Reviews tagging 'Classism'

The Binding by Bridget Collins

31 reviews

zoebooksit's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional medium-paced

3.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Classism, Sexual assault, Rape, Homophobia, and Animal death

Minor: Vomit

sternfrl613's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad medium-paced

2.75

This was a tough read that opened a couple of wounds I didn't need opening. I only read it till the end because I needed a happy end, and thankfully received one that I can make peace with. 
LGBTQIA*, SA survivors and children of abusive families: check the content warnings before reading to make sure you're up to what you're getting here. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gaslighting, Homophobia, Emotional abuse, Abandonment, Classism, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Sexual content, Adult/minor relationship, Murder, Sexual assault, Rape, Sexual violence, Suicide, Child abuse, Animal cruelty, Animal death, and Blood

Minor: Excrement

animaniac17's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad slow-paced

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

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Fire/Fire injury, Pedophilia, Suicide attempt, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Sexual assault, and Death

Moderate: Blood, Incest, Violence, Sexual content, Dementia, Kidnapping, Rape, Vomit, Cursing, and Pedophilia

Minor: Alcoholism, Abortion, and Classism

louisallama's review against another edition

dark emotional sad slow-paced

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

3.75

It's a little bit hard for me to review because 1. the blurb doesn't tell you what the story is about and 2. it's not the type of book I usually gravitate towards, due in part to the somewhat misleading blurb (the blurb purposefully did 't including main plot points for story reasons). I was expecting exciting magical memory stuff, but instead this was an extremely character driven novel that was far more focused on the experiences of the main characters and the evil ways that memory binding could be used. Despite this, the story was lovely, and I definitely cried through the end of Part Two when Emmett and Lucien get found out. The prose was very nice, although it got a little flowery for me at times. None of these things are really criticisms of the book itself (except maybe the blurb I guess) and I can definitely see other people loving this book more than me, but I still definitely enjoyed it overall. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Outing, Suicide, Murder, Animal death, Homophobia, and Rape

Moderate: Classism, Cursing, Vomit, Physical abuse, Incest, Alcoholism, and Death

Minor: Fire/Fire injury, Forced institutionalization, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

coffee_and_wool's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious 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? No

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Outing, Suicide, Sexual violence, Gaslighting, Emotional abuse, Animal cruelty, Homophobia, Vomit, Domestic abuse, Rape, and Physical abuse

Moderate: Child death, Classism, Incest, and Pedophilia

fe_aye's review against another edition

dark informative 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

2.0

This book had an interesting premise and did do something interesting. However I found the writing style to be very dull. I managed to finish the book so at least it’s enough to keep you reading.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Classism, Cursing, Death, Sexual harassment, Animal death, Confinement, Dementia, Homophobia, Outing, Rape, Sexual assault, Animal cruelty, Sexual content, and Vomit

dananana's review

emotional mysterious reflective

• 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Emotional abuse, Child death, Outing, Suicide, Physical abuse, Child abuse, Homophobia, Animal death, and Rape

Moderate: Classism, Sexism, Alcoholism, and Fire/Fire injury

llyrian's review against another edition

emotional inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.25

That was so sad and wholesome and pretty

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Child abuse, Classism, and Emotional abuse

Moderate: Alcoholism, Biphobia, and Homophobia

Minor: Vomit

wildelwrcase's review against another edition

adventurous hopeful mysterious slow-paced

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

1.5

I considered DNFing at several points during part 1, and I can't say I completely made the right decision by sticking it through. (Sorry if this is a little spoilery. I think a lot of this is predictable anyway, but if you want to go in totally blind, skip my review)

Looking at the back of the book, in a Q&A with the author, it's stated she has written 7 YA books before releasing this adult fantasy, and boy golly can you tell. Every time the characters swore was a mini jumpscare where in I had to remember this was not written for teenagers. Because even with the references to the darker material present in this world (see trigger warnings) it still feels totally juvenile with incredibly flat, black and white morality characterization. In the past I've disliked YA books for this quality, yet forgiven them for the fact that they are geared toward people younger than me, but this is marketed fully as an adult fantasy, giving it no excuse.

On the topic of characters, the ones portrayed in this book are both absurdly flat and painfully boring. Outside of our main duo, every single character is presented so cartoonishly it's impossible to take seriously. They are all either virtuous girls who suffer for the advancement of our male heroes' plot, or legitimately evil peverted monsters, with neither party being offered even the barest of nuance. (The big bad man who takes Emmett to the big city is named de Havilland. Really. I haven't seen anything so heavy handed since Cruella Deville.) Unfortunately, neither Emmett or Lucian are given much further development. This almost astounds me since they are both 1st person POV characters! As individuals they can be surmised easily: Emmett - farmer (it's his last name and occupation), hates monetary hand outs, righteous (except when the plot needs him to not be), Lucian - rich, hates his dad, hates bookbinding (but only kind of and only to stir up plot drama.) Could you guess that they're also incredibly inconsistent? And somehow still, the most egregious character injustice is killing off a main character and then never mentioning her again!

The plot is easily the best part of the book, and yet still so much of my enjoyment is based on it's potential for more. I think the plot twists are satisfying, though predictable, and the magic system is so cool. There are so many moments that expand the world and potential that binding memories could have on a vaugely pre-industrial vaugely British setting, like the one in this book. Does Collins ever actually explore these possibilities, well no, but the thought of it is intriguing.

A large part of the plot though that can't go ignored is the romance, which... kinda sucks. Like the 2nd part of the book is by far the most enjoyable to read, don't get me wrong, but their entire relationship is told to us while skipping through the parts we actually want to read about. Like this novel is 450 fucking pages and the author just tells us they had an affair??? She couldn't be bothered to write even one or two scenes of them just fucking talking, getting to know each other, falling in love? It's so insane, she somehow spends more time talking about the sexual assualt of minors rather than the supposedly loving, consensual intimacy between our main romantic pair! That is simply absurd, and quite frankly deeply frustrating. Much like the characters though, the plot, is just really fucking boring.

The two, reasons this aren't a 1 star: 1. It's very readable once you get through the mind numbing opening. Again the 2nd part is pretty fun to read, if rather lack luster. The author is able to spread out reveals just enough that even though they're ridiculously predictable, you still want to get there to see if maybe that's the turning point into where it gets good. 2. Just the idea of it. I really wish this concept was created by a more competent writer, especially one for adult fiction.

Later losers, gonna go write a fanfiction with this premise, but make it not suck.

EDIT: I can't stop thinking about this book, and the more I think the worse it gets. Bullet points cause I don't want to spoil or rant too much.

• Women are treated horribly no matter what. Either sidelined as enforcers of the homophobic realities of the time period keeping our main characters from living freely or literally killed off and never brought up again.
• Part 1 is rendered completely useless by the end of the book, except basically to stall so the reveal in part 2 is more impactful.
• Zero moral nuance or complexity.
• Completely dropped plot threads and/ or thematic ideas that would have made the 450 pages feel less bloated and actually given some depth to the world. 

So yeah this is a pretty bad book, but it was more enjoyable to read than what I would deem 1 star level atrocity.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Homophobia, Sexual assault, Suicide, Rape, and Adult/minor relationship

Minor: Outing and Classism

marleywrites's review against another edition

emotional mysterious medium-paced

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

3.75

This book took awhile to grow on me, but by the end of part one I was very invested. Seeing all the pieces fall together was extremely satisfying. I loved the angst and the intense emotions. This is one I would consider rereading, especially in the fall/winter. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Emotional abuse, Animal death, Suicide, Death, Alcohol, Homophobia, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Violence, Infidelity, Kidnapping, Grief, Gaslighting, Classism, Vomit, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual assault, and Rape

Minor: Cursing