Reviews tagging 'Confinement'

The Book of Life by Deborah Harkness

12 reviews

siglerbooknook's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional tense slow-paced

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

4.25

!!!CONTAINS MINOR SPOILERS!!!

This book has proved complicated to review. I have many conflicting thoughts and feelings now that I've finished the whole story.

While the ending wasn't completely satisfying it does make sense, both with the plot, and with the way the main characters have been built. Several goals from all 3 books felt very rushed. Big bads that have been overwhelmingly powerful for 3 books were a cliffnote in the ending.

Of all the characters in the book I liked Diana and Matthew the least. Their personalities while well rounded, are very similar to how they were in the beginning of the first book. I don't feel like they grew much. By this book I felt like Matthew should have learned to have some faith in Diana and Diana should stop second guessing everything.
The side characters however, completely make up for it. I love almost every other character in the book, even if some feel like completely different people from the last time we saw them.

I felt like the plot dragged a little in the middle. We spend the entire second book on Diana learning to use her magic, so further learning in this book felt repetitive. I didn't really need to know how she comes up with words and ingredients for spells multiple times to understand she was growing as a witch.

I did love the big reveal at the end. Harkness does a wonderful job pulling all the tiny clues together. Any detail can be tied back to the reveal beautifully. I do wish she'd answered a few of the broader questions in a little more detail, like what daemons, witches, and vampires are.

Over all I enjoyed the story and am mostly satisfied with the ending.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Torture, Violence, and Stalking

Moderate: Child death, Confinement, Death, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Medical content, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Pregnancy, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Eating disorder, Miscarriage, Misogyny, and Kidnapping

johannaplatt's review against another edition

adventurous emotional slow-paced

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

2.5

Hate read the final book in this trilogy as I am a completionist. I did genuinely enjoy the magic system, world building and supporting characters, but Diana and Matthew are just simply not likeable for me. Everyone loves or is in love with Diana, who can do no wrong and is all powerful once she comes into her magic. Matthew remains possessive (under the guise of blood rage) and misogynistic (but this is how vampire families work).

The miracle babies are born and then largely ignored/papped off to family members.

Despite this, I likely will read the follow up, as I am a sucker for a time jump and would like to see how characters have developed 7 years in the future.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Confinement, Death, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, and Pregnancy

gillian_aftanas's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Gore, Mental illness, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Medical trauma, Murder, Pregnancy, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Confinement and Alcohol

Minor: Animal death, Drug use, Genocide, Homophobia, Antisemitism, Death of parent, Lesbophobia, and Classism

heathenhousewife's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Sexual violence, Torture, and Injury/Injury detail

oksmithie's review against another edition

adventurous funny mysterious reflective medium-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? It's complicated

4.0

This was a final book of a trilogy that did not disappoint. There were some things that seemed over the top and unnecessary, but all-in-all, I was not mad at where the story/characters ended up (as is often the case for me with trilogies). This will be a trilogy that I will re-read… all 1500+ pages. The audiobook is also well done (for all three installments). I used a combo of paper and audiobook to read this trilogy. It was the only way I could get through it and still have a life! Well worth the commitment! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Confinement, Death, Infertility, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Rape, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Kidnapping, Religious bigotry, Murder, Pregnancy, and Injury/Injury detail

There is one scene of kidnapping of a male character and his torture in particular that includes most of the graphic content.

It did not feel unnecessary or manipulative by the author (it was manipulative by the story’s villain).

joey_paige's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious tense slow-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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture and Violence

Moderate: Confinement, Cursing, Death, Infertility, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Blood, Medical content, Medical trauma, Stalking, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Rape and Murder

euphemiajo's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Confinement, Miscarriage, Blood, and Pregnancy

Minor: Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual violence, Torture, Medical content, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Abandonment, Alcohol, and Deportation

maggies's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional 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? Yes

4.0

A great end to the trilogy! The pace flagged a bit in the middle there, but overall, the story was just what I wanted it to be.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Torture, and Blood

Moderate: Confinement, Death, Rape, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, and Injury/Injury detail

artmajorese's review against another edition

adventurous 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

3.75

I mostly picked this one up because I'm a completionist, I needed something to do on a 5-hour flight, and I had already powered through book 2. To my surprise, I enjoyed reading the book!  Expect a convoluted plot, which to me felt a little bit un-earned in its resolution. Most of the book is spent doing things OTHER than solving the central problem.  But if you can suspend your disbelief, you'll find some fun character development moments and (finally) the answer to "what's the deal with Ashmore 782?"

Heads up that the main subplot contains a lot of sexual violence, including incest and sexual violence against children.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Incest, Physical abuse, Torture, and Blood

Moderate: Child abuse, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, and Sexual violence

beaudoindani17's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious slow-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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Gore, Torture, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Rape, Sexual violence, Stalking, and Pregnancy