Reviews tagging 'Physical abuse'

El Encuadernador / The Binding by Bridget Collins

66 reviews

melissalivanos's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful sad medium-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? It's complicated

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, and Sexual violence

Minor: Miscarriage, Suicidal thoughts, Forced institutionalization, Vomit, and Fire/Fire injury

Being outed, coming out and it going very very badly

taliastorm's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Violence, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

chichio's review against another edition

emotional reflective 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

5.0

THIS IS EASILY THE BEST BOOK I’VE READ THIS YEAR SO FAR OH MY GOD.

I read this alongside the audiobook available on Libby and it was such an experience. Such. An. Experience. I was literally on the coach with my headphones on, teary eyed at so many different parts of the book.

The book is split up into three parts and each part feels so different that it almost tricks you into thinking that you’re not even reading the same book—but you are. And that’s what makes it so marvellous. Everything ties up so perfectly at the very end. 

The world building that Bridget Collins has achieved in this novel… absolutely unbelievable. I could quite literally see everything playing out behind my mind’s eye, as clear as a scene in a movie.
 
And it was so interesting to see how the fantastical elements of the book actually worked as a backdrop to a LOVE STORY. I really didn’t expect that but I loved it… I loved every single second of it. I definitely think people need to go into this story without knowing ANYTHING—it works better to enter the story just as confused as our narrator. 

Part 3… LUCIAN’S POV? GUYS I WAS TEARING UP THROUGHOUT THAT WHOLE PART LIKE I WAS SO SO SURE HE WOULDN'T GET HIS MEMORIES BACK LIKE I WAS SICK TO MY STOMACH LIKE HIS FIRST REACTION TO EMMETT AHHHHHHHHHHHH

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, and Sexual violence

b3ans's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful sad 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

4.25

Absolutely  loved this dark and gloomy story. I read the Dutch translation and found the sentences to be a bit too lengthy sometimes which made them harder to read. The ending was good, but could’ve been a bit more fleshed out. The story itself was extremely creative, hopeful, heartbreaking and shocking sometimes. I do recommend others to check the trigger warnings before reading. I didn’t and was a bit shocked by some of the content. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Physical abuse, Rape, and Suicide

anapthine's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious relaxing medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Biphobia, Bullying, Death, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Misogyny, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicide, Vomit, Grief, Suicide attempt, Outing, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Physical abuse and Sexual content

Minor: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Deadnaming, Death, Blood, and Classism

shafaerie's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad tense slow-paced

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Homophobia, and Physical abuse

thecheshire_cat's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Child abuse, Child death, Domestic abuse, Homophobia, Infidelity, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Violence, Gaslighting, and Alcohol

Moderate: Alcoholism, Cursing, Death, Sexual content, Slavery, Vomit, Grief, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Confinement, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Pregnancy

bookstosoothethesoul's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.0

Wow what a book! I was fascinated with the concept of binding memories and the exploration of the implications of living without those memories. I would have loved to see more exploration of how this world interacts with memories and identity if pieces of your identity can be taken away for a fee but I was delighted with what we did get. There is a sweet and tender love story in this book but there's also a lot of dark content. I would definitely recommend checking content warnings because this book was somewhat hard to read at points. This is a hard book to talk about more without giving spoilers. The important thing to know is that it's split into three sections and the slowest section by far is the first one. It was a bit frustrating for me to read at times because the character doesn't have the information he needs for the plot to start. Once he does though boy does this story take off. I was absolutely captivated by the characters and the struggles they faced. Once I began the second part I couldn't put the book down because I was so entranced. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Physical abuse, and Suicide

Moderate: Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, and Alcohol

vigil's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

4.0

i read this entire book in one day. something about it immediately pulled me in from page one. 

it does leave several things up to interpretation for the reader. binding is the main characters true calling, and it’s repeatedly emphasized throughout the story. despite this, binding is given a very conflicting portrayal, and its more negative than you’d think. we don’t get to see really anything of the magical portion of emmett’s binding despite the concept being central to the plot. 

this book is split up into three parts, all interconnected, but so varying in tone it can seem like you’re reading a different book. 

if you enjoy character driven stories, heavy introspection, ambiguous interpretations, and a book more focused on a journey than an ending, i’d recommend this. 

this book is pretty difficult to write a review about, and i suggest you go in knowing as little as possible. that being said, heed all content warnings.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal death, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Kidnapping, Murder, Outing, Alcohol, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Forced institutionalization

izzybell's review against another edition

mysterious 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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death, Domestic abuse, Homophobia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicide, Outing, Abandonment, and Sexual harassment