Reviews with content warning for Torture - The Book of Life

Reviews tagging 'Torture'

The Book of Life by Deborah Harkness

83 reviews

fkshg8465's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional inspiring tense 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

5.0

These two make the best fictional power couple. Yes, I am bothered by the women’s to requirement to obey their husbands per vampire laws, but it’s clear there’s a lot of room for interpretation, at least with Diana and Matthew. Really excited to see what the fourth book will bring. Three weeks left to wait at the library.

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siglerbooknook's review against another edition

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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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nightingfae's review against another edition

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

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.5

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sarah_sedai_blueajah's review against another edition

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adventurous dark informative mysterious tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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torturedreadersdept's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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kirjakimalainen's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious tense 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

2.5

I enjoyed the story and writing itself, but there were things added just for shock value that came out of nowhere compared to earlier books (see content warnings)

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abirej's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark tense slow-paced

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

2.0

God almighty. No. When Gallowglass de Clairmont confessed his undying love for Diana, I almost quit. Like I did not want to pick the book up to find out how it ended. Along with the pacing problems, Diana’s increasing Mary Sue complex was entirely too grating in this book. Matthew’s as well. Graphic for no reason at all. I was sick to my stomach reading the scene with Benjamin and the witch; I understand I was supposed to have feelings during that scene, what I don’t understand is why a trigger warning was notably absent for this story. No, I definitely did not like this book. Very unsatisfactory ending.

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