Reviews tagging 'Sexism'

Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel

5 reviews

waytoomanybooks's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

Ooooooo, this book, it’s sequels, and the show have devoured my life! I’m obsessed with it.

This is unequivocally the best novel I have read in the last decade. Rarely does a book like this come along and completely change your brain chemistry, but this is just such a one. I cannot overstate the sumptuous descriptions, the thorough characterization of Cromwell, and the faithfulness to the historical time line of Tudor England.

In this first novel you watch Thomas Cromwell and Anne Boleyn’s meteoric rise, Thomas from peasant to peer, and Anne from Lady to Queen. You get excited for them...until you remember what happens to them both. You know what happens. We all do. And it overshadows *everything*. Can you be truly happy for them when you know the man who has raised them up so high will also bring about their downfall? God, it’ll break your heart in such an achingly good way.

Normally when a book so wonderful comes my way, I cannot put it down and move through it quickly, but for *Wolf Hall*, I couldn’t help but stretch out my reading of it over the course of several months. This is a book to be savored. There is nothing else quite like it, except, perhaps, Hilary Mantel’s other works within this trilogy, though I know the events and prose will utterly devastate me. Even the t.v. show adaptation blows me away! I cannot recommend this book/series/t.v. show enough. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexism, Toxic relationship, Violence, Antisemitism, Grief, Murder, Pregnancy, Abandonment, Alcohol, and Classism

heather667's review against another edition

dark informative reflective slow-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Incest, Infertility, Infidelity, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexism, Grief, Religious bigotry, Murder, Classism, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Chronic illness, Miscarriage, Rape, Sexual assault, Torture, and Death of parent

Minor: Genocide, Pedophilia, Slavery, Violence, Blood, and War

ledichose's review against another edition

funny informative relaxing medium-paced

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

4.0

I really enjoyed listening to this novel’s audiobook. (Narrator: Ben Miles.) I think it was richly rendered, especially as to the domestic spaces of Cromwell. That being said, I wish the women were further developed. Mary Boleyn was by far the most interesting woman here, and I craved more of her, if only to balance out ALL THE MEN. I have thoughts about the pace and structure of the ending—not sure I felt this was successful.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Sexism

Minor: Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, and War

bethy_97's review against another edition

challenging dark informative mysterious tense slow-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

Moderate: Sexism

laurajeangrace's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative slow-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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death, and Religious bigotry

Moderate: Child death, Infertility, Infidelity, Sexism, Violence, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, and War

Minor: Torture