Reviews tagging 'Confinement'

The Benevolent Society of Ill-Mannered Ladies by Alison Goodman

24 reviews

jessicatanderup's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring lighthearted mysterious 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

4.75

This book is roller coaster of well-written emotions. A mystery and love story, mixed with horrifying and sobering depictions of the circumstances women and girls endured in Regency England. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Cancer, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Gun violence, Mental illness, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual violence, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Excrement, Vomit, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, and Murder

tebs's review against another edition

adventurous funny lighthearted medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical content

Moderate: Confinement, Physical abuse, Forced institutionalization, and Kidnapping

holly167's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny hopeful sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

Loved this book, witty banter, action, mystery, romance, heart all set in Elizabethan era. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Confinement, Domestic abuse, Forced institutionalization, Excrement, Vomit, and Murder

alexmall029's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious tense fast-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Confinement, Excrement, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

xvicesx's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional inspiring reflective relaxing 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? Yes

5.0

A brilliant regency read with a most unusual and endearing female lead. Loved Lady Augusta's adventures and troubles and am waiting with bated breath for the next book to come out! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Confinement, and Medical trauma

Moderate: Violence and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Child death, Death, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicide, Excrement, Death of parent, and Murder

emma_sky's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful 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? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Sexism, Forced institutionalization, Medical content, Medical trauma, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Cancer, Confinement, Emotional abuse, and Gaslighting

Minor: Cancer, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Slavery, Suicide, Torture, Blood, Vomit, and Lesbophobia

thefragranthand's review against another edition

adventurous lighthearted medium-paced

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

5.0

This was just what I hoped it would be. I wonder how long I have to wait for the next one.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Confinement, Domestic abuse, and Excrement

Moderate: Mental illness and Trafficking

Minor: Cancer, Child abuse, Child death, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexism, Suicide, Torture, Blood, Vomit, Gaslighting, and Sexual harassment

lorialdenholuta's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional sad fast-paced

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

4.0

 I noticed other reviewers expected a lighthearted romp, based on the book’s cover. This is a fine lesson in NOT judging a book by its cover. Our Ill-Mannered Ladies, while quite prim and proper in appearance, are anything but. In the Regency Era, women were treated as less important than men. If the trio of adventures in this book are based in some truth, women were treated horribly, often to the point of torture and even death.

The stories are dark, revealing the worst aspects of Regency men’s behavior. But, this is balanced a little by the inclusion of a good man with a sympathetic heart, who believes in the value of women. You won’t recognize this at first, as he’s a character that’s not fully revealed at our first meeting. This was one of my favorite aspects of the book. the slow revelation of a truly good and worthy man.

But back to our Ill-Mannered Ladies. 42-year-old twin sisters Lady Augusta and Lady Julia Colebrook are close enough to share ‘twin language’, with the ability to exchange entire sentences via a meaningful look. They are also financially independent and quite capable of looking after themselves.

Together, they fight crime!

Okay, that was flippant, but really, they do. Specifically, crimes against helpless women committed by men who believe their gender makes it all right to do so. This book follows their exploits during three adventures. Each deals with different situations featuring ladies in distress, though I found the sister’s cunning plans to be very similar in each story. This didn’t detract from my interest in the stories, it was just something I noticed.

I mentioned earlier that these stories are a bit dark. They need to be in order for the women’s plights to be meaningful. I must caution though, the final story is *very* dark, and to my mind goes completely overboard with the use of a certain substance that all humans produce but are usually not compelled to wallow in. My goodness. The digging of a short trench and a daily bucket of water would have solved the problem right away. But the author clearly felt the need of some shock value to underscore the horrors of the situation.

That aside, I was quite absorbed by the lives and adventures of the two sisters, and all the women who benefitted from them. Also, I’m a big fan of the Victorian era but my knowledge of the Regency era has lots of gaps. In particular, I liked learning about sealing wafers. I knew about sealing wax, but wafers were new to me, and now I love them. So practical! Go google them and see for yourself. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Sexism, Forced institutionalization, Excrement, Kidnapping, and Medical trauma

li_gao's review against another edition

adventurous emotional lighthearted mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Confinement, Physical abuse, Medical content, and Murder

Minor: Pedophilia, Rape, Sexism, Sexual violence, Violence, Vomit, Trafficking, Medical trauma, and Lesbophobia

lea's review against another edition

adventurous dark sad medium-paced

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

2.5

The trigger warnings are no joke. I have barely ever been triggered by a book but this was hard to get through at times. 

It's insta love too and the ending was kinda unsatisfying. 

For how hard it is to read, I am still giving it 3 stars because it felt honest in those parts. 

Edit: nah the more I think about it the less I like it. Lowering. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Child abuse, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Excrement, Vomit, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail