I’ve read this as a teenager, thought it was overhyped then but entertaining enough to finish. Picked it up again for a long and boring flight and won’t finish it this time. No, I’m not interested in characters with rape phantasies who are presented as likeable.

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incendiofawkes's review against another edition

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Characters are one dimensional and the portrayal of women sucks.

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skyliner's review against another edition

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adventurous dark medium-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? It's complicated

2.5

Do I still love Pillars of the Earth the way I did on a first read a decade ago? Sort of.

I love how it manages to grab my attention in a way that feels so effortless. I'm not one for long books but this compels me on consistently. Descriptions of the stonework of cathedrals? Yes please, tell me more! The politics of medieval monasteries? You bet I want to hear it! It's an enigma of a book as no one can really pinpoint what is so enthralling, it just is. Sort of.

When I first read it (and gave it 5 stars), I was much younger and this time around I picked up on misogyny that I overlooked last time. Though I have no idea how. Obviously there's sexism that's on the part of the characters but there's always this niggling undercurrent that the author isn't too far removed from those views himself, and it's something that gathers at pace once he gets started. The first third of the book it can be overlooked maybe but after that it descends into the pits of Follett's testicles.

The women (and girls) are either sexualised, or they're disfigured and ugly. The "good" women are thin with massive tits. The bad ones are fat and hideous. With the exception of Agnes who is a good woman but a little bit fat and not very hot, naturally she's killed off as soon as Follett can manage to be replaced by Ellen who is hot, thin, lean, muscular, agile, heavy breasted....etc. I take it Follett is a boob man. Even women in famines are big breasted. Women terrified of sexual assault tell us so by the panicked fall and rise of their "ample breast". When a monk is hot he has sweat on his head. When a woman or girl is hot they have sweat trickle over their breasts and down their inner thighs.

A couple of bizarre references to women, medieval women some 800 years before gilette told us to shave, being ashamed of themselves for having such hairy vulvas.

Strange childbirth descriptions (on their back as if he didnt bother to research women, let alone medieval women, in his 15 years of book research), or just casually popping a child out whilst, incredibly briefly, knocked out by a falling stone.

Thankfully, we get an audit of every woman's pubic hair whether relevant or not. That one that's about to be killed, well nevermind that, first let's throw some shade at her graying pubes.

Aside from all this, there's a very peculiar thing several times in the book where he repeats himself or summarises parts of the book that are bits over which there'd be no confusion. Something happens on one page then really clumsily repeated half a page later like his editor had just given up at those points.

The disasters and roadblocks are quite farcical but keep the pace of the book and are enjoyable until about 70% of the way through when it's too much to bear.

Jack has absolutely no personality as an adult and I found I started to skip over his bits.

Overall, I still really enjoyed the story and whatever it is that keeps you reading, there's no doubt parts of the book are very enjoyable but there is no way in good conscience I can give this 5 stars again and I'm ashamed that I did on that first read years ago.

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aether_seawo1f's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional informative mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

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

3.0

Glacial pacing for the first 600 pages, the last 400 are decent.

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dielilla's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional inspiring tense slow-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

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motobart's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring mysterious reflective relaxing sad 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

5.0

This is a long read, but it flows well and the verse is economical and simple in the best ways. Folletts writing style is very minimal, but used to great effect. It took me a bit before I realized how brilliant it was. This book is unlike anything I've read before, and has many elements that make it a remarkable achievement in modern literature.

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cheazcakeguy's review against another edition

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dark emotional tense slow-paced

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

2.5

I only finished this because I read it for a book club. Way too much unnecessarily explicit SA & pedophilia (just because it's "historically accurate" does not mean I want to read full details of a 14-year-old being rped by someone twice her age), characters were mostly one dimensional and often more like caricatures, and the pacing was uneven. The plot and the character Philip were the only things keeping me going, as it is ultimately a good story. The descriptions of the cathedral and the building process were also great. However, all of the tension and story beats ended up feeling super repetitive and recycled, and for the last couple hundred pages I was rolling my eyes at the dramatic twists and turns which felt contrived and meaningless at that point. I really wanted to love this book, but ultimately it was unremarkable. Hard to recommend, unless you like to read soap operas with one-note characters and you're okay with repeated graphic SA. I suppose if you really* like drama and architecture, and have extreme patience, this is the book for you.

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