Reviews tagging 'Confinement'

Ogļu kalna bibliotēka by Scott Hawkins

13 reviews

onlyincursive's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious 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? Yes

4.5

A wild ride from start to finish. This book is for the readers who grew up on stories about kids with powers (e.g. Animorphs, Percy Jackson) and who want the adult version. The type of book that I would recommend to everyone - if only the content warning list wasn’t so long!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Fire/Fire injury, Drug use, Animal cruelty, Toxic relationship, Suicide, Injury/Injury detail, Animal death, Murder, Gaslighting, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Gore, Blood, Body horror, Child death, Death, Violence, Kidnapping, Child abuse, Death of parent, Suicide attempt, Medical content, Mass/school shootings, Torture, and Physical abuse

Moderate: Addiction, Confinement, Cursing, Rape, Drug abuse, Xenophobia, Car accident, War, Toxic friendship, and Suicidal thoughts

Minor: Misogyny, Bullying, Classism, Mental illness, Xenophobia, Police brutality, Islamophobia, and Pregnancy

This book is hard to warn for. Be especially aware that there is torture and murder of children

(many of whom are effectively immortal and experience this torture and murder multiple times)

, as well as a lot of animal death

(including many, many dogs)

.

valjeanval's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark tense slow-paced

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

4.0

Bizarre, bloody, and a serious page turner. A dark tale of what and why are humans with lots to say on the nature of power and vengeance. The violence and gore are too much for me at times, but still a great book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Emotional abuse, Murder, Animal death, Animal cruelty, Injury/Injury detail, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Violence, Medical trauma, Physical abuse, Suicide, Child abuse, Child death, Death, and Torture

Moderate: Sexual violence, Kidnapping, Toxic friendship, Drug use, Gaslighting, Medical content, Rape, Self harm, Confinement, Grief, Sexual assault, Vomit, Alcohol, and Gun violence

poetsofsweetpea's review against another edition

dark mysterious slow-paced

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

4.0

This book is violent.  Torture is a feature. I did like it though.  The beginning was slow, but when it hooked me, I was interested until the end.  You have to lean into the suspension of disbelief and let go of your knowledge of science but I've granted that to lesser stories. This is a story that toys with our idea of God.  What happens if he died? It's interesting and despite the horror, unlikable characters and unbelievable science there is something almost charming about it.  The mystery keeps you engaged and then it's hope that sustains you. This book is not for everyone but most assuredly for some.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Car accident, Death of parent, Addiction, Bullying, Alcohol, Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Drug abuse, Gun violence, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Domestic abuse, Gaslighting, Animal cruelty, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Genocide, Grief, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Suicide, Rape, Sexual violence, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Self harm, Murder, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Mental illness, and Suicidal thoughts

szyca's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious medium-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? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Grief, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Animal death, Slavery, Drug use, Abandonment, Animal cruelty, Child death, Murder, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Body horror, Confinement, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Medical content, Alcohol, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Physical abuse, Rape, Suicide, Blood, Violence, Self harm, Suicide attempt, Torture, and Gun violence

jamie_rich's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

2.0

This book was strange as hell. And needs to have *all* the trigger warnings.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Self harm, Suicide attempt, Child abuse, Death of parent, Car accident, Confinement, Murder, Gore, Rape, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual assault, Suicide, Torture, Cursing, Death, Gun violence, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Violence, and War

librarymouse's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny fast-paced

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

5.0

This book is fantastic! I think the non-linear narrative really added to the suspense as the plot unfolded slowly. I enjoy how this novel puts readers into the position to root for Carolyn as she does exestentially terrifying things, the consequences of which ramp up slowly. Yet the author is still able to root the horrors of the reality Carolyn creates to the reality we know through Steve and Erwin.

This was recommended to me as horror, but I can't help but feel that while it is scary and gory, horror isn't the correct genre for this novel. Horror makes me panic at night. I stayed up into the wee hours of the morning reading The Library at Mount Char.
This is everything I could want and more from a book that starts out with the vibes of a post-hayday magic school memoir of sorts.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Child death, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Grief, Gun violence, Sexual violence, Toxic friendship, Violence, Confinement, Death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Sexism, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Murder, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Car accident, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Misogyny, Sexual assault, Sexual content, and Sexual harassment

meg_elyse's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional inspiring sad tense medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Death, Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Rape, Animal death, Body horror, Self harm, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Gun violence, Sexual assault, Toxic relationship, Blood, Child abuse, Gore, Suicide, Murder, Physical abuse, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Death of parent, Sexual assault, Drug use, War, Animal death, Confinement, Excrement, Self harm, Rape, Torture, and Vomit

ceridwyn's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective tense fast-paced

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

3.75

This is a well written page Turner. Bleak, full of horror and too nihilistic for me to enjoy.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Genocide, Medical content, Animal cruelty, Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, Murder, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Torture, Blood, Body horror, Bullying, Confinement, Domestic abuse, Gore, Child abuse, Death, Grief, Gun violence, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, Slavery, and Violence

chrisljm's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious medium-paced

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

2.5

This was a well written story, but it’s not something I enjoyed. The vibes were just so terrible, I wanted to throw up a few times. It was as if Scott Hawkins heard the phrase “until the room stinks” and wanted to literally infuse that into the very core of the book. 

The best part of the book, for me, was the resolution to the mystery of what happened to Father. It seemed like a great conclusion, only to find out I still had ~150 pages left. I know part of the premise is Carolyn finding her humanity again, but since that arch is set after the climax of finding out about Father, the juxtaposition in tone of these two parts seemed very strange to me and made me enjoy the last quarter a lot less. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Cursing, Child abuse, Child death, Blood, Animal death, Toxic relationship, Sexual content, Confinement, Body horror, Injury/Injury detail, Homophobia, Fire/Fire injury, Violence, Gun violence, War, Torture, Suicide, Rape, Murder, and Gore

Moderate: Bullying, Drug abuse, Alcohol, and Death of parent

Minor: Slavery, Car accident, and Cancer

aformeracceleratedreader's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? It's complicated

3.25

I really dislike using r*p* as character development and this book uses that a little bit. So hated that. Also kind of hated throwing sex/peens in the story too. Like no I didn't need to know that one character could not get erect no matter how much the other character involved tried in any level of detail, but here we are.

Also wasn't a fan of making a large portion of carolyn's motivation being her romantic crush

. 
But overall the book was okay. Super slow going, but the idea was good. I understand needing quite a bit of the back stories leading up to the present time now that I've finished it, but while reading, it made the story drag on a little. It also kind of feels like a couple ideas were thrown together that didn't get fully fleshed out, but the main thing of the book is

creating/raising/training a god or a god-like being. It also really embodies the meme "I want to punch god in the face"

. People are saying it's weird but I didn't find it so much as it was just kind of graphic.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Grief, Child abuse, Cursing, Violence, Animal cruelty, Car accident, Gun violence, Murder, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Alcohol, Animal death, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Rape, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Drug use, Kidnapping, Suicide, Blood, and Confinement

Minor: Sexism