Reviews tagging 'Torture'

The Wake by Paul Kingsnorth

1 review

thomme_k's review

challenging dark slow-paced

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

4.0

A profoundly disturbing book, that I found challenging in the engagement with the dark spectra of the main character's psyche, as I simultaneously rooted for him - at least in part - whilst finding him abhorrent, and wondered whether the author expected me to find him attractive.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Kidnapping, Colonisation, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Moderate: Xenophobia, Blood, War, Murder, and Sexual violence

Minor: Animal death, Sexism, Rape, Domestic abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Sexual violence, Slavery, and Torture

It deals with the colonisation of the British Isles by the Norman invaders, including all of the violence that a military occupation - and guerrilla warfare against that occupation - involves. It becomes progressively clearer through the book that the main character and narrator may be suffering from undiagnosed paranoid schizophrenia.