Reviews with content warning for Sexual content - The Book of Life (All Souls) by Harkness, Deborah (2014) Hardcover

Reviews tagging 'Sexual content'

The Book of Life (All Souls) by Harkness, Deborah (2014) Hardcover by Deborah Harkness

33 reviews

kbairbooks's review against another edition

4.0

challenging dark mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Thank goodness! This third installment in the series really brought it back up for me after the dumpster fire that was book two. I enjoyed this one and loved how cleanly it seemed to wrap up. And finally that menace is gone!

Content Warnings

danielledeal's review against another edition

4.5

adventurous emotional hopeful mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

There is no easing into this story - it's action and drama and fear from the very beginning. And the pace doesn't let up. Lots of pregnancy talk in this book, but the importance of found family is even more evident in this story than in the two books prior. Most of this book is anything but comforting (check the content warnings!) - but I have a hard time saying goodbye to these characters I've grown to love so much.

The complication of the first two books presenting us with so many great characters and storylines is that in the third book it does get a little convoluted trying to tie everything back together. The element I most appreciate about the storytelling is that in book one, many of the details and side character arcs feel complete when contained within that book; but those same details come back in a way that elevates the story and never feels gimmicky or stretched. Though it can make for a complicated reading experience, it's immensely gratifying to see a tiny element like a chess game from the first 100 pages of book one come back in such a natural way to play a big role on this story.

Content Warnings

eabbenante's review against another edition

3.75

challenging dark emotional mysterious 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

Overall, I enjoyed the story, however there were a few plot points that didn’t make sense or didn’t do anything to further the story. It also felt like it ended without wrapping up all the final pieces which after two books and the main plot completed is a bit frustrating. It would have been nice to get an epilogue and see a bit further into the future.
It also felt like there were some continuity issues with facts we learned in the first and second book, but that could be more of an issue with my memory than the writing.

Content Warnings

taliatalksbooks's review against another edition

2.5

challenging mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: N/A

Flaws of characters a main focus: N/A

The Book of Life by Deborah Harkness was about as good as I expected this series to end after struggling through the first two books of the trilogy. I can respect what people like about this book and this series overall, but it just wasn’t for me. Something about each of the dialog scenes was so boring I felt like I was reading a textbook rather than a fantasy story. The dialog was dry, and felt extremely dated and formal. Not only that, but the characters were about as interesting as the dialog itself, meaning hardly at all. There were so many moving parts across three long novels with so many characters that I just couldn’t tell apart. They didn’t have unique voices since most of the characters felt very one note. Some of the characters had similar names, or they had so many names I couldn’t keep track of them. I gave up sometime during book 2 trying to keep the vampire linkage straight and just tried to enjoy the plot of the book, even if the amount of characters kept increasing with little to no further development. The underlying plots were interesting but given that the second book ended with one of my least favorite tropes to ever exist, book three didn’t start off on a high note. I think these books could have done with a lot less dialog and a lot more action, since they felt a lot like tell instead of show. I felt like the events were predictable, and that Diana was fairly overpowered (not just a powerful witch, but something above that). I did like Diana’s character development, but it was also hard to gage because I had a hard time with the supporting characters. There were just SO many characters, and most of them were wholeheartedly unnecessary in my opinion. That being said, if you’re a fan of wordy fantasy with a variety of other genres woven in (romance, historical fiction, period drama, etc.) this series might be more up your alley, but for me, it just didn’t live up to the recommendations I received for it.

Content Warnings

ilkjen's review against another edition

DID NOT FINISH: 15%

I really enjoyed Book 1. Then Book 2 took a major dip in my interest. Too many characters and too much timeline interference without consequence. And if Book 3 ever addresses those consequences, I won’t know because I am hating it.

I’m not a fan of pregnancy tropes, but it’s worse when the spicy scenes use the pregnancy for added…effect. Additionally, these characters become more insufferable as we learn way too many new things about them. Especially the vampires. I’ve devoted enough time to this trilogy that I just need to move on.

Content Warnings

jess_justmaybeperfect's review against another edition

4.0

adventurous dark reflective tense slow-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

Content Warnings

siglerbooknook's review against another edition

4.25

adventurous dark emotional tense slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

!!!CONTAINS MINOR SPOILERS!!!

This book has proved complicated to review. I have many conflicting thoughts and feelings now that I've finished the whole story.

While the ending wasn't completely satisfying it does make sense, both with the plot, and with the way the main characters have been built. Several goals from all 3 books felt very rushed. Big bads that have been overwhelmingly powerful for 3 books were a cliffnote in the ending.

Of all the characters in the book I liked Diana and Matthew the least. Their personalities while well rounded, are very similar to how they were in the beginning of the first book. I don't feel like they grew much. By this book I felt like Matthew should have learned to have some faith in Diana and Diana should stop second guessing everything.
The side characters however, completely make up for it. I love almost every other character in the book, even if some feel like completely different people from the last time we saw them.

I felt like the plot dragged a little in the middle. We spend the entire second book on Diana learning to use her magic, so further learning in this book felt repetitive. I didn't really need to know how she comes up with words and ingredients for spells multiple times to understand she was growing as a witch.

I did love the big reveal at the end. Harkness does a wonderful job pulling all the tiny clues together. Any detail can be tied back to the reveal beautifully. I do wish she'd answered a few of the broader questions in a little more detail, like what daemons, witches, and vampires are.

Over all I enjoyed the story and am mostly satisfied with the ending.

Content Warnings