Reviews tagging 'Suicide'

Le crépuscule et l'aube by Ken Follett

3 reviews

siniandi's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful informative inspiring 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

4.25

I loved revisiting King's Bridge, learning about the origins of the town I already spent hours of my life reading about. The story is easy to follow and the three main characters' lives are interwoven in a very skilful way. I feel like I learned slightly less about the historical period and certainly less about architecture in this book than the last, but I still throughly enjoyed reading this book and think it is much improved from Follett's last installment of the Series (Column of Fire).

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Chronic illness, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Infidelity, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Kidnapping, Murder, Pregnancy, Alcohol, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

carolined's review against another edition

dark informative slow-paced

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

3.0

If you've ever read any Ken Follett you know how it goes, the heroes are well meaning, ambitious and hopelessly naive; the villains are ruthless and cunning and unbeatable until the very end. The author does a lot of research and makes sure the reader knows it, I enjoyed the details of everyday life much more than the plot. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Chronic illness, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Infidelity, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexism, Slavery, Terminal illness, Torture, Violence, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, and Murder

Moderate: Suicide and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Alcoholism

more_books_than_days's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense slow-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

There are several graphic depictions of women in this story as victims of extreme violence and sexual assault. By the end of the book I was emotionally exhausted by the toll of this constant oppression and powerlessness, which was developed into the fabric of the story from the very beginning. 

With a cast of characters who fell into predictable tropes, either good or evil with little in between, the plot also felt predictable, and very slow moving. I ended up skipping paragraphs and skim reading many pages rather than battling through sections of prose that did little to advance the story. This was a disappointment,
 because I very much enjoyed the Pillars of The Earth trilogy.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Gore, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Torture, and Pregnancy

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Chronic illness, Confinement, Infidelity, Pedophilia, Sexism, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, and Pregnancy

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Death, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, and Grief