Reviews

The Binding by Bridget Collins

usskrantz's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-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

5.0

sweetsorrows's review

3.0

i liked this book. interesting premise, but something ultimately unsatisfying. overall lukewarm. i don't know what makes a book something that grabs me in a spectacular way, but this book didn't have it, despite being all about that specific feeling. i guess i'm more for books with romances that are either the main premise or a side one, and this book was right in the middle.

emmett's 'binding' skill is literally never explored. its the main conflict and subject in the book, but we never get more detail beyond his budding apprenticeship. we start the journey, veer off, and never visit it again. this book couldn't decide what it wanted it's climax to be, the relationship, or emmett's personal growth. the swapped perspective halfway through left me hanging, waiting to hear from emmett again. but we don't. the book ends on a *winky face* note, which is just frustrating. i wanted to know more of emmett, before we got to know his relationship.

anyway, i did like the lucian's and emmett's relationship. it was cute, fun, and the secrets kept and adventure that came with it were enamoring. i just felt like i deserved more story than what was told to me. you can argue poetics all you want, but it just felt unfinished.

marlyons's review

emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

lifegoes_m's review against another edition

3.0

the first half was kind of boring tbh.

Because the main character did not know what was going on it was just kind of boring because we did not know what was going on either. So yeah. But then when i did know what was going on (the last part, part 3) i did like it kind of. Also not a big fan of the ending and i cannot articulate why.

svillanu's review

5.0

I loved this!

meggeorge's review

3.0

DNF at 50%

This was quite good in terms of writing. My gripe and the reason I put it down was the sudden shift in stakes/obstacles around the middle, that I felt cheapened the story.

samira2205's review against another edition

adventurous dark hopeful slow-paced

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

4.5

jenny_hedberg's review

4.0

The only bad thing about this book was that the ending was too short. I think that says a lot. But I also wasn’t super keen on the POV change in the end half or the, might I say, slightly pretentious language at times. Other than that I really liked this novel. It has suspense, mystery, a love story with problems (aka a love story I wasn’t disappointed with), some really great characters, fantastic mood-setting and cool magicky stuff.

nottodaysatan's review against another edition

adventurous hopeful mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.75

rachelfaye's review

4.0

A Trigger Warning needed to be added in the beginning for sexual violence and homophobia. I think the author didn’t include because it could be a spoiler, but it’s wrong to allow someone to get halfway through a book they’re super in invested in and then realize they are going to be exposed to sexual violence.

That aside, I was super enthralled and it was really fun to consistently feel like I just needed to know the secrets and what was lingering beyond! Couldn’t put it down after page 150 or so.

Vibes were incredibly depressing and drab until I was brought alive by the unexpected story.