by male guards, this bunker is secure, until one day an alarm goes off and they flee. Managing to escape, the 39 women and the young girl finally obtain their freedom. But what awaits them above their bunker is a world that they aren't ready to face.

What I love so much about these kinds of dystopian books is that it's never really about the threat that lies on the surface. It's almost always about how to maintain your humanness in a world that feels so far from humanity. Through these women, the protagonist learns what it means to survive and at what cost. It's only in these extreme situations that our morality really comes into question. Going back to the love aspect I mentioned, I also think it's a book about the things that make life really worth living, that give life meaning to us as human beings. It explores the emotions that make life feel real, whether that be through love, happiness, grief, or loneliness. It speaks to the ebbs and flows of garnering hope and losing hope right before your eyes. And I suppose that's what life really is.

Three things I learned reading I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman: platonic love is always better than romantic love, there is no learning if you're not curious, and stay resilient.

Strange Houses by Uketsu

I finally made it to this book, but I had thought this was the first book in the series. After doing research, I was wrong. This is actually the second book in the series, oops.

Strange Houses was so easy to read. I think I got through it in a day. It was similar to the other two books I'd read by Uketsu, following the same kind of map of storytelling.

This one had an interesting plot and took murder houses to a whole new level. Presented with three, you guessed it, houses, the reader follows the author on a journey of piecing together an invisible thread that weaves them all together. Provided with floorplans, these houses are hiding secrets or maybe hidden rooms that might just uncover what really goes on when the blinds are drawn.

Although enjoyable in an Uketsu architectural horror fashion, I felt that this one out of the series really gave me too much to work off of. Before I could even theorize, there were too many concrete answers being given away right off the bat, especially with Kurihara's character. He was matter-of-factly answering all my what-ifs before I even got the chance to ponder possibilities myself, and that took me out of it. If only my first guess was the right guess all the time. It's just not logical writing.

For this one, I don't have three things I've learned, so I leave you with this: knowing that this is actually the second book in the series, I have to say that it's sandwiched by more clever and polished works, Strange Pictures and Strange Buildings.

Marriage at Sea by Sophie Elmhirst

A nonfiction book! I needed a break from my usual genres…

Marriage at Sea is a true story from the 1970s about Maurice and Maralyn, a young married couple who decide that their lives are in need of adventure. So, to find thrills outside of their regularly mundane lives in England, they build a boat and set sail for New Zealand.

Making their way across the ocean, things take a turn for the worse. Their boat is hit by a breaching whale and they are forced to evacuate their home at sea. Their sailboat sinking in the distance, the couple is tossed into the sea with a life raft, a dinghy, and minimal rations of food and aid.

The writing reads like fiction, which is what I really love to see when I pick up nonfiction books. Elmhirst's writing sings. It is emotive, merciless, provocative, and almost lyrical. I found the story of Maralyn and Maurice to be one I won't forget, being that it is just so harrowing, yet deeply moving.

Their story is about love, yes, but it's really about survival and teamwork. How much do you love a person when it comes to life or death? It's about how to uplift the spirits of others, even when we ourselves are facing a dwindling hope. I admire these two people for their own strengths: Maralyn for being so optimistic despite their situation, and Maurice for his palpable love for Maralyn and trust in her judgement. Their marriage was tested, for sure, I mean how could it not be? There's nowhere to hide on a dinghy, being with each other for months with literally no end in sight. It's the most intimate form of partnership.

There's a lot to learn from Maurice and Maralyn, but here are my three: being optimistic is essential to survival, "when in doubt, do," and marry a person you wouldn't mind being stuck at sea with.