Reviews with content warning for Rape - World Without End

Reviews tagging 'Rape'

World Without End by Ken Follett

32 reviews

rosietomyn's review against another edition

dark hopeful reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

3.5

Revisiting Kingsbridge two hundred years after Pillars of the Earth, Ken Follett's The World Without End isn't quite as impressive a read as it's predecessor.

While Pillars expertly weaves life stories that span a couple of generations, the second novel sticks closer to one generation of Kingsbridge residents. Although it would seem more likely readers would get a deeper understanding of a smaller cast of characters, this set felt hollow and less dimensional than the larger cast in the previous book. If this had been book one, I don't believe I would pick up book two.

The series as a whole is known for its violence, but book two feels especially brutal when compared to book one. Needlessly so.

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linda_wolf's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional hopeful inspiring sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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jessiekind_'s review against another edition

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4.0

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heartfelthullabaloo's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging informative medium-paced

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

4.0

It was pretty on par with the way the first one played out. The author really knows how to get the reader to feel things. The church was still frustrating and corrupt. Caris and Merthin were great characters. The villain was slightly less loathsome than William and there was less rape so that was good. Still lots of mentions of breasts, it would make a good drinking game, take a shot every time breasts are mentioned 😜

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riffcaster's review against another edition

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challenging dark sad slow-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

3.0

For immersing yourself in the darkness of medieval England, this book is great. For political intrigue, this book is great. But at over 1000 pages it's a slog, and there are plenty of times where character development is clunky, especially for women, and the rape/sex scenes are frankly just gratuitous at many points. (What is his thing with pubes???)

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hmatt's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

It's hard not to rate this 5 stars. I read the first third of the book in Fall 2020, and barely picked it up again until late 2023 - most of it, I read in the last week. Even though many years had passed, I remembered most of the characters and their plotlines. The storytelling in this series is so incredibly rich, it feels like it is history. It follows characters throughout their entire lives, basically, so you really end up connecting with and either loving or despising them.

There are many, many graphic and vulgar scenes, so I can see how this isn't a read that everyone would enjoy. I feel that the author toes the line of "too much" and doesn't necessarily cross it given the historical context, but this is my opinion.

I'm going to read around this time period, I think (ahem, Wolf Hall), and then perhaps pick up the third book in the series which takes place 200ish years later.

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