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katherine_ridley's review
challenging
dark
informative
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death, Gore, Incest, Infidelity, Misogyny, and Blood
Minor: Chronic illness, Homophobia, Infertility, Miscarriage, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicide, and Grief
beckyo's review against another edition
medium-paced
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death
Minor: Incest, Miscarriage, and Torture
nadia's review against another edition
challenging
tense
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
4.25
I'm surprised by how much I enjoyed this reread! After I found Wolf Hall more a struggle to get into than I remembered, this one was a lot easier. And when I dug up an old blog post I wrote back in 2014 (over 8 years ago), I had the same experience:
I found the writing easier to follow in this book and I’m not sure whether that’s down to me being more used to Mantel’s style or that the nature of the material meant that it was dealt with with less subtlety and more drama. I wasn’t complaining. Whilst the book started rather slowly, as the story proceeds it turns into a real page-turner.
Having gone through this twice, I reckon the writing, while still excellent, is, on the whole, more direct in this one!
There will still parts where I had to reread paragraphs a few times to grasp the meaning, and some aspects did some rather dull, but those were few and far in between.
Keeping track of who's who was still relatively difficult on the whole, especially without a paper copy to easily flick back and forth, but having reread Wolf Half very recently definitely helped!
Finally I'm ready to for The Mirror & the Light!
P.S. Review from 2013 was 4⭐️ ; I probably would have given it 4.25 if StoryGraph had existed!
P.P.S. I'm currently enjoying watching the BBC adaptation of the two books with some friends. It's really good!
P.P.S. I'm currently enjoying watching the BBC adaptation of the two books with some friends. It's really good!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death
Moderate: Infidelity and Miscarriage
Minor: Incest