Reviews with content warning for Confinement - A Touch Of Darkness

Reviews tagging 'Confinement'

A Touch Of Darkness by Scarlett St. Clair

35 reviews

cece13's review against another edition

adventurous hopeful lighthearted relaxing 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

4.0

This is an absolutely beautiful Hades and Persephone retelling. It doesn't exactly stick to the original myth, though so if that bothers you, I wouldn't read it. I absolutely loved this book except for one thing.

there is a "it was a bet" trope

. That's not my cup of tea which is why its only 4 stars but if you like that then I'd highly suggest this book. I'll definitely be picking up the rest of the series. I know I liked it enough to want to do that. If you like some spice, but not a ton then I'd also suggest this book. What spice is there is wonderful.

Content Warnings

stellarkai's review against another edition

Go to review page

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? Yes

3.5

Content Warnings

scarlett_f's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous emotional funny hopeful mysterious tense fast-paced

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

5.0

Content Warnings

wrensreadingroom's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

5.0

Content Warnings

icarusandthesun's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous medium-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? No

1.25

i mean, what can i say?
it's your average hades x persephone fanfiction—smutty, something that could be found on wattpad, feels like reading an animal documentary based on the amount of 'growls' the reader has to sit through.

the writing style was simple, wattpad-esque. and with that i mean very little sentences of description (except of course when it's about a dress, looks or beautiful black modern-victorian rooms) and lots of action in the simple noun-verb-object structure. a little boring, nothing special, but it gets you through the 400 pages all right.

what i had quite a problem with were the characters. i disliked most of them and that might be rooted in the fact that the author and i definitely have different headcanons when it comes to the gods/other ancient greek figures and their personalities and behavior.

i do personally believe that hades as a character was handled way better in the lore olympus webtoon for example—a little shy, still powerful but more in a lowkey nerd/constantly annoyed/grumpy kinda way, rather than this buff f-boy typa character. but then again, that's just personal.

i disliked persephone, because of her naïvité and there i say it, stupidity.

first she decided to take a swim in the INFAMOUS RIVER OF STYX, then she thought it was a good idea to drink a drink she didn't order and had the audacity to be surprised to find it was spiked.

she was portrayed as this smart goddess, gifted writer, university graduate but her behavior mirrored none of that. and yet she was still portrayed as a kind of mary sue.

i wasn't a fan of adonis and minthe either.

gonna be honest here, adonis' villain arc, i just didn't buy it. he didn't have a motive or a goal. every story needs a villain and i feel like the author just picked him at random because "well, someone has to do it."
same with minthe. like yeah, she was annoying as shit but i don't think she deserved to die like that.

there were some minor things about the gods/goddesses and how they were portrayed that i hated, too. for example that aphrodite, the goddess of love and passion, was put into this stereotypical (and sort of slut-shaming) role of "she sleeps with everyone but she's very lonely deep down inside". that just felt wrong and out of place because, well, she is the goddess of love. the whole "she's lonely" thing, idk, it felt pseudo-deep.

also the fact persephone put every god and goddess into a sort of "good" or "bad" drawer. ares was bad for starting wars. athena was good for making strategic war. aphrodite was kinda bad. hades was bad but turned out to be good. hermes was good. zeus and poseidon were not.
it was so silly, because the gods and goddesses were literally written to be morally gray. that's the thing about greek mythology. the divine are beautiful, ethereal, but they are also deeply flawed like mortals. that's what made them so realistic and so easy to cherish. they were relatable.
acting like one god is better than another is just hypocritical and boring, because literally every deity has done some sort of horrible and unjust thing in their life.

most of the characters also just acted like teenagers in general, even the gods, which is very suspicious, considering they've lived for like ... an eternity right. how giddy everyone acted when it came to hades' and persephone's relationship was goofy. "he's in love with you!" - "omg *blush* no he's not."
urgh.

the plot was relatively interesting at the beginning, but the closer persephone and hades got and the more the book started focusing on their relationship, the more boring it turned. going to clubs, and galas and events, baking cookies at home, fucking in a pool, it was all just a little ... too little, you know. if actual plot was sustenance, this book would be malnourished.

i thought the ending was boring, too. not because the ideas were lacking, but simply because i didn't like

the whole deus ex machina thing persephone's got going on with her powers. it was lame

.

yeah, personally just didn't like that one. i'm starting to doubt booktok and its recommendations and favorites (only now, yes i know), but it is what it is.

Content Warnings

unicornofthesea's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful 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

4.5

Content Warnings

brookelynnrn's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous challenging emotional funny hopeful reflective tense medium-paced

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

5.0

Content Warnings

booksanna's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark emotional funny inspiring mysterious slow-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

3.0

Ussually, I am a generous star giver. I give out 4 stars almost to every book I read. But, not this one. This was a roller coaster of emotions. To me the book seemed more focused on sexual content and just overall profanity, the focus on characters is flat with so much potential and so little given. Not only that, but the overall plot and quality of the book was questionable at best. There were so many cliche moments

The classic drugged at the club and saved by male mc, the bet with Aphrodite, the cookie making scene, the makeout and walk in mother scene, the mc is powerless but uncovers powers with help of some love, blackmail pictures scene

, When you pick up the book, immediatly the first that hits you is Hades is attractive, and Persephone is “not like other girls”. I felt like the story had so much potential to explore the characters and the modern wolrd. There were so many good things in the setting like the Underworlds, and the modern world media, yet all of this was overshadowed by the overpowering thirst of Persephone for Hades. Speaking of Persephone, she did so many questionable things that really gave me classic wattpad vibes

banging on the door of Nevernight, bringing Adonis to Hades club and cassually talking about her deal infront of him, going to Aphrodite’s club when she knew Adonis was bad, Leavinf Lexa alone at the club,not reporting Adonis about the article, not asking questions(like the first time Hermes cassualy popped up in the Underworld, she just accepted it like it was another day meeting a god), also feeling bad for Minthe and then turning her into a mint plant, +a lot of the sexual tension stuff, like the bath scene, we all knew where that was going,

Another wattpad red flag was the fact that the author told us what her outfit was everytime she would go out(this gives me the y/n wore this *insert most uglies combination of clothes*). I felt like there was no connection/love between Persephone and Hades, the only emphasis they put on their relatoinship was about lust(litterly they hated each other for a long time, but were so attracted physically to each other that fell in love later). The only time I felt like they actually started to care about each other’s feelings was like towards the end of the book

Hyaclon’s Project

. This book was ineteresting, but the quality of the writing was so cliche and bad, thatI felt I couldn’t enjoy the book at all. All the sexual material overpowered anything good in the story. Not only was the book predictable and cliche, it aslo left out so many details(i was questioning everything)

Why the heck did we not get an update on Lexa afetr the Adonis drunk club incident, like I was so worried and Persephoine didn’t even check up on her. I still don’t know what happened yo her that night because the athor focused on Persephone and Hades lusting for each other.

Overall this is a fast pleasure book, not good enough to be special, but not bad enough to be bad. This is reading splurge. Nothing good quality, but still gets you that reading pleasure

Content Warnings

saurahsaurus's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark emotional mysterious 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? Yes

4.0

Content Warnings

eleek0609's review against another edition

Go to review page

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? Yes

3.5

Content Warnings

More...