Reviews tagging 'Confinement'

Vespertine by Margaret Rogerson

31 reviews

judassilver's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Fire/Fire injury, War, Child abuse, Self harm, Death, Blood, and Confinement

Moderate: Child death, Torture, Grief, Religious bigotry, and Vomit

Minor: Suicide and Pandemic/Epidemic

corallydeer's review

adventurous dark hopeful lighthearted mysterious 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

This was a great read! I had heard that Rogerson was a phenomenal writer and I heavily agree after this first foray into her works. I loved her writing style and thought it was a great blend of fairly direct writing with prose-y styles. I loved the characters and the world so much; the banter between the revenant and Artemisia was always a great time and the world they existed in felt so unique and fresh. The beginning felt a bit slow to me, so I was sitting more at a four-star rating for a while, but the second half of the book really picked up and suddenly I felt like I couldn't put it down and now I even want to reread it! The second half quickly shot the book up to a full five-star rating for me and I can't wait to read more of Rogerson's works now!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Fire/Fire injury, and Blood

Moderate: Violence, Child death, and Self harm

Minor: Animal death, Confinement, and Suicide

Death

(the book is about spirits and ghosts so death is a huge part of the overall world and plot)

| Blood

(blood is brought up on multiple occasions and used for things)

| Fire/Fire Injury

(Artemisia has extensive burn scars on her hands that come up frequently through the story)

| Child Death

(some of the spirits depicted in the book are dead children)

| Violence

(there are a number of battles throughout the book)

| Confinement

(Artemisia is confined on multiple occasions when arrested)

| Animal Death

(some animals die here and there as minor details)

| Self Harm

(Artemisia has to cut herself to acquire blood for runes and is depicted throughout the novel not being afraid to singe/burn herself for a purpose)

| Suicide

(Leander's brother committed suicide which is explained in passing)

crystalisreading's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Self harm, Panic attacks/disorders, Death, Blood, Violence, War, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Forced institutionalization, Confinement, Grief, Mental illness, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Medical trauma, and Medical content

Minor: Bullying, Animal cruelty, and Suicide

pandorasxbox's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective medium-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? It's complicated

4.75

I really enjoyed the lore of this world. It was very much inspired by Catholicism, which I grew up with. Saints are those who fought against the undead and imbued relics with power. The relics are wielded by various clergy to achieve magical effects. The vendors hawking fake souvenirs were also on point.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Self harm and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Child abuse, Self harm, and Confinement

eviethebookworm's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional tense 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? N/A

4.25

Margaret Rogerson has created a dark and gritty world that reminds me of The Merciful Crow by Margaret Owens. 

Artemisia, who I have nicknamed Artie in my head, is fantastically introverted and intelligent. Her relationship with the revenant is reminiscent of a begrudging elder taking on an apprentice against their better judgment. 

If you’re looking for a fantasy novel that addresses religious themes, this book is the answer to your prayers. It’s not dismissive of those with faith. However, Rogerson hasn’t shied away from issues that come up when dealing with belief systems and the people who follow them. 

I can’t wait to see if there’s more to Artie’s story. Fingers crossed Rogerson writes another Vespertine novel sometime soon.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Self harm, Fire/Fire injury, Confinement, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: War and Torture

Minor: Suicide

sonygaystation's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.5

The character growth in this book was so *chef’s kiss*!!! Also the revenant has my whole heart

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Violence, War, Abandonment, Child abuse, Religious bigotry, Confinement, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Blood and Death

Minor: Child death, Grief, Gore, Suicide, and Body horror

celinbean's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny medium-paced

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

4.0

margaret rogerson truly loves her fearsome powerful and petty demons with a weakness for humans and you know what? So do i. 

it was a little predictable but that didn’t really dampen my enjoyment of the whole thing i was giddily waiting for everything i assumed was going to happen to happen and it delivered every time 😌 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse and Eating disorder

Moderate: Blood, Body shaming, Bullying, Confinement, and Self harm

asiamd's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

This book was sooooo good. I loved the main character and her revenant!! The way the author added depth and feelings to every character that came on the page was amazing. I really adore books that allow for villians to also be victims of pain and fear and I felt like this book did a great job of incorporating that wit a kind of anti-hero in the revenant as well as all the other spirits throughout the book. I really liked the different take on religion as well, while it was really similar to Christianity(?) with the blind belief of the people, the praying, and the saints, Rogerson also made it unique in the book by adding a more ghostlike twists that in my opinion added way more humanity to what the spirits were. Overall I really enjoyed this book and read it in one day 🤭 so 10/10

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Self harm, Panic attacks/disorders, Confinement, Death, and Forced institutionalization

Moderate: Abandonment, Pandemic/Epidemic, and Violence

Minor: War, Suicide, and Vomit

aas's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional 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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Bullying, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Genocide, Gore, Blood, Confinement, Abandonment, Body horror, Violence, War, Grief, and Murder

marsh_mall0w's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Death, Confinement, Fire/Fire injury, and Self harm

Moderate: War, Panic attacks/disorders, Religious bigotry, Child abuse, Gaslighting, and Vomit

Minor: Gore