Reviews tagging 'Infertility'

The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley

9 reviews

isalizart's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad 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

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Religious bigotry, and Incest

Moderate: Infertility, Sexual assault, Ableism, Miscarriage, Rape, Infidelity, Misogyny, and Abortion

Minor: War, Pregnancy, and Death

I was enjoying this at first, but towards the end it just became mostly confusing, long-winded and miserable. I realised how uncomfortably difficult topics were handled when I added trigger warnings to my review, because there were a lot. It's even worse considering what happened to the author's daughter. The "feminist lense" the book advertises was interesting at first,

btrz7's review against another edition

dark slow-paced

• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No

0.25

I don't even know where to start with this. For starters, I never leave books unfinished but this book was very close to being the first. I had to give myself a deadline, otherwise I would have abandoned it.
There is no amount of plot or character development that can justify the size of this book. There are huge stretches where nothing is happening, and I swear the same theological arguments were revisited every 50 pages by the same characters, with nothing new added to it and nothing productive coming out of it. Religion is a big part of the conflict of the book, informing characters' decisions and morals, but it was to the point of exhaustion. 
Characters were another thing. The plot of the book spans decades, but throughout it they always feel like the children/teenagers they were at the beginning. No one changes in any meaningful way. I don't mind flawed characters, but Jesus this whole cast was getting on my nerves. Most of the men don't seem to have any personality, and as for the women, they are all hypocrites, who are at turns jealous or disdainful of one another, due to what? Ah yes, the attention of men. Someone is either a pious prude or a wanton whore, and the best thing is, they seem to be both at alternating times, woth no reason to it. Morgaine disdains other women as being shallow and only talking of marriages and babes, but her inner monologue seems to also focus on those subjects and on who's sleeping with whom. Gwen thinks Morgaine is a whore, but then commits adultery throughout the entirety of her marriage, and somehow ends up blaming her husband and her lover for it, and them somehow accusing them of being homosexual/queer (?) and having unpure feelings for each other. That was an unexpected ride. Anyway the thought pattern doesn't differ much with other female characters.
Then the nail in the coffin. Around close to halfway through, there were somethings making mr a but uncomfortable. Sexualization of young women, and women over 20 being considered 'old' (being historical fiction does not excuse this, low life expectancy had a lot to do with high infant mortality, and not so much with people not living after 50). Big age gaps in relationships, most of which are not exactly consensual. And then the thought processes to justify incestuous  or pedophiliac relationships. Which on its own is heavy, but I believe that in fiction you do whatever you want. Except then I find out its not really fiction and it is reflecting the author's own practices and that sours everything.
So yeah, I powered through the last few hours so as to not leave it unfinished, but I will actively not recommend this ever to anyone. Its a shame, because I read it as part of a challenge to read the oldest book in my TBR and this was it on GR, but it wasn't worth the wait.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Religious bigotry, Sexism, Sexual content, Ableism, Abortion, Blood, Pedophilia, Adult/minor relationship, Biphobia, Death, Infertility, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Pregnancy, War, Body shaming, Fatphobia, Homophobia, Incest, Misogyny, Sexual assault, and Xenophobia

homebodywitch's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Forced institutionalization, Religious bigotry, Homophobia, Incest, Infidelity, Infertility, Sexual assault, Genocide, Death, Kidnapping, Misogyny, Death of parent, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Miscarriage, Pregnancy, Rape, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Grief, War, Abortion, Sexism, and Violence

unwall's review against another edition

adventurous emotional informative inspiring mysterious medium-paced

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

4.0

A long but evenly-paced historical fantasy retelling of Arthurian legend, seen mostly through the eyes if Morgaine Le Fey. Distinct characters interact within a complex moral universe rather than a good-bad dichotomy, which — combined with sharp descriptive language  — makes for a rich, nuanced imagining of the early interactions between pagan and Christian religion and culture in Britain. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Pregnancy, Incest, Sexual violence, Blood, Sexual content, and Domestic abuse

Minor: Suicidal thoughts, War, Misogyny, Grief, Religious bigotry, Infertility, Miscarriage, Infidelity, and Death of parent

rae_diant's review against another edition

adventurous emotional tense 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Misogyny, Religious bigotry, Pregnancy, Incest, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual content, and Infertility

Moderate: Rape, Adult/minor relationship, Grief, Death of parent, Ableism, and Gore

Minor: Homophobia

sarah_writes's review

slow-paced

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

1.0

This book has been recommended to me again and again and again. The truth about the author is well known, and it only takes a quick google search to find out the truth. However, since it has been recommended to me so often, and I was assured that there was very little in the book to suggest that the author was anything other than perfectly normal, I decided to read it anyway. That was a mistake, I found The Mists of Avalon to be a deeply nauseating read and I deeply regret picking it up. I actually gave up after about 500 pages, after two rape scenes occurred in a relatively short space of time. I understand that this is still a very important book to a lot of people, particularly those who read it before the truth about MZB was revealed. Reading it today with the prior knowledge of the author's sickening crimes makes it difficult to appreciate the novel as the original Arthurian inspired feminist fantasy. This novel is full of incest and rape, described quite explicitly.  I believe that MZB used her version of paganism to justify her own sick way of thinking, and it saddens me to think that someone would use any religion in this way. The debates between Christianity and paganism were interesting at times, but most of the time it felt like the author was just continuously bashing Christianity. Gwenhwyfar is the most religious of the Christian characters, and she was often used as an example of how repressed the Christians are in the novel. Archbishop Patricius is apparently supposed to be an example of Saint Patrick, but in reality although Patrick brought Christianity to Ireland he was much more liberal than the character described in this book. There is also a lot of talk in this novel about virginity, as well as fertility, sometimes to the point where it felt a bit obsessive. The 'feminist' aspect of this book was completely lost on me. There were few female characters in this book with bodily autonomy. There was also very little sisterhood. Characters who are friends for a few chapters begin to hate each other soon after when they're getting too much male attention. On a less disturbing level, I did not like the writing style of this book. It felt overly long and drawn out. The way that the characters speak felt unrealistic and over-complicated, for the sake of sounding old-timey. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Sexual violence, Incest, Infertility, and Pedophilia

caterwaul's review against another edition

adventurous dark medium-paced

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

5.0

I greatly enjoyed this book. I've always loved King Arthur and was super excited to read this book when I got it as a gift. However, I highly recommend you read the content warnings because it is not a happy-go-lucky, unproblematic read. The overall story combines a lot of different stories from Arthurian Legend, but I think it's most similar to Le Morte D'Arthur for much of the plot. There's a lot of politics, a lot of religious back and forth between goddess worship and Christianity, and a lot of ethics/morality questioning. Like I said though, highly enjoyed! It primarily focuses on the women of Arthurian Legend- Igraine, Morgaine, and Gwenhwyfar, along with some others- and their POV on the events, which is definitely a fresh take on the story.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Incest, Religious bigotry, and Infertility

Moderate: Abortion, Death, Miscarriage, Murder, Pregnancy, and Infidelity

Minor: Sexual assault and Adult/minor relationship

morganrie's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective tense 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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Ableism, Abortion, Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Animal death, Blood, Child abuse, Classism, Colonisation, Confinement, Death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Incest, Infertility, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Murder, Sexual harassment, Suicide attempt, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Rape, Religious bigotry, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Violence, War, Xenophobia, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide

decembermagpie's review against another edition

adventurous hopeful mysterious reflective slow-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? No

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Miscarriage, Rape, Sexual content, Incest, Infertility, and Infidelity