Reviews tagging 'Confinement'

Scholomance – Die goldenen Enklaven by Naomi Novik

30 reviews

mairead_parade's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional 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

4.5

I really enjoyed this series and thought this was a clever and satisfying final book, with some serious emotional gut punches. Novik forces her characters to grow up and reckons with the true costs and inequalities of the society she's imagined in a much more real way than a lot of other teen magic fantasy, which I appreciated. This series also escalates the “big bad” from book to book in an interesting and surprising way that changed my perspective on the previous installments.

My main quibbles are that the ending is a little too tidy, especially in contrast to a lot of the more brutal choices Novik makes in the rest of the series. El and Orion also spent very little on-page time together, which made sense in terms of the plot, but I lost some of the investment in their relationship that I had at the end of book two.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement

Moderate: Death

ashlikes's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional 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

3.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Death, Grief, Torture, Violence, and War

Moderate: Infidelity, Pregnancy, Bullying, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Physical abuse, Death of parent, Alcohol, Blood, Death, Murder, and Sexual content

Minor: Addiction, Colonisation, Confinement, Dementia, Xenophobia, Fire/Fire injury, Pregnancy, Religious bigotry, Homophobia, Body shaming, and Fatphobia

le3713's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional 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? It's complicated

4.5

Seldom is the final book in a trilogy my favorite, but this one was. The sometimes slow work of understanding the world, magic system, and social order Novik had built paid off in this book. I loved understanding mana, malia, and maw mouths better. It still took me a good chunk of time to get through, but I was deeply invested through the second half. I didn’t anticipate the turns the book would take, and found the ending satisfying - hopeful but not quite happily ever after.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Violence

Moderate: Confinement and Torture

smithreads's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Body horror, Cursing, Death, Grief, Violence, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Classism, Drug use, Gore, Kidnapping, War, and Sexual content

Moderate: Murder and Death of parent

Minor: Homophobia

gowlstick's review against another edition

dark emotional 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? It's complicated

5.0

I had this on pre-order and was incredibly excited to finally get to it! It wraps up the trilogy in such a satisfying way that I didn't predict. It was exciting to have the characters finally out of the Scholomance and in the real world; there is a lot of cross continental travel. The only thing that really bothered me was how the travel time was handled, lots of the events in the book are high stakes situations for the characters so just having blank bits of travel was a bit jarring sometimes. This also gave a pretty fast paced non-stop feel to their actions at the same time.

I was pretty tickled when I got to the section where we discover that Orion is a mawmouth, I'd pretty much just been describing the series to a friend and said something along the lines of "he's like a human mawmouth" - and I still felt a bit of a surprise when it was officially droppped.

I think it follows the other two books incredibly well. I's very different but they all feel relatively even in terms of quality to me unlike what can happen with other trilogies. I hope that the series becomes bigger in name and carves itself out a spot in newer fantasy must-reads.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror and Gore

Moderate: Classism, Child death, Death of parent, and Death

Minor: Grief, Colonisation, Confinement, and Alcohol

chamaeleontis's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.75

I loved this book. It was a great way to end the series. But I was a little disappointed by the ending (rushed and has a trope I don’t like), or it would have been 5 stars.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Torture, Violence, War, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Pregnancy, Body horror, Child abuse, Medical content, Blood, Drug use, Gore, Classism, Confinement, Grief, and Sexual content

Moderate: Acephobia/Arophobia

purplepenning's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Body horror, Grief, and Physical abuse

Moderate: Blood, Child abuse, Classism, Drug use, Suicidal thoughts, Confinement, Death, Violence, Gaslighting, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, and Mental illness

Minor: Sexual content

uranaishi's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful reflective 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

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief

Moderate: Abandonment, Bullying, Child abuse, Classism, Death, Drug use, Sexual content, Vomit, Violence, Death of parent, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Child death, and War

Minor: Blood, Confinement, Dementia, Fire/Fire injury, Medical content, Pregnancy, Suicide attempt, Toxic relationship, Alcohol, Homophobia, Racism, Suicide, and Suicidal thoughts

relin's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful sad medium-paced

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

5.0

A satisfying ending to the books prior. Getting to see all of the characters you love and care about figure out the final parts of what to do next is incredibly rewarding. This book is a lot of how even if you are the most powerful, the ties and work of the community are what really makes things possible. Would happily reread. Even though it made me cry.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Sexual content, Gore, Abandonment, Torture, and Grief

Moderate: Violence, Drug use, Panic attacks/disorders, and Murder

Minor: Drug abuse, Slavery, Child death, Gaslighting, Colonisation, Cultural appropriation, Confinement, Classism, Pregnancy, and Trafficking

readwithria's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful 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? It's complicated

5.0

The Golden Enclaves is a story of aggressive kindness, and being unwilling to take the first wrong step. It perfectly ties up the lessons of The Scholomance and brings with it a feeling of healing and purpose.

I don’t want to go into too much detail about this book, seeing as it’s the third book in a trilogy, but I will say that I love the characters and the story so much. All of the breadcrumbs from the first two books are perfectly placed to set up the plot of the third book, and the conclusion is satisfying without feeling too unnaturally perfect. There is still work to be done, and El will be doing it for a long time. The relationships that she build throughout her years in the Scholomance will support her, and she has finally gotten good at a king for and accepting help.

The Golden Enclaves shows us a world that was built on capitalism being rebuilt, one foundation stone at a time. It offers a new world where the survival of the many isn’t predicated on the sacrifice of the few. It broke my heart and rebuilt it. 5 stars.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Torture, Grief, Confinement, and Classism

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail and Violence

Minor: Death and Child death