Reviews tagging 'Cursing'

The Binding by Bridget Collins

16 reviews

animaniac17's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad slow-paced

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

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Death, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Pedophilia, Sexual assault, Suicide attempt, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Cursing, Incest, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual content, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Dementia, and Kidnapping

Minor: Alcoholism, Abortion, and Classism

louisallama's review against another edition

dark emotional sad slow-paced

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

3.75

It's a little bit hard for me to review because 1. the blurb doesn't tell you what the story is about and 2. it's not the type of book I usually gravitate towards, due in part to the somewhat misleading blurb (the blurb purposefully did 't including main plot points for story reasons). I was expecting exciting magical memory stuff, but instead this was an extremely character driven novel that was far more focused on the experiences of the main characters and the evil ways that memory binding could be used. Despite this, the story was lovely, and I definitely cried through the end of Part Two when Emmett and Lucien get found out. The prose was very nice, although it got a little flowery for me at times. None of these things are really criticisms of the book itself (except maybe the blurb I guess) and I can definitely see other people loving this book more than me, but I still definitely enjoyed it overall. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Homophobia, Rape, Suicide, Murder, and Outing

Moderate: Alcoholism, Cursing, Death, Incest, Physical abuse, Vomit, and Classism

Minor: Forced institutionalization, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

fe_aye's review against another edition

dark informative reflective slow-paced

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

2.0

This book had an interesting premise and did do something interesting. However I found the writing style to be very dull. I managed to finish the book so at least it’s enough to keep you reading.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Homophobia, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Vomit, Dementia, Outing, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, and Classism

marleywrites's review against another edition

emotional mysterious medium-paced

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

3.75

This book took awhile to grow on me, but by the end of part one I was very invested. Seeing all the pieces fall together was extremely satisfying. I loved the angst and the intense emotions. This is one I would consider rereading, especially in the fall/winter. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal death, Death, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Suicide, Fire/Fire injury, and Alcohol

Moderate: Infidelity, Rape, Sexual assault, Violence, Vomit, Kidnapping, Grief, Murder, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Minor: Cursing

maeverose's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective medium-paced

Edit: I just found out the author is a terf, so I removed my rating. But I’ll leave the review for now. :/

TL;DR: I love the concept of this book so much, I really liked the romance, the writing style is hit and miss for me, why does everyone have to interrupt each other in every conversati—

                    The Concept

I love the idea of binding people’s memories into a book to remove them from their mind. I love how this book explores that. It’s just so cool to me. As disturbing as it is to read, I like that it explores the horrible ways people could take advantage of that system.

                   The Romance

I liked it a lot. I tend to prefer books without romance side plots because they often feel tacked on and underdeveloped, but the romance in this one is a crucial part in the overall story, and I really liked how it was done.

I liked the progression of Emmett’s feelings for Lucian. The way it was written I genuinely wasn’t sure how that was gonna go at first. The slow progression of hate to attraction without Emmett even seeming to recognize it as attraction at first. Idk I just liked that. And the dance scene !! I almost wish they explored how Emmett being a binder effects their relationship being as Lucian hates binders, but also I don’t like relationship angst so I don’t entirely mind that it was kinda just dropped.

                        Writing

The prose worked for me sometimes, not other times. I generally like pretty prose if it’s done well, and for the most part this was. It had a very gothic atmosphere, which I always love. But I felt it was a little over written here and there, and that both took me out of the scene sometimes and slowed the pacing at times where it seemed like it should’ve been a more fast paced scene (namely, the very end). The last 30% was pretty slow. And a more subjective dislike: It focuses a lot on the unattractive things in a scene, and for some reason that often meant lots of bodily fluids… It was mentioned excessively and unnecessarily and I just don’t like that writing choice.

                  Plot Structure

I really like how we start out following Emmett after he’s been bound, then the way he eventually finds out, immediately leading into part two which is entirely just his memory. I definitely liked part three the least, but I think part three had to have been from Lucian’s pov or it wouldn’t’ve worked. And I definitely didn’t mind it. I think it could grow on me after a re read. Overall I just think the way the plot was structured was really smart.

                      Dislikes

       My number one pet peeve was that in almost every. single. conversation. someone had to interrupt someone else mid sentence. It happened so often and half the time it made no sense why they interrupted the other person. I counted 22 times in the first chapter alone… I don’t know how the editors didn’t suggest changing that. It was so annoying.

       It wouldn’t be a review from me if I didn’t point out the ableism! This one was just little comments here and there (e.g: a comment about becoming a ‘drooling lunatic’, calling someone ‘simple’, calling a disabled person useless), always from the main Characters’ pov (mostly Emmett’s, I think), always uncorrected. I know it’s probably supposed to be ‘fitting of the time period’ but leaving those out literally would’ve changed nothing. I’m tired of reading historical fiction/fantasy and always seeing shit like that. Those comments are still harmful.

There was also a plot point that was just dropped that I felt needed more explanation.

When Emmett used that weird voice to tell off the people who wanted to burn Seredith’s house down, it was only brought up again once. When Emmett brought it up to Seredith she basically told him ‘that was nothing’. But it definitely seemed like something..? He seemed almost possessed to me.

   Alta annoyed me a bit but maybe that’s a me problem…

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child death, Death, Homophobia, Pedophilia, Rape, Suicide, Excrement, Vomit, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Alcohol

Moderate: Ableism, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Incest, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Minor: Cursing, Fatphobia, Slavery, and Abandonment

There is one use of the slur for Romani people. Does the dog die:

Yes. The dog is killed, rather violently

xbernadette's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious fast-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Homophobia, Infidelity, Panic attacks/disorders, Rape, Sexual violence, Vomit, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Cursing, Death, Gore, Hate crime, Homophobia, Incest, Suicide, Blood, Vomit, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, and Sexual harassment

evie_lumby's review against another edition

adventurous hopeful mysterious sad tense slow-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

5.0

When Lucian thought that them having sex didn’t mean anything actually broke me, and when Emmett said he loved Lucian

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Rape, Sexual content, Suicide, Blood, Vomit, and Alcohol

Moderate: Cursing and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

thecheshire_cat's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Child abuse, Child death, Domestic abuse, Homophobia, Infidelity, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Violence, Gaslighting, and Alcohol

Moderate: Alcoholism, Cursing, Death, Sexual content, Slavery, Vomit, Grief, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Confinement, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Pregnancy

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

Minor: Forced institutionalization

bri__'s review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious slow-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Gore, Homophobia, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, and Alcohol

Moderate: Cursing, Suicide, Violence, and Vomit