Reviews with content warning for Blood - The Essex Serpent

Reviews tagging 'Blood'

The Essex Serpent by Sarah Perry

10 reviews

heuteschongekurtet's review against another edition

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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

3.0

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moviemagus's review against another edition

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mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.25

This is a well-written book and the first hundred pages made me think I will love it, but at the end it was nothing special. Did not like anyone, found the story boring.

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cosette15's review

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dark emotional reflective slow-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

3.5

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selenesalavessa's review

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emotional mysterious reflective slow-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

3.75

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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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fireinherveinzz's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

3.75

Reread the first half which made it make a lot more sense. Did not love the random inclusion of all the extra side character povs like Thomas Taylor who didn’t contribute anything to the story . Also the end cut off without a conclusion which I hate like mid story. There was a lot of will they won’t they that just turned into fade to black eh. Story needed more passion less dryness . The show is definitely giving this story more life so far. I loved Cora and Will’s dynamic , Martha coming into her own independence from Cora and chasing her passions as well in social work. Loved Katherine Ambrose’s line to Cora “you cannot always keep yourself away from things that hurt you. We all wish we could , but we cannot: to live at all is to be bruised; I know that none of us was made to be alone. You told me once you forget you are a woman, and I understand it now you think to be a woman is to be weak you ours is a sisterhood of suffering! Perhaps so, but doesn’t it take a greater strength to walk a mile in pain than seven miles in none? You are a woman, and must begin to live like one. by which I mean: have courage “. Also another great one liner Cora telling Will “we are cleaved together , we are cleaved apart everything that draws me to you is everything that drives me away “. 😭 Could’ve liked this story better had it not been so focused on both Luke’s and Cora/ will’s and just Cora and Will. Luke deserved his own story not to be clumped in with theirs. He had nothing to do with this besides helping Cora with advice and Stella with her illness and being a part of a pseudo love triangle with her and Will.

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strabbyfieldz's review

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dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective 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

3.75

some parts of this book made me want to cry because I had no other way to express how I feel, it was such a strange overwhelming feeling of connection to an idea to a person to a theme that it hurt in a way. but then other parts jarred with me, especially spencer's plot line... why did the book frame him becoming a landlord as a good thing??? also idk something about Francis and his narrative felt strange in that he only really came into focus at the end. BUT that being said I got so absorbed that my eyes now sting from reading for like 3 hrs lol

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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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maddiehansen's review

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challenging emotional medium-paced

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

3.0

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leahmeeko's review against another edition

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mysterious reflective medium-paced

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

5.0

This book was strangely beautiful. At first I thought it would be too slow but after around 60 pages I was hooked. There is a lot to digest and I am entirely glad that I had the experience of doing so. The characters and the settings are so well-crafted that I could picture everything and everyone; I never once felt that the descriptions were too much. In fact, some of them were insanely wonderful (I especially enjoyed the descriptions of Stella throughout the book). While the layout is slightly strange (it’s divided into parts which are subdivided into months, which is nice except each month starts with chapter one again so I was never too sure how many chapters in I actually was) the addition of letters between the characters solidified each of them and made the story feel all the more real. There are many characters and a lot of sub plots, each of which were interesting, never too long, and wrapped up at the end (although I feel like some of it was potentially a little hurried). It’s a historical fiction with elements of mystery and a little bit of romance and I loved every aspect of it. I felt torn over what I wanted for each of the characters and how I wanted their relationships to progress but I think that was the point- it seems that the characters themselves are equally torn and. It highlights the relationship between religion and science, and also touched on feminism. I genuinely don’t know how to fully capture how I feel about this book, and while some aspects I’ve mentioned did make it drop that 0.25 of a star (kind of a ridiculous amount), it was ultimately incredibly hard to put down and wonderfully unique.
EDIT: it’s been months since i’ve read this and i’ve decided to change it to a 5 star review, purely because every time i think about it i feel so much love for it and ultimately i don’t think a book has to be perfect to be perfect for you

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