Reviews with content warning for Pedophilia - The Binding

Somewhere between 4 and 5 stars, rating TBC

Fuck, I don’t know what to think. I really loved this book, particularly at certain parts. I loved Emmett’s narrative voice. I loved how he noticed the little things like the way light passed through a window or the stitches on a quilt. I loved his character as a whole too.

I loved the slow, gentleness of the first part, of his time apprenticing Seredith. The first ~30 pages felt like a Ghibli film, which was lovely.

I loved Seredith too and was very sad (and shocked!!) to see Emmett’s time with her end.

I enjoyed the second part too, I read most of it in one sitting and really struggled to put it down. I kept just wanting to read what happened next, when something specific would happen, etc.

And, at the end of it, my heart ached for Emmett and Lucian.

I enjoyed the third part too. But I didn’t love/connect with Lucian’s voice/pov. He did need to be the narrator of the third part. It made so much sense to the story. But idk,,, I missed Emmett’s voice and his thought processes. I wonder how much of me not connecting is the traumatised part of my brain trying to distance myself from Lucian’s experience though.

And then the ending.

The lack of concrete ending felt like an unhappy one in some ways. I don’t think I really like uncertain endings in stories, I guess I never have. I remember, as a child, feeling upset and confused and unsatisfied when a film ended and I had to decide what it meant or happened next. But I want to remind myself that, at face value, it really was a happy ending. Right? (Please don’t answer this if you think otherwise.) I just hope everything works out for Emmett and Lucian; that they get away safely and have a fresh start. God, why was there a cliffhanger at the end!!!! :((((

It was interesting exploring how binding was used to exploit different people (especially women and the working class).

But I wish Lucian’s father was stopped and punished. He wasn’t. I guess it wasn’t that sort of story. And that’s okay. I’m just sad to see someone like that still be able to inflict such pain and exploit people like that. Horrible fucking man.

I also did feel a bit bored here and there but this was minimal.

I also thought Emmett really did bring on the rain but it seems it really was a coincidence.

Overall, this was a beautiful book. I loved it. My favourite parts were the slow gentleness in the first part, the language/writing, the romance (esp in Part 2), Emmett, and the concept of binding. I’m very happy I finally read this!!

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animaniac17's review

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emotional reflective sad slow-paced

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

2.0

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thewileyseven's review

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emotional mysterious slow-paced

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

3.75

I feel complicated in this rating--I really loved the book and, especially once I got to part II, I could hardly put it down! But I also have some major qualms. The uneven pacing left a lot to be desired for me. I understand why Part I was paced the way it was (considering

the impacts of binding on Emmett's mind--I kept wondering why he spent so much time just staring off into space. Now I know!

, but ultimately Parts I and II both dragged in places for me.

I also agree with another review I read regarding the treatment of women in this book. All completely sidelined, used as plot devices, killed off to further men's emotional development, and worse. Rough! Again, I can understand why, with commentaries on gender violence, historic sexism, and more, but I dunno. The main characters' complicity in this was a bummer.

Part II, however, sang for me. Beautiful, aching, blossoming. And the system of binding is a splendid magic. Overall, I think this was 100% worth the read for me. But there are just pieces that grated at me a little too much to go unsaid.

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coffee_and_wool's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious tense 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? No

4.25

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stellabombella's review

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adventurous emotional medium-paced

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

3.75

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spiderlilies's review

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dark emotional 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

It's a little slow to start with in part I, even though I love the premise of books being stories cut out of people's memories. Emmett isn't a very strong-willed person and much of the plot simply happens to him, while he gets pushed around and most of his protestation is limited to internal dialogue.

Part II, however, made me absolutely fall in love with the story although it becomes clear from there that this is not so much a grand story with a plot that will shift the whole binding world, but rather a more focused romance story. And I loved the romance. It had an enemies to lovers feel to it and the banter between Emmett and Lucian was a joy to read. Though be warned that the story gets pretty dark. There are a number of scenes with extremely homophobic reactions from their parents and Lucian's father is an all-around disgusting human.

Part III gets even darker as we get to Lucian's POV and see what kind of person he had the potential of being without the influence of part II. This is where the story picks up the pace and grows even more tense, with murders, arranged marriages, and missing memories all working against our protagonists. I finished this part in one setting, because I had to know how it was going to end. Great read!

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maeverose's review against another edition

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dark mysterious reflective medium-paced

Edit: I just found out the author is a terf, so I removed my rating. But I’ll leave the review for now. :/

TL;DR: I love the concept of this book so much, I really liked the romance, the writing style is hit and miss for me, why does everyone have to interrupt each other in every conversati—

The Concept

I love the idea of binding people’s memories into a book to remove them from their mind. I love how this book explores that. It’s just so cool to me. As disturbing as it is to read, I like that it explores the horrible ways people could take advantage of that system.

The Romance

I liked it a lot. I tend to prefer books without romance side plots because they often feel tacked on and underdeveloped, but the romance in this one is a crucial part in the overall story, and I really liked how it was done.

I liked the progression of Emmett’s feelings for Lucian. The way it was written I genuinely wasn’t sure how that was gonna go at first. The slow progression of hate to attraction without Emmett even seeming to recognize it as attraction at first. Idk I just liked that. And the dance scene !! I almost wish they explored how Emmett being a binder effects their relationship being as Lucian hates binders, but also I don’t like relationship angst so I don’t entirely mind that it was kinda just dropped.

Writing

The prose worked for me sometimes, not other times. I generally like pretty prose if it’s done well, and for the most part this was. It had a very gothic atmosphere, which I always love. But I felt it was a little over written here and there, and that both took me out of the scene sometimes and slowed the pacing at times where it seemed like it should’ve been a more fast paced scene (namely, the very end). The last 30% was pretty slow. And a more subjective dislike: It focuses a lot on the unattractive things in a scene, and for some reason that often meant lots of bodily fluids… It was mentioned excessively and unnecessarily and I just don’t like that writing choice.

Plot Structure

I really like how we start out following Emmett after he’s been bound, then the way he eventually finds out, immediately leading into part two which is entirely just his memory. I definitely liked part three the least, but I think part three had to have been from Lucian’s pov or it wouldn’t’ve worked. And I definitely didn’t mind it. I think it could grow on me after a re read. Overall I just think the way the plot was structured was really smart.

Dislikes

My number one pet peeve was that in almost every. single. conversation. someone had to interrupt someone else mid sentence. It happened so often and half the time it made no sense why they interrupted the other person. I counted 22 times in the first chapter alone… I don’t know how the editors didn’t suggest changing that. It was so annoying.

It wouldn’t be a review from me if I didn’t point out the ableism! This one was just little comments here and there (e.g: a comment about becoming a ‘drooling lunatic’, calling someone ‘simple’, calling a disabled person useless), always from the main Characters’ pov (mostly Emmett’s, I think), always uncorrected. I know it’s probably supposed to be ‘fitting of the time period’ but leaving those out literally would’ve changed nothing. I’m tired of reading historical fiction/fantasy and always seeing shit like that. Those comments are still harmful.

There was also a plot point that was just dropped that I felt needed more explanation.

When Emmett used that weird voice to tell off the people who wanted to burn Seredith’s house down, it was only brought up again once. When Emmett brought it up to Seredith she basically told him ‘that was nothing’. But it definitely seemed like something..? He seemed almost possessed to me.

Alta annoyed me a bit but maybe that’s a me problem…

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