Reviews tagging 'Confinement'

A Winter's Promise by Christelle Dabos

19 reviews

amartin48's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

4.0

This book was everything I asked for, I didn’t quite understand what I was asking for, but I ended up really enjoying this read! The world building is mind bending and takes a lot of focus to sort out all the pieces. Of the three main locations in this book, each are VASTLY different. I loved the test of memory and comprehension this book gave me, and it builds suspense between characters beautifully. It took me 200pgs to really get into it, but I’m excited to read the next in the trilogy! 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcoholism, Physical abuse, Gore, Infertility, Injury/Injury detail, Pregnancy, Confinement, Drug use, Bullying, Blood, Domestic abuse, Alcohol, and Police brutality

Minor: Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship, Violence, Suicide, and Pregnancy

litliz's review

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Abandonment, Alcohol, Blood, Dysphoria, Injury/Injury detail, Body horror, Gaslighting, Bullying, Physical abuse, Police brutality, Pregnancy, Sexual harassment, and Violence

Minor: Child death, Chronic illness, Confinement, Infidelity, Misogyny, Torture, Incest, Child abuse, Classism, Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Infertility, Miscarriage, Sexism, and Suicide

jstilts's review

adventurous emotional mysterious tense slow-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

4.25

The first part in a series, this book nevertheless is just about satisfying for the emotional/confidence journey it takes the lead upon (albeit slightly rushed at the end but I carries through well enough in book 2). I won't recap the plot as that would remove the tension, but this book is basically about an arranged marriage between two countries - but our lead character has been kept in the dark about how much danger this marriage will expose her to, to the point where she has to spend half the book in disguise amongst those who wish her dead. It's an interesting mix of fantasy and what could have been a period drama (almost a Jane Austen romance but one gone deliciously wrong). It probably wouldn't have been enough to be one or the other, but both genres combined lift this into a compelling tale of intrigue as she tries to survive the world she has been thrust into, and rise above the limited role she is being forced to play.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Confinement, Emotional abuse, Pregnancy, Body shaming, Domestic abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Police brutality, Classism, Toxic relationship, Physical abuse, Kidnapping, Misogyny, Racism, and Bullying

Minor: Animal death, Infidelity, Drug use, Abandonment, Alcohol, Murder, Violence, and Miscarriage

mariavdl's review

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? It's complicated

2.75

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Content Warnings

Minor: Infidelity, Child death, Physical abuse, Death of parent, Confinement, Miscarriage, and Pregnancy

bookchatwithbeth's review against another edition

dark medium-paced

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

2.0

Very disappointed in this. So misogynistic/patriarchal, all the characters are horrid and deceptive and treat Ophelia terribly. No world building so nothing makes sense. Overall I’m just confused, bored, and put off. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny

Moderate: Alcoholism, Drug abuse, Death, Confinement, and Gaslighting

penofpossibilities's review against another edition

slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Classism, Confinement, Domestic abuse, Incest, Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Sexism, and Violence

Moderate: Child abuse, Miscarriage, Abortion, Alcoholism, Body horror, Body shaming, Eating disorder, Misogyny, Murder, Suicide, and Torture

Minor: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child death, Genocide, Infertility, Infidelity, Pedophilia, Sexual assault, Sexual content, and Vomit

lokes's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious slow-paced

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

1.25

This was… well, is was something. 
The worldbuilding was a bit sloppy, but interesting, but plot and characters? Icky. Like, really bad. 

Not only did it have tropes such as forced marriage and hints of pedophilia (as soon as the guy was always called a “man with his big hands; like a father; etc” and the woman described as “girl with small hands; being generally very young and clueless and in need of constant help”) I had a bad feeling and boy wasn’t I wrong. 

I don’t know why so many people like a book which is filled with sexism, weird stereotypes, classism, racism and basically everything you don’t want to read about when it is normalized (or rather being glorified, because you just couldn’t catch a break when reading. It just kept coming)

I do feel like I need to apologize to the person I am now that I read this book because it wasn’t pleasant and I feel like I need to unlearn all of the very harmful stuff I just read about. 

The writing style’s not bad though, I could have liked it without the weird content. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Sexism, Suicide, Torture, Incest, Miscarriage, Sexual harassment, Body shaming, Toxic relationship, Misogyny, Toxic friendship, and Violence

Moderate: Drug use, Blood, Child abuse, Body shaming, Bullying, Classism, Death of parent, and Confinement

joisaddler's review

medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Violence, Emotional abuse, Classism, Incest, and Physical abuse

royalraspberry's review against another edition

mysterious

• 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

3.5

This is a really interesting one because I think it's really outside the wheelhouse of what I normally read - I picked it up for a reading challenge because someone had it listed under "book about your favorite season, winter" and that gets a hard disagree from me, but I did put it under "book with a misleading title". 

The writing in this book was absolutely lovely. That said it is 50% world building and 50% political intrigue.  And the world building was absolutely spectacular, I really enjoyed all of it. Dabos has created an incredibly interesting world filled with interesting characters (none of whom are trustworthy, but that's part of the fun). But there was just so *little* plot in the book that I really, really struggled. 

If you're into fantasy books heavy on character development and world building, this is absolutely the right book for you. It's well written and the narrator for the audio book is completely enchanting to listen to, she brings the rich, beautiful world into a new depth. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Pregnancy, Classism, and Emotional abuse

Moderate: Child death, Blood, Confinement, Child abuse, Police brutality, and Murder

anarchist_al's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

5.0

I am gonna review the quartet as a whole on The Storm’s Echo. This first book made me immediately want to read the whole series!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Injury/Injury detail, Police brutality, and Violence

Minor: Pregnancy, Alcohol, and Vomit