Reviews tagging 'Confinement'

My Policeman by Bethan Roberts

6 reviews

bookedbymadeline's review against another edition

challenging emotional sad medium-paced

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

4.0

I read this as part of my 12 books recommended by 12 friends challenge! 

Started off slow and a bit overly descriptive for my taste but it picked up around page 60

I preferred Patrick’s POV chapters more because of the writing style! Marion’s chapters, especially in the beginning, were a bit overly descriptive. It slowed down the pacing making it harder for me to want to read the book.

We get chapters in both Marion’s POV and Patrick’s but we never hear from Tom. I thought this was an interesting way to tell the story but I kind of would have liked to hear how Tom felt and thought through all of this.

Overall a fantastically tragic story with complex characters!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Infidelity, Violence, and Outing

Moderate: Suicide, Gaslighting, Confinement, Terminal illness, Medical content, and Sexual content

Minor: Lesbophobia and Infertility

cat_astrophe12's review against another edition

emotional inspiring reflective sad slow-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Homophobia, Hate crime, Infidelity, Medical content, Outing, Police brutality, Toxic relationship, and Death

Moderate: Confinement, Sexual content, Terminal illness, Forced institutionalization, Medical content, and Violence

Minor: Death, Miscarriage, and Misogyny

hannahbailey's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

3.0

TW: homophobia, outing, toxic relationship, suicide, imprisonment 

A well written book -- the setting was particularly well crafted. I could really sense the tense and unforgiving atmosphere both of the time and in between the characters. I hope that the author made these characters deliberately unlikeable, if so, then its excellent storytelling. I'm still unsure whether this novel is a product of its time (2012 :/) or a novel ahead of its time in that it leaves you feeling conflicted. That probably doesn't make sense unless you've read the book, but Marion's actions were unexpected and pretty shocking. I didn't really sympathise her, although I felt like the narrative was perhaps asking readers to, which is why I'm unsure of the author's intent here!

This is a very sad and depressing book, do not pick this up if you're looking to read about queer joy -- you won't find it here! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Outing, Homophobia, Lesbophobia, Misogyny, Toxic relationship, Violence, Grief, Suicide, Police brutality, Terminal illness, and Confinement

toofondofbooks_'s review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad 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

3.0

Yes, Harry Styles made me read this. I will not be taking critiques at this time.

This book tells the story of Marion, Tom, & Patrick. Tom is a young police officer that Patrick and Marion are both in love with - she as his wife, and he, as his lover in a time where it was illegal to be gay in the UK. The tale unravels from Marion and Patrick's perspectives in dual timelines and as the reader you come to see that no one in this book is an innocent - they each have their pain and they each inflict pain on each other in different ways, and it's often extremely sad to read, but the humanity and messiness of these characters are what made this book so readable and engaging to me, so that was the main thing I liked about it. The writing, too, I thought was gorgeous.

Some issues I had - I don't mind an age gap in a relationship as long as it's ethical as well as legal. Tom and Patrick's age gap itself didn't bother me, but I often felt a little grossed out by the way Patrick was always referencing Tom's youth, his boyishness. It felt....eeeehhh, weird. Didn't love that.

Other than that, I just have this feeling that there was something missing for me during this book. I can't figure out what it was exactly, and if I figure it out, I'll gladly post an update, but whatever it was, it left me feeling that I couldn't give this above a 3 even though I did enjoy it for the most part.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Death, Hate crime, Body horror, Emotional abuse, Domestic abuse, Medical content, Misogyny, Gaslighting, Violence, Ableism, Outing, and Confinement

Moderate: Pregnancy and Racism

Minor: Fatphobia, Transphobia, Suicide, Child abuse, Vomit, Miscarriage, Pedophilia, Adult/minor relationship, and Death of parent

mallory10100's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective relaxing sad medium-paced

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

4.75

i enjoyed this. i wish we got Tom’s perspective and less of Marion’s. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Outing, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Chronic illness, Pregnancy, Sexism, Sexual content, Cursing, Terminal illness, Alcohol, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Homophobia, Infertility, Infidelity, and Misogyny

Moderate: Gaslighting, Medical content, Mental illness, Classism, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Police brutality, Abandonment, Pregnancy, and Religious bigotry

Minor: Bullying, Transphobia, Fire/Fire injury, Dementia, Confinement, Lesbophobia, Panic attacks/disorders, Police brutality, Violence, Miscarriage, and War

can’t wait for the movie to come out!!

sib_reads's review against another edition

dark emotional sad medium-paced

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

1.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Infidelity, Outing, Violence, Gaslighting, Grief, Homophobia, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Confinement, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Lesbophobia, Suicide, Chronic illness, Death, Injury/Injury detail, and Sexual content

Minor: Alcohol