Reviews tagging 'Child death'

The Marriage Portrait by Maggie O'Farrell

23 reviews

hstcrow's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-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

4.0

This is such a solid historical fiction. Maggie O’Farrell is just so damn good at what she does. Lucrezia is a mystery and yet has an intimate closeness with the reader. Also stellar ending, I liked the reimagining.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Emotional abuse, Adult/minor relationship, Death, and Murder

Moderate: Classism, Confinement, Infertility, and Pregnancy

Minor: Animal cruelty

sienamon_roll's review against another edition

dark informative mysterious medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Gaslighting, Murder, Adult/minor relationship, and Rape

heather_freshparchment's review

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Confinement, Gaslighting, Infertility, Domestic abuse, and Murder

Moderate: Child death, Medical trauma, and Vomit

ktfytz's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional 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? No

4.25

I gobbled this book up - I love Maggie O'Farrell's writing. Its descriptions are beautifully detailed and ornate, absorbing you into historic worlds but never overwhelming you. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Sexual violence, Violence, Child death, and Death

ashylibrarian's review against another edition

emotional sad 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? No

2.75

This was a fine book, but I found it to be a bit boring and slow-paced. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Murder, and Rape

Moderate: Child death, Death, Violence, and Infertility

heini's review against another edition

dark sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Animal cruelty, Confinement, Murder, Rape, and Adult/minor relationship

Moderate: Infertility

esalan's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Murder, and Torture

Moderate: Sexual content and Sexual assault

Minor: Pregnancy

risemini's review

adventurous dark emotional hopeful inspiring sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Pregnancy, Sexism, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Death, Violence, Miscarriage, Adult/minor relationship, Child death, Grief, and Rape

obsessed_with_books's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

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

3.5

I really liked the story and, for the most part, the writing. I like the historical inspiration, and I think it's clear the author did a lot of research so the story was interesting and intense, particularly at the end. It was interesting to see a snippet into court pressures or life from someone who should have been at the forefront but due to her seclusion, we only get a limited idea, actually, the overall courtly vibe comes from the words and actions of other individuals in the story. 

The characters were interesting and for the most part, well written and I enjoyed following them along even if Lucrezia was somewhat annoyingly naive. 

But there is really way too much description that was really not needed. Certain scenes really dragged on and on for no reason. For this, I found it sometimes got a little boring and hard to get through. Almost like the author was trying a little too hard, but I would say it was an attempt to establish the tone and vibe of the book but it was overdone and unnecessary. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death and Murder

skbgfd's review

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship and Murder

Moderate: Child death