Reviews with content warning for Ableism - The Essex Serpent

i was over halfway through with zero motivation to pick it back up again RIP
none of the characters are particularly likeable besides Stella (the pastor's wife)

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laura_keoski's review against another edition

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dark mysterious reflective slow-paced

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

3.75

Things I enjoyed about this book: the lush prose, the moody atmosphere, the historical scientific explorations, the mystery of the serpent, the potential of some of these unique characters.

Things that got in the way for me: The book relied heavily on character development, but most of the characters still felt under-developed and one-dimensional. They were so one-dimensional that they couldn’t seem to predict the rather obvious behaviors of their fellow characters. The ending of the book was a less revelatory experience as the reader than it was for the characters themselves.

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bedtimesandbooks's review

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hopeful slow-paced

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

2.0

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bookedbymadeline's review against another edition

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dark mysterious relaxing slow-paced

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

4.0

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rieviolet's review against another edition

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emotional mysterious sad medium-paced

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

3.0

I went into the book not really knowing what to expect (it's a book that I've seen recommended many times and wanted to give it a try) and now that I've finished it I can say that it was a nice enough read and clearly well written and researched but it just fell a bit flat for me in terms of story.

Unfortunately, I did not care much about the two main characters and their relationship and I was more intrested in the various side characters, their portrayal and plot lines. Also, on various occasions, the
choices and actions made by the characters left me very perplexed and just felt a bit out of place.

Overall, I quite appreciated the writing stlye/prose, although there were some segments where the author narrated in a sort of sequence each characters' progress within the story and those parts I found a bit dragging.

Also, I didn't particularly enjoy the detailed description of injuries and medical procedures, maybe they seem quite tame for many people but I am squeamish and so I found it really difficult to go through those parts.

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elzibub's review

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challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-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

4.0

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