Reviews tagging 'Forced institutionalization'

Die verborgenen Stimmen der Bücher, by Bridget Collins

14 reviews

prettycloud's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

This book has a lot going on. It's got the good historical fiction atmospherics—scenic rural landscape, old bookbinder's workshop—but it's grounded in real human interactions, with flawed characters making difficult choices. It deals with some really heavy topics—trauma, homophobia, assault, to name a few—but it's not relentlessly gloomy. It's a weird hybrid of coming of age, mystery, and romance. The first part feels like a quest for truth, like how Chasing Vermeer felt when I was a kid. There's a sense of wonder even among the awful things people do to one another, and there is beauty and hope. The latter part becomes darker and romancier: if you've read or watched Fingersmith or The Handmaiden, there's some of that energy, though without the masterminding. Would recommend if you like that sort of thing, or time loop or memory loss stories. I think part of the polarization of reviews is because this is such a teenage story even if it has more adult themes. Another reviewer here described it as a Drarry fic with the serial numbers filed off—I don't know whether that's true, but describes the vibe very well and could be useful in deciding whether to check it out.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Gaslighting, Outing, Fire/Fire injury, Suicide, Violence, Alcoholism, Domestic abuse, Homophobia, Blood, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, and Animal death

Moderate: Death, Suicidal thoughts, Vomit, Rape, Alcohol, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Sexism, Kidnapping, Classism, Sexual content, Murder, and Body shaming

There are some really awful and messed-up characters in this book who have a lot of power in their classist, sexist society. The main protags make mistakes and are really angry and traumatized through a lot of this, but aren't doing any of the really awful stuff. They experience homophobia, emotional abuse/gaslighting, and physical abuse

Spoiler

from their families

.

Spoiler

A beloved authority figure

dies. We watch

Spoiler

a beloved animal

get killed during the kidnapping. But the overall tone is hopeful.

geilie's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Injury/Injury detail, Rape, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Suicide, Vomit, Homophobia, and Sexual assault

Moderate: Alcohol, Blood, Child death, Physical abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Death, Emotional abuse, Domestic abuse, Fire/Fire injury, and Gaslighting

Minor: Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Kidnapping, Classism, Grief, Forced institutionalization, Fatphobia, Religious bigotry, and Violence

mrsjoellebell's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Animal death, Outing, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Suicide, and Rape

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury and Vomit

Minor: Forced institutionalization

melissalivanos's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful sad 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? It's complicated

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Animal death, Animal cruelty, Emotional abuse, and Physical abuse

Minor: Vomit, Suicidal thoughts, Miscarriage, Forced institutionalization, and Fire/Fire injury

Spoiler

Being outed, coming out and it going very very badly

al_cassada's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense slow-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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide

Moderate: Rape and Homophobia

Minor: Suicidal thoughts and Forced institutionalization

lisa00's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious fast-paced

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

1.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Rape, Alcohol, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Homophobia, Infidelity, Toxic relationship, Animal death, Blood, Bullying, Child death, Violence, Vomit, Animal cruelty, Incest, Injury/Injury detail, Self harm, Sexual violence, Adult/minor relationship, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Sexual assault, Suicide, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Forced institutionalization and Gaslighting

vigil's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

4.0

i read this entire book in one day. something about it immediately pulled me in from page one. 

it does leave several things up to interpretation for the reader. binding is the main characters true calling, and it’s repeatedly emphasized throughout the story. despite this, binding is given a very conflicting portrayal, and its more negative than you’d think. we don’t get to see really anything of the magical portion of emmett’s binding despite the concept being central to the plot. 

this book is split up into three parts, all interconnected, but so varying in tone it can seem like you’re reading a different book. 

if you enjoy character driven stories, heavy introspection, ambiguous interpretations, and a book more focused on a journey than an ending, i’d recommend this. 

this book is pretty difficult to write a review about, and i suggest you go in knowing as little as possible. that being said, heed all content warnings.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Outing, Physical abuse, Death, Blood, Suicide, Animal death, Homophobia, Kidnapping, Murder, Vomit, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, and Violence

Minor: Forced institutionalization

therainbowshelf's review against another edition

dark slow-paced

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

4.0

Love books about books, or dark reads with wildly unhealthy ways to deal with trauma? Then you might enjoy this one! The world building is excellent, and it was interesting seeing the dual timeline play out. Things were drawn out just a little too long and started to lose my interest toward the end. Warnings for suicide, sexual abuse, rape, and others.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Infidelity, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Vomit, Domestic abuse, Gaslighting, Homophobia, Misogyny, Forced institutionalization, Death, Emotional abuse, Suicide, Blood, and Confinement

tinyjude's review against another edition

dark sad slow-paced

• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No

Generalmente, no tengo problema con personas no lgtbi+ (por lo que he podido encontrar en internet) escribiendo historias con personajes protagonistas lgtbi+, pero cuando toda la historia se centra en la homofobia y en cómo los obligan a borrar sus recuerdos por ser gays, ahí tengo un problema (por no hablar de como es otro caso de una mujer hetero escribiendo historias con hombres gays y centrándose en el sexo más que en desarrollar los personajes...)

El libro te vende una idea muy buena e interesante que podría haber dado lugar a conocer una gran cantidad de personajes y experiencias diferentes, buenas y malas, así como reflexiones sobre los libros y el por qué leemos y escribimos. Sin embargo, esto es un libro de romance centrado en el dolor y trauma de los personajes. Las mujeres reciben abusos sexuales y luego se les fuerza a olvidar para continuar violándolas (quizás esto era una crítica social, pero el modo en que todo ha terminado, no me hace creer que lo sea), o se les miente y manipula. Hay muchas preguntas que no se llegan a responder, pero eso no es tan relevante como el hecho de que Bridget ha creado un mundo de fantasía donde podría haber diseñado una historia de amor queer sin centrarla en la homofobia y el dolor (ya tenemos suficiente de eso en la vida real, gracias). Con todo, mi mayor problema es que la encuadernación es utilizada para agredir continuamente a víctimas y se convierte en una terapia de conversión que me hizo vomitar. Y aunque no creo que Bridget apoye la terapia de conversión por razones obvias (cómo termina la historia), ninguna de las personas que los maltrataron a ellos y ellas sufre consecuencias, y gran parte de las escenas de amor entre Emmett y Lucian son escenas de sexo que no se describen pero a las que se alude de forma constante. Me hubiera gustado ver más escenas de ellos simplemente conociéndose, riendo o haciendo más cosas de parejas.

Por último y una de las cosas que más me repugna de la autora es que es una TERF (podéis comprobarlo por las organizaciones que sigue en Twitter y tweets a los que les da like). Los derechos Trans son derechos humanos y es horrible que aún haya gente que tenga estas visiones tan retrógradas. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Forced institutionalization, and Sexual violence

annawookie's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad fast-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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Fire/Fire injury, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Homophobia, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Suicide

Moderate: Biphobia, Sexual content, Blood, and Physical abuse

Minor: Gaslighting, Vomit, Abandonment, and Emotional abuse