Reviews tagging 'Confinement'

Book of Night by Holly Black

17 reviews

hazel_oat's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense slow-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? Yes

1.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Child death, Kidnapping, Confinement, Murder, Death, Gore, and Violence

Moderate: Child abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Infidelity, Physical abuse, and Alcohol

Minor: Incest, Fatphobia, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, and Sexual content

amylynn44's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Blood, Violence, Classism, Body horror, Murder, Gore, Death, and Cursing

Minor: Vomit, Panic attacks/disorders, and Confinement

taythegreat's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense slow-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

3.5

I really enjoyed this book! Holly Black is the best when it comes to morally gray FMC. I loved that our heroine had flaws that but not in the "not like other girls" kind of way, Charlie was a lot of fun and I loved following her even when she made dumb decisions. She stayed on brand for sure. 

This was a very slow book at first, I knew little to nothing about it when I started reading so I wasn't expecting it to be twisty-turny, pleasantly surprised for sure! I had some parts of the ending figured out early on and thought I had it all figured puy. I was pretty smug about it ngl, but the unexpected hit and was so satisfying. 

The one thing I don't love is I went into this book thinking it was a stand alone, probably my fault for not researching it first, so the cliff hanger was a doozy. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Gun violence, Adult/minor relationship, Death, Drug use, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Blood, Murder, and Gore

Moderate: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Adult/minor relationship, Death of parent, Incest, Addiction, and Confinement

bergha1998's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny 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

3.25

It’s a really interesting story, especially lore wise. The plot twist is exceptional. I just found the writing a bit clunky, it didn’t flow nicely for me. I also do have a hard time with moral bankrupt main characters, so if you also hate that I wouldn’t suggest. 

Low Fantasy, Romance Subplot, 1/2 🔥

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Alcohol, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Torture, Blood, Death of parent, Kidnapping, Violence, Body horror, Car accident, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Murder, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Sexual content

wrensreadingroom's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Abandonment, Body horror, Violence, Alcohol, Death, Grief, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual content, Misogyny, Murder, Addiction, Body shaming, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Child abuse, Drug abuse, Vomit, Alcoholism, Gore, Slavery, Blood, Child death, Classism, Confinement, Death of parent, Medical content, and Toxic friendship

sapphicbookdragon's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Gore, Adult/minor relationship, Murder, Alcohol, Blood, Child abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, and Sexual content

Minor: Vomit, Sexual harassment, Fire/Fire injury, Confinement, and Self harm

rinku's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.0

Book of Night is actually the first book by Black that I’ve read – besides reading the Spiderwick Chronicles as a child but I don’t remember anything about them. I wasn’t blown away by this novel, but it was a nice read, mainly because of the dark atmosphere and the interesting world.  

In this book, we follow Charlie as she navigates a world in which shadows can be manipulated and are used for many shady things. Charlie soon finds herself in the centre of those because she goes on a mission to find a mysterious book. Her past helps her greatly with this task since she was once a thief and a criminal herself. The thief stuff and the few action scenes were honestly my favorite thing about this novel since they’re just so cool. Much of Charlie’s backstory is interesting as well, but it was a bit boring that much of it was told, just like the backstories of other characters. Furthermore, I always find a bit funny when YA authors write adult books because what makes books “adult” in their opinion is mentioning abuse, drugs, and sex often. This was here a bit over-the-top, and I’m sure there are other ways to make a book more adult. Some things were also quite predictable since the plot is a bit average, but I generally liked it. 

I don’t know what I think about the ending though. What I did like about it was how

Charlie’s tricking Salt

but many other things about it were not so understandable. With all the plot twists and revelations, like

Vince being Remy’s shadow and not Remy or the hierophant being the murderer, apparently

, I was more irritated than shocked by them. Especially the second thing came a bit out of the blue for me. I also don’t like the last chapter and have the feeling it was only added to have the possibility for writing a second book. 

Like I’ve mentioned at the beginning, the dark atmosphere created throughout the novel was so great. I imagined many scenes taking place in the dark or at least when it’s dusk/dawn, even when this wasn’t the case. The general world was interesting as well since I always love to read about urban fantasy novels where magic just exists, and we see how it’s dealt with in the modern world. Nevertheless, the world building was sometimes a bit irritating, and I struggled with imagining some things, like how a shadow is able to attack a person. 

I don’t have strong opinions on the characters, I think they were all okay. Charlie seemed a bit try-hard edgy to me at the beginning but after the half, I started to warm up with her. I honestly found her past life and how she was back then more interesting, and I would love to read a whole book about it. Vince was a fascinating character from the beginning, but I didn’t care for Remy’s POV at all and don’t think that it was necessary. What I find a bit sad though is that mostly only men are part of the conspiracy and hence play a bigger role. 

I’m not sure why we need a sequel to Book of Night since the story is nicely wrapped up at the end, even though it’s a bit open. Still, I wouldn’t mind reading more about Charlie since I started to like her quite a lot but I’m not the biggest fan of the situation she was put in at the end. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Blood, Death, Gore, Murder, Violence, and Vomit

Moderate: Child abuse, Confinement, and Sexual content

Minor: Addiction, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Gun violence, and Panic attacks/disorders

lost_windsock's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious fast-paced

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

5.0

This story captured my attention from the first page. The back and forth between the past and present was compelling, and the shadow magic was interesting and well executed. There was plenty of action and a lot of tense moments, and it just flowed so perfectly and had me hanging on every interaction and decision Charlie made. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Violence, Gun violence, Alcohol, Blood, Body horror, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, Death, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, and Murder

foldingthepage_kayleigh's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Alcohol, Confinement, Violence, Death, Drug abuse, Murder, Gore, Gun violence, and Injury/Injury detail

jesshart8's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Gore, Murder, Physical abuse, Blood, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Confinement, Drug abuse, Drug use, Child abuse, and Addiction