Reviews tagging 'Grief'

El Encuadernador / The Binding by Bridget Collins

24 reviews

archkyrology's review against another edition

dark sad tense slow-paced

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

2.0

"Am I more than you bargained for yet" -Fall Out Boy

In an attempt to play around with the memory wiping aspect to create a mystery, it just becomes confusing. The first half of the book is slow, relaxed, and curious enough to keep you reading. The second half was very fast and genuinely upsetting almost the entire time. I wish a lot of aspects had been done differently. Also a very cliffhanger ending for a book that doesn't have a sequel.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Infidelity, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicide, Blood, Grief, Suicide attempt, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, and Classism

Moderate: Ableism, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Incest, Infidelity, Pedophilia, Violence, Excrement, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

sharlapeggy's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Homophobia, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicide, Grief, Fire/Fire injury, and Outing

greymalkin's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

2.0

Writing is decent enough and I enjoyed the worldbuilding and the idea of what binders do.  But wow does this book feel like it needs to have all the content warnings included.

I didn't much like any of the characters and the terrible abuse of all the female characters (not a single one is spared) was really upsetting.  Especially as the male characters tended to be the abusers and awful people and for the most part had zero repercussions or punishment.  I also wish that the book had lingered more on the actual bookbinding part instead of just a few descriptions of materials and tools that we never "see" used so we don't know what they do.  Since the author has actually taken a lot of bookbinding classes I expected more but it felt more like what someone might add after an evening of googling and youtube videos.  Since it was such a huge part of the magic system of the world, I wanted more details.  All the bits about "trade" and fakes were intriguing but we never get to interact with them "onscreen".  Humans are storytellers, how is that no one has written down stories before?  If they didn't, then why isn't there more of an oral tradition?  My questions really took me out of the book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Homophobia, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicide, Violence, Grief, Gaslighting, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Alcoholism, Domestic abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Vomit, Murder, Abandonment, and Classism

Minor: Racism, Torture, Kidnapping, Religious bigotry, and Stalking

In case the massive block of content warning tags is not enough, this book has multiple serial pedophilic rapists in it and disturbing homophobic violence. And no, the perpetrators don't get punished. Only their victims get punished and killed.

anapthine's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious relaxing medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Biphobia, Bullying, Death, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Misogyny, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicide, Vomit, Grief, Suicide attempt, Outing, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Physical abuse and Sexual content

Minor: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Deadnaming, Death, Blood, and Classism

thecheshire_cat's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Child abuse, Child death, Domestic abuse, Homophobia, Infidelity, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Violence, Gaslighting, and Alcohol

Moderate: Alcoholism, Cursing, Death, Sexual content, Slavery, Vomit, Grief, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Confinement, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Pregnancy

therainbowshelf's review against another edition

dark 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? It's complicated

4.0

Love books about books, or dark reads with wildly unhealthy ways to deal with trauma? Then you might enjoy this one! The world building is excellent, and it was interesting seeing the dual timeline play out. Things were drawn out just a little too long and started to lose my interest toward the end. Warnings for suicide, sexual abuse, rape, and others.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Suicide, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Vomit, Grief, Fire/Fire injury, and Gaslighting

himangi's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious reflective sad tense medium-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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Infidelity, Blood, Grief, Outing, and Classism

snfredman's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious 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? It's complicated

3.75

I really enjoyed the world building around book binding. It has left me thinking more about the ways that people would let go of grief if they could and the ways others could take advantage of memories. I think I will be thinking about it & it’s implications for a while. 

The plot of this book was compelling and the characters were sympathetic enough, but the writing was very dense at times (largely due to lots and lots of dialogue). I found myself skipping sections of text, and don’t often do that. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Violence, Vomit, Grief, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

orlagal's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Body shaming, Child death, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Homophobia, Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Murder, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Outing, Gaslighting, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

divine529's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious slow-paced

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

This is one of those books where you read the summary on the back and it tells you one thing, but then you read it and get something so much more and in some cases, very different than you expected. 

This book follows our main character Emmett Farmer, who at the beginning of the story falls ill and soon gets whisked off to become a binder's apprentice. Binding in this world is where people who want to forget certain memories, go to a binder (kind of like a doctor) and have that memory removed and bound in a book. Once Emmett gets into binding a bit more, he realizes that everything he thought he knew about binding is different and that he has had memories bound, but doesn't know what and things go from there. But honestly, that's only an inkling of what this book is about because at it's core, it's a love story and for the sake of spoiling things just a bit, it's queer. 

The book is split into three parts and it's so unique and well done because each part is written in a different style, tone and has a different feel to it. Part one took the most time to get into, part two was incredibly captivating and part three was heartbreaking and heart-mending all at once. 

The world building was lovely. It's never explicitly said what time period this is in, but it's kind of an alternate 19th century England and the time period was captured really well. The magical elements were well done too, but I wish we got more about the book binding aspects because we only got a really small dose of what book binding is and how it works. 

The plot was intricately woven and while slow also fast-paced at the same time. This book was hard to put down a lot of the time because I just wanted to know what was going to happen next. The plot is fascinating and it leaves you wanting more at the end. It mostly follows Emmett's life but we get a second POV in the third part, but their stories are interwoven that you can't separate one from the other. 

Finally, the characters. This is honestly where the book shone for me. The characters and their lives felt so real that I felt I was there with them. Their story (and separate stories) were incredibly emotional to read, but also incredibly beautiful. At it's core, this is a book about being human and the power of memory. 

There are definitely some things to be aware of going in. Trigger/Content Warnings for: abuse (physical, emotional), mentions of sexual assault/rape, suicide, substance abuse (alcohol), period typical homophobia, animal death, murder and self-hatred. 

Overall, this was an incredible read; so immersive, intricate, beautiful, raw and real. I haven't cried that much during a book in a long time. I can't recommend this one strongly enough.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal death, Death, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexism, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Blood, Vomit, Grief, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Child death, Infidelity, Panic attacks/disorders, Rape, Self harm, and Gaslighting