Reviews tagging 'Suicide'

The Confessions of Frannie Langton by Sara Collins

22 reviews

eli_jw's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad slow-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Slavery, Addiction, Infidelity, Misogyny, Sexual assault, Sexism, Suicide, Terminal illness, Death, Murder, Racial slurs, Torture, Drug abuse, and Racism

Moderate: Abortion, Colonisation, Emotional abuse, Animal cruelty, Sexual violence, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, and Incest

cantfindmybookmark's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious sad medium-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Colonisation, Addiction, Blood, Miscarriage, Slavery, Toxic friendship, Trafficking, Child death, Emotional abuse, Grief, Medical content, Classism, Domestic abuse, Death, Drug abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, and Suicide

Moderate: Confinement, Incest, Murder, Medical trauma, Death of parent, and Torture

bitoque's review against another edition

dark reflective slow-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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Slavery and Racial slurs

Moderate: Addiction

Minor: Miscarriage and Suicide

aseel_reads's review

challenging dark mysterious 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

3.75

not sure how i feel about this. the writing was very easy to read and made the whole reading experience quite easy, which is a huge plus, since the subject matter was quite hard. i thought the idea of the story really interesting and there were some interesting moments. the plot was completely wild and unpredictable. but i felt like the character was not well fleshed out, which made some of beliefs/actions just seem unrealistic/out of character/just random? i don't know how to explain it but i didn't really believe the character at times. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Abortion, Adult/minor relationship, Child death, Confinement, Death, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Infertility, Murder, Pregnancy, Racial slurs, Sexual violence, Alcohol, Blood, Drug use, Incest, Injury/Injury detail, Lesbophobia, Medical content, Racism, Rape, Sexual content, Slavery, Suicide, and Violence

greatexpectations77's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense 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? Yes

4.0

A very well-researched unfolding story. Maybe the writing style wasn't quite my favorite. But great for reflecting on parallels between the anti-slavery movement Brits of then and the the Black-square-posters of today - both finding social justice trendy, but not really looking to commit to actionable change.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Addiction, Medical content, Racism, Infidelity, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, Sexual content, Slavery, Colonisation, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Pregnancy, Blood, Classism, Miscarriage, Murder, and Racial slurs

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Suicide, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Homophobia, Grief, Infertility, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Animal cruelty and Child death

If reading about babies and birth upsets you in any way, this book may not be for you.

msradiosilence's review against another edition

dark emotional informative mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

This book was really hard to read, and not because of it’s content, but because I wanted so badly for Frances to get her happy ending. But that’s not the kind of story this is, and it never promised to be.

By all accounts, Frances’ story is a tragedy, and not necessarily of her own making. She’s a strong woman prone to making choices everyone warns her against, but their her choices to make. She did the best she could in her situations, even if the best was something truly horrific.

There can be some interesting speculation on whether Frances is a reliable narrator or not, considering the story is from her point of view, but I think a woman

sentenced to death

has nothing to lose. Why would she garnish the truth?

Anyway, as much as it hurt me, I did really enjoy the book. One of the only 5 star reads from 2021.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Abortion, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Blood, Child death, Colonisation, Confinement, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Grief, Infertility, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Murder, Pregnancy, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexual content, Slavery, Suicide, Violence, and Vomit

bookbabe_1998's review against another edition

dark emotional sad slow-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Suicide and Physical abuse

serendipitysbooks's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.0

 
The Confessions of Frannie Langton was a perfect book for June, what with it being Pride month and Read Caribbean month. It’s historical fiction, set in both Jamaica and Georgian England and centres on Frannie Langton, a servant and former slave who is accused of murdering her employers. While Frannie can’t recall what happened that fateful night, what she does remember, the story of her life and how she came to be in the dock, is quite the story - one that is definitely worth reading. It involves a childhood on a Jamaican sugar plantation, being raised by an enslaved woman but also taught to read, being forced to serve as scientific assistant on warped and horrific experiments, and then taken to England (where she is free technically but certainly not in reality) and given to another man who puts her to work as a servant. A relationship with her mistress, an opium user, leads to tragic consequences.

I was absorbed in Frannie’s story from beginning to end. It’s certainly a fresh take on the gothic novel, a story which has some initial passing similarities to Jane Eyre but goes so much further. It takes a pointed look at the intersectionality of race, gender, class and sexuality and lays bare the worst excesses of a “science” driven by racism. I was constantly struck by white men acting atrociously and believing they had some divine right to control and direct the lives of others, especially women and moreso when then woman was Black. The story also highlighted how Black knowledge was both feared yet also exploited by white men.

The plot was multi-layered with many additional themes and sub-plots. Occasionally it felt a bit much, especially towards the end of the book, but Collins’s writing and Frannie’s voice always pulled me back.
 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Medical content, Medical trauma, Miscarriage, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexual violence, Slavery, and Suicide

the_literarylinguist's review against another edition

emotional mysterious sad slow-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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Drug abuse, Drug use, Infidelity, Medical content, Murder, Racial slurs, Racism, Slavery, Suicide, and Violence

Moderate: Abortion

Minor: Homophobia

bodiesinbooks's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism

Moderate: Abortion, Addiction, Blood, Body horror, Confinement, Death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Infidelity, Murder, Racial slurs, Slavery, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, and Vomit