Reviews tagging 'Confinement'

The Death of Jane Lawrence by Caitlin Starling

31 reviews

lipstickitotheman's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense fast-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? Yes

4.0

Nice gothic horror! 

Half of the way in, I was thinking that there was NO WAY that I had only read half, what more can this lady go through. Well!

Woe to the power of shame

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Drug use, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Car accident, Murder, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Animal death, Child death, Confinement, Forced institutionalization, Vomit, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, and Alcohol

aparker89's review

dark emotional mysterious 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? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Chronic illness, Confinement, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual content, Terminal illness, Torture, Toxic relationship, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Gaslighting, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

faerylibrary's review

dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

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

3.75

I enjoyed this book, although it is definitely not a book for everyone. My reason not scoring higher is that the magic system in the setting for this story felt like it could have used some more explanation. Overall, I liked the fact that magic was explored, appreciated the way in which the story unfolded, and found the Victorian surgery scenes to be perfectly eery and unsettling! The unreliable narration, especially as the book descends into madness at the end, kept me interested and engaged. Not all of my questions about the reality of events in this story were quite answered by the ending, but perhaps they didn’t need to be. I’m still grappling with the ending, but I believe it could be interpreted several different ways which I have mixed feelings about. One thing is for certain, I never quite was able to anticipate what would happen next while reading and that made this a real page turner! Lots of unexpected twists and turns occur in the latter half. Enjoy! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Gore, Blood, and Medical content

Moderate: Confinement, Death, and Grief

Minor: Sexual content, Vomit, Death of parent, Alcohol, and War

maresuju's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, and Medical content

Moderate: Child death, Gore, Violence, Blood, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Confinement, Drug use, Panic attacks/disorders, Vomit, and Pregnancy

kbio's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious 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? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child death, Confinement, Death, Sexism, Medical content, and Grief

saurahsaurus's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

3.75

I really enjoyed this book until about 4/5 of the way through, when it delved into

the details of Jane’s magic rituals and mathematical theories.

Until that point, the book thoroughly held my interest and the pacing felt well-suited to the plot. My interest really dipped during the 80-86% part of the book, but did gradually return after that.

The ending was layered, a bit surprising, and intriguing.

It wasn’t a true happy ending, but it was mostly hopeful.

I felt that the ending redeemed the book overall. The main characters and their relationship were compelling, and I found myself really rooting for them.  I especially loved that Jane’s autism is portrayed so lovingly and as the superpower that it is. There isn’t nearly enough autism representation in literature, and the horror genre is no exception, so Jane is a breath of fresh air. (Jane’s autism is alluded to—and not directly described, but the author confirmed this fact!)

I may not revisit this book, but I’d happily read more work from this author!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Miscarriage, Blood, Medical content, Medical trauma, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Child death, Confinement, Drug use, Self harm, Terminal illness, Grief, and Death of parent

Minor: Confinement, Mental illness, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Forced institutionalization, Vomit, Murder, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, War, and Classism

simone_elizabeth's review

dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

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

5.0

Oh the horror of loving and being loved!!! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Drug use, Gore, Miscarriage, Torture, Blood, Medical trauma, Murder, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Moderate: Confinement, Abandonment, and War

flordemaga's review

challenging dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

4.0

This took me a really long time to read by no fault of the book itself, I just literally physically lost the book for like a month.

I will say: at first it felt a bit too much like Crimson Peak, which I know was intentional, but I wanted more variety. And it took a bit too long to get to the action that felt like anything.
But I like the character of Jane Lawrence herself a lot. I like that she's autistic and just is. I also really like the descriptions of the gore and medical stuff and blood. Very visceral without being excessive, self-serving, or unnecessary.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Blood, and Medical content

Moderate: Confinement, Drug use, Panic attacks/disorders, and Terminal illness

Minor: Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, and War

emco_0's review

challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Confinement, Death, Gore, Miscarriage, and Blood

Moderate: Cancer, Drug use, Grief, and Death of parent

buildingtaste's review

adventurous dark mysterious medium-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

2.75

From the first chapter, I always felt like this book was not quite telling me everything I needed to know. Since the setting is an alternate England, I would have expected more direct exposition about the things that make it meaningfully different, and also for these differences to have an impact on the story. As it was, we were soon locked in a country house, fundamentally indistinguishable from an English house (except of course for

the haunted basement

. Though having never stayed in an English country house I guess I can't be sure). Simply setting this novel in a more familiar country, even if in a fictional town or county, would have made this experience much more grounded and improved the contrast of familiar and unfamiliar once things got really weird.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Self harm, Torture, Violence, Blood, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Medical content

Minor: Sexual content and Forced institutionalization

As a gothic horror novel, Jane Lawrence comes in fast with explicit gore. Elements of the magic system involve having something affecting a person's organs/moving inside their body, which

the protagonist

describes experiencing in detail.