Reviews tagging 'Miscarriage'

L'ombra della notte by Deborah Harkness, Cristina Volpi

91 reviews

fkshg8465's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional informative mysterious sad tense slow-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

4.0

I enjoyed this one just a little bit less than the previous, but that’s because I generally get annoyed even famous historical figures are reimagined in time travel tropes. My brain also tends to try to work out all the knots created with time travel that trickle back through the ages into the present storyline. So I tend to spend too much time overthinking something that has no need of my energy, given that it’s fiction. There were a few other things that bothered me, but to get into them would be giving away spoilers.

Excited to read the third installment as well as the prequel as soon as they come off hold at my library.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Bullying, Child death, Confinement, Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Rape, Sexism, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Grief, Religious bigotry, Suicide attempt, Murder, Pregnancy, Outing, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, War, and Injury/Injury detail

scarfsa's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful 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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Content Warnings

Moderate: Miscarriage, Sexual content, Torture, Pregnancy, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Child abuse, Child death, Drug use, Mental illness, Forced institutionalization, Dementia, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, and War

casuallycait's review against another edition

adventurous challenging informative mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Miscarriage

siglerbooknook's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional informative mysterious reflective 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? No

4.5

This was a very engaging book full of important little details. Harkness does a great job of pulling all the pieces together so they are believable and entertaining.

This book does a great job building both our main characters and several of the side characters from the first book, as well as introducing new characters that feel like real people.
I must say, I enjoyed the side characters even more than Matthew and Diana.

I found Matthew's brooding a bit taxing as the story went along. It felt like growth between Diana and Matthew took a bit too long and it did get frustrating, however the side characters were loveable enough to make up for it.

I love Harkness's way of weaving useful information in with the desires and personalities we've already come to know of Matthew and Diana. They didn't feel like completely different people despite their circumstances.

She also does a wonderful job of making the story feel complete, letting the reader see little snippets of detail like the ripples a choice causes in time. I don't understand how this book could feel so beautifully finished and yet leave me so tense and ready for the third book. I can't wait to see how this trilogy will end in the next novel.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Infertility, Miscarriage, and Abandonment

Moderate: Child death, Drug use, Torture, Kidnapping, Grief, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Minor: Addiction, Animal death, Homophobia, Infidelity, Self harm, Sexual content, Antisemitism, Religious bigotry, and Pandemic/Epidemic

abby_can_read's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious slow-paced

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

2.0

📱
This was not a book I enjoyed. I won't be continuing with the series. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Miscarriage, Sexual content, and Blood

Moderate: Torture, Violence, and Pregnancy

Minor: Child abuse, Drug use, and Antisemitism

jigglydelight's review against another edition

adventurous emotional slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character

3.0

I felt the same about the second book as the first, so this is going to read like a plagiarizing of my own review.

It is a really long, meandering, read that really needed an editor. Things just keep happening and characters are constantly being introduced. If you love sauntering through the weeds in your reading, you will enjoy this book. Lot’s of unnecessary detail and SO MANY CHARACTERS. Overall, I found it to be a cozy frolic. I have heard that the audiobook is high quality, and may be a better experience than eye reading.

The main romantic relationship actually feels like they have to work at stuff, and they are both flawed and crabby people. Diana continues to make really unintelligent decisions  Literally “don’t do that or x will happen”; then she proceeds to do it and surprise pikachu face with the consequences happened. But  she makes up for it in growth and standing up for herself.  Overall, I think I like the first book just a smidge better because I love that house, but the character development is better this book. And I am quite curious about book 3. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Miscarriage

torturedreadersdept's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious 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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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal death, Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Infertility, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual content, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Xenophobia, Blood, Vomit, Antisemitism, Medical content, Grief, Religious bigotry, Stalking, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Dysphoria, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

mads_reads_books's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Child abuse, Confinement, Gore, Hate crime, Infertility, Miscarriage, Sexual violence, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Kidnapping, Grief, Religious bigotry, Stalking, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Miscarriage and Misogyny

caitlinpfry's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious tense 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

4.5

There were a very areas of the story that seemed distracted and not necessary to move the story forward. 

I am in love with how much the author has weaved in from actual history into this books as it makes my late night research wormholes much more worthwhile than TikTok doomscrolling 😂

I will say Diana is incredibly patient with Matthew and his middle school girl moods 😅

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Drug use, Miscarriage, Violence, Blood, Grief, Pregnancy, and Injury/Injury detail

bookwyrmjulia's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional 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? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Miscarriage and Pregnancy

Minor: Sexism