Reviews tagging 'Child abuse'

The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett

19 reviews

christcore's review against another edition

medium-paced

3.5

An easy read, recommended by a student. Compelling plot that clips along at a decent pace with ample suspense and minimal perspective changes (yay!). Very questionable sex scenes, graphic sexual assault, and a whole paragraph dedicated to the shape and firmness of a character's breasts over 50 years. It's a good book, but the author is painfully male. Seems self-insert fantasy at times.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence, Sexual assault, and Violence

Moderate: Child abuse and Child death

christina_chen's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark informative inspiring medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Murder, Adult/minor relationship, Sexual violence, Rape, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Sexual violence, Domestic abuse, Fire/Fire injury, and Physical abuse

cheazcakeguy's review against another edition

dark emotional tense slow-paced

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

2.5

I only finished this because I read it for a book club. Way too much unnecessarily explicit SA & pedophilia (just because it's "historically accurate" does not mean I want to read full details of a 14-year-old being r*ped by someone twice her age), characters were mostly one dimensional and often more like caricatures, and the pacing was uneven. The plot and the character Philip were the only things keeping me going, as it is ultimately a good story. The descriptions of the cathedral and the building process were also great. However, all of the tension and story beats ended up feeling super repetitive and recycled, and for the last couple hundred pages I was rolling my eyes at the dramatic twists and turns which felt contrived and meaningless at that point. I really wanted to love this book, but ultimately it was unremarkable. Hard to recommend, unless you like to read soap operas with one-note characters and you're okay with repeated graphic SA. I suppose if you *really* like drama and architecture, and have extreme patience, this is the book for you.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Rape, Sexual harassment, Child abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Murder, Sexism, Sexual content, Adult/minor relationship, Gore, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Religious bigotry, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, and Stalking

Moderate: War and Emotional abuse

Minor: Child death, Alcohol, Animal death, Antisemitism, and War

sohva's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective slow-paced

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

4.5

Great book, wonderful descriptions of the environment and cathedral building. A bit too many descriptions of boobs, though.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Sexual violence, Violence, Misogyny, Rape, and Child abuse

Moderate: Bullying and Death of parent

sonygaystation's review against another edition

So many parts of it are boring and when they’re not boring they’re exceedingly graphic. Sex scenes are wholly unnecessary and always written with the male gaze so the woman’s perspective is so unrealistic. I can’t deal with the graphic rape, assault, and abuse; the graphic descriptions of stoning cats; the unrealistic and boring “love” between Tom and Ellen; and the weirdo random anti-semitism sprinkled here and there throughout. I LOVE fantasy but I don’t understand how people can stomach this book and find it not only read-able but actively enjoyable. Y’all have suspect taste

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Sexism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Bullying, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Gore, Sexual content, Violence, Sexual harassment, War, Emotional abuse, Sexual assault, Pregnancy, Classism, Sexual violence, Child abuse, Death, Death of parent, and Torture

Moderate: Religious bigotry, Rape, and Antisemitism

susanknights's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad 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? It's complicated

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Death of parent, Torture, Violence, Confinement, Domestic abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Misogyny, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Murder, Physical abuse, Rape, Religious bigotry, War, Sexism, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Bullying, Child death, and Child abuse

jaina8851's review against another edition

adventurous dark informative 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

4.0

I have such complicated feelings about this book! I can absolutely see why it is such a beloved book. On the other hand, I really could have done without the graphic depictions of rape and other violence against women. The argument of "that's just how it was in those days" doesn't hold any more water to me about a book that is actual historical fiction than it does when people defend it in Game of Thrones. It is possible to give a sense of horror and dread about those topics if they are necessary to include without putting it "on screen". Similarly, even positive and ostensibly loving descriptions of women's bodies throughout the book come right up to the edge of "breasting boobily down the stairs".

All of that said, though, I am glad I kept reading after parts early on that really turned me off. The story is beautifully constructed with the countless twists and turns and the ending ties everything together so incredibly well. I genuinely don't remember the last time I read a book this long and while this isn't a typical "vacation read", I'm so glad I decided to give it a go during a week when I was doing little else besides reading so that I could fly through it over the course of a few days. 

I was expecting the story to be a higher ratio of basically "infodumps about cathedral building" (to wit, my partner asked me at one point "have they started building the cathedral yet?" and I was like "NO and I'm over 25% of the way through!") but I was pleasantly surprised by how engaging I found the politics and treachery. The author mentions in the preface that he grappled with how to make Philip sympathetic as a man of God since he himself is not a believer, and I think he succeeded magnificently.

All in all, I'm glad I finally got around to reading this super long book, and while at first I was like "I'm not sure if I'll read the sequel(s)", after seeing what book 2 is centered on, I almost certainly will. It just will probably have to wait until I go on vacation again. 😄

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Child abuse, and Adult/minor relationship

bookwitchva's review against another edition

The graphic sexual violence and sexual depictions, as well as the tone of things always going badly for the characters just was really dragging me down. I skipped to the last chapter just to see how it wraps up and even that was pretty horrific. I’m happy with my choice. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Child abuse, Murder, Sexual assault, and Rape

lizardcha's review against another edition

adventurous dark informative reflective sad slow-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Physical abuse, Murder, Rape, and Violence

Moderate: Child abuse

turtlebucket's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• 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

Amazing read (twice) but I cannot give a 5 with the gratuitous and constant violence and sexual assault of women and the overt ways all male characters describe women. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Domestic abuse, Islamophobia, Miscarriage, Antisemitism, Child abuse, Death, Emotional abuse, Violence, Blood, Xenophobia, Classism, Grief, Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Animal death, Pedophilia, Pregnancy, Sexual content, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Infidelity, Gore, Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual violence, Torture, War, Injury/Injury detail, Religious bigotry, Sexual assault, Murder, Physical abuse, Racism, and Rape