Reviews tagging 'Confinement'

Dark Rise by C.S. Pacat

13 reviews

k8buysrum's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional inspiring mysterious sad 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

4.5

The story was so good, it just took a little while to get it going. There’s quite the lull of world building information in the early to middle section that was a little dull. But the main characters are great. The unfolding of information and plot is great. I leave the first book all twisted up inside for how things may go in the second. I’m looking forward to reading it!

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Genocide, Body horror, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Death of parent

Minor: Abandonment, Confinement, Toxic relationship, Classism, and Animal death

blewballoon's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

3.0

I'm not sure how to rate this because I didn't really have any strong feelings about the book. I had mostly a bland reading experience. Apart from maybe Violet, I didn't feel attached to any of the characters, and that made it harder to care what was going on with them. It felt like I was just skimming the surface level of plot and characters for the most part. 

The writing style reminded me of Sabriel by Garth Nix, which is nice, but that style doesn't help when the text is fairly repetitive and the book is mostly predictable.

There are several twists towards the very end, but if you know there is a twist and you try at all to predict what it is, you will probably figure them all out long before the characters do. I didn't feel like any of the twists improved my opinion of the book or gave me that "oh I want to re-read now that I know the twist!" type feeling that would re-contextualize the story, and they didn't make me excited for a sequel. It's more that the whole first 90% of the book feels like it was just filler.

 

I'm trying not to be too harsh, but there really isn't much I liked, despite wanting to like it and having high hopes for it. It has elements that sort of reminded me of other books I do like, but as if I only got the seltzer drink wisp of flavor of the real fruit. I don't even mind when stories are predictable and characters are a bit cliche as long as the book is still immersive and fun to read, but I didn't have much fun with this. I didn't hate it, though. For me, the book was a lot of death and dullness, and it's the combination of sad/bored that risks putting me into a reading slump if I don't find something good to snap me out of it. I will say the audiobook narrator is very good, but I kept speeding the poor man up (I think I finished on 1.6 speed) because I wanted it to be over.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, Murder, and Violence

Moderate: Death of parent, Torture, War, and Confinement

Minor: Body horror and Child death

emilia777's review

adventurous emotional funny mysterious 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

4.0

a little less cyprian a little more james 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death

Moderate: Grief, Death of parent, and Confinement

Minor: War, Adult/minor relationship, and Slavery

cait's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious sad 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

---

Content Warnings

Minor: Animal death, Confinement, Grief, Infidelity, Murder, Abandonment, Death, Blood, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Child abuse, Child death, Classism, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Physical abuse, Racism, Gaslighting, Gore, Violence, Vomit, and War

diana_raquel's review

adventurous dark mysterious 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

4.75

“I think what people were is less important than what they are. And what people are is less important than what they could be.”

[Moment of fangirling: WHAT WAS THAT ENDING???? ALSO, PACAT, JAMES AND WILL BETTER BE ENDGAME!!]

Look, its very simple: everything Pacat writes, I read! I love every single book! This book is filled with mystery, intrigue and truly unexpected plot-twists. It also has a well-structured plot and well-developed characters. It has everything to be a favorite of mine! And it is! I loved it!

I can't wait for Dark Heir. Totally recommend!

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Confinement, Child abuse, Torture, Gore, Violence, Blood, and Murder

Moderate: Genocide, Death of parent, War, and Violence

spooderman's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.75

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Torture, Panic attacks/disorders, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Death, Classism, Murder, Emotional abuse, Blood, Violence, Physical abuse, Kidnapping, Gaslighting, Death of parent, Confinement, and Adult/minor relationship

Moderate: Pedophilia, Xenophobia, Racism, Trafficking, Animal death, Animal cruelty, Toxic friendship, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Sexism, Infidelity, Incest, Homophobia, Suicidal thoughts, Stalking, Sexual assault, Self harm, Slavery, Outing, Child death, Child abuse, and Abandonment

booksthatburn's review against another edition

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Confinement and Torture

aexileigh's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, War, Death of parent, Blood, Classism, Genocide, Violence, and Death

Moderate: Toxic relationship, Torture, Child death, Racism, and Adult/minor relationship

5aru's review

adventurous dark tense fast-paced

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

3.5

Whew. This took a while to read — not the least because I've been on a huge reading slump, but also because I wasn't as invested in the story as I'd hoped. It really picked up near the end, which is why I'm still giving it a good rating, but I do wish it had picked up a little sooner than that.

In truth, my biggest qualm was with the worldbuilding. Though it is solidly done, and the world mythos is quite interesting, there is so much infodumping in this book. The characters are constantly learning new things about the world through chunks of explanation given in dialogue, and though the content is interesting, the scene itself turns out boring, because so much is being told rather than shown through the action. I don't remember Captive Prince doing it nearly as much, but I might be biased...

That's much of what kept me from finishing it as quickly as I would otherwise have, because I was really quite invested in the main quartet of characters. Will, James, Violet and Cyprian were all very well developed, and their relationships feel appropriately nuanced. Katherine and Elizabeth are... okay. They definitely fall short when compared to the rest, probably because their story is barely there in comparison (which works to keep the mystery going, but not to flesh out their characters and make one properly interested). There's also the fact that the relationship between Katherine and Will was rather poorly executed, and Elizabeth hardly there at all — though I expect this will change in future instalments.  As for the ending,

though I did begin to see the twist coming, I couldn't be mad about it — not when it's as good a twist as this. And I have to say I definitely wouldn't be mad about a pretty corruption arc in the next books, either...

The focus is most certainly on Will and James, and I'd quite like it kept there, thank you very much. They share by far the most interesting dynamic, and while it is possible to see echoes of Damen and Laurent in some of their interactions, they are very much their own characters, which is great to see. I'll be looking forward to seeing where Pacat takes the story next.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Murder

Moderate: Slavery and Child abuse

Minor: Confinement

sunsetcity's review

adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship, Blood, Confinement, War, Violence, Toxic friendship, Torture, Sexism, Murder, and Gaslighting