Reviews tagging 'Kidnapping'

Prophet Song by Paul Lynch

15 reviews

timmytunter's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

Prophet Song is an unflinching and emotionally brutal portrayal of a nation spiralling into war. Paul Lynch’s novel grips the reader with its intensity, pulling you into the heart of a society on the brink of collapse. 

What stands out most is Lynch’s exceptional prose. His unconventional descriptions of everyday moments breathe life into the narrative in ways that are unexpected yet striking.

For instance, when describing a simple exchange, Lynch writes:

She finds herself watching the face so intensely she is met with the feeling of an existence unalterably separate from hers, can feel her smile uncoupling from her face, the smile sliding past her jaw onto the floor.

Or this vivid depiction of a tender yet tragic moment:

What has been stored in the body, what has been locked in the heart gives release through Molly’s mouth into sobbing…We have entered into a tunnel and there is no going back, she says, we just need to keep going and going until we reach the light on the other side.

Lynch’s writing is both beautiful and harrowing, capturing the emotional toll of life under siege. The novel’s intensity weighs heavily, and while I found it incredibly powerful, I have no desire to read it again—not because it’s a bad book, but because of its emotional heft. The experience was profound, but draining.

That said, Prophet Song is a novel everyone should read at least once. It exposes the jarring and tragic realities of life in a war-torn country in a way that will leave you both shaken and reflective. The devastating truth is that this depiction accurately reflects the reality for many in our world today, a fact which is cause for pause, reflection, and action. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Racism, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Police brutality, Kidnapping, Grief, Murder, and War

Moderate: Torture and Dementia

florenceassetto's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.25

this book is really a work of literary genius! lynch's writing style took me a second to get used to but is so well suited to the story that he was telling. this book left me hoping for the characters as they were hoping, and despairing for them as they did as well. it's definitely something i would class as a modern dystopia and it's unlike anything i've read before but also so reminiscent of stories in real life. very powerful, and a very deserving booker prize winner!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Violence, Trafficking, Kidnapping, and War

e_guerrero's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Torture, and Violence

Moderate: Police brutality and Kidnapping

Minor: Sexual harassment

katarinabee's review against another edition

challenging dark sad tense medium-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Violence, Kidnapping, Grief, and War

eons_19's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

Genuinely disturbing, I have never read a novel with Ireland as the setting of a totalitarian regime. Perhaps due to this or maybe just the setting in general, the novel sat with me for days after, I was unable to shake the feeling of being on edge.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Vomit, Police brutality, Kidnapping, and War

Moderate: Trafficking

Minor: Sexual violence and Torture

eilidhmacq's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Torture, and War

Moderate: Police brutality, Trafficking, Kidnapping, and Grief

ronanmcd's review against another edition

challenging dark sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Hans Fallada's Alone in Dublin
It's almost too much to read. It's affecting my sleep. It's affecting how I'm looking at my surroundings. 
I never take stock of prizes, but it's easy to see how this has been winning awards. You are in it. It's inescapable.
It's set in local places, Mount Temple, Joey's school, the promenade in Clontarf. And nothing happens for stretches, but real fear simmers. That's what makes it so powerful. It's believable. It captures so well the boiling frog metaphor. Changes come in and are accepted, however begrudgingly, until it's too late and everything has changed. It's not hard to see this happening around us, particularly as the Overton window has been shunted aside.
There are moments of clarity throughout, that leap from the text. Simon, Eilish's deteriorating father, points out none of this is new. There has always been a wing that will deny truth and facts, until they are irrelevant and unverifiable. Until you believe their lies, but even then truth comes back, as facts cannot be overruled.
And later Eilish's son, Mark, says fear attracts exactly what it is most afraid of.

But then...

The book changes when war comes. It becomes a story of a claustrophobic war in a small country. I read this as Israel bombarded Gaza, going far beyond a response to rocket attacks. And with politicians and members of the press cashing for Gaza's obliteration.  ll the while politicians in Ireland acquiesce to the far right and discuss the "immigration question'
We see what brings this migration about, what it's really like to be forced to leave your own place, why we do it, why we try not to. The book's aims are huge.
But it is exceedingly grim.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Mental illness, Torture, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, Dementia, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Grief, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Deportation

kiwichill's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Physical abuse, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Police brutality, Dementia, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Deportation

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Misogyny, Excrement, Medical content, Mass/school shootings, Gaslighting, Sexual harassment, and Pandemic/Epidemic

mcohara2's review against another edition

challenging dark sad tense medium-paced

• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death

Moderate: Torture and Kidnapping

paperknotbooks's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

3.75

… we’re the lucky ones seeking a better life, there is only looking forward now, isn’t that right, perhaps there is a little freedom to be found in that thought because at least you can make the future your own in your own thoughts and if we keep looking back we will die in a way and there is still some living to be done…

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Police brutality, Kidnapping, Grief, Murder, War, and Injury/Injury detail