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kangaroo1990's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Graphic: Gaslighting, Rape, Murder, and Confinement
Moderate: Bullying
hstcrow's review against another edition
- 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
Graphic: Child death, Emotional abuse, Adult/minor relationship, Death, and Murder
Moderate: Classism, Confinement, Infertility, and Pregnancy
Minor: Animal cruelty
thegoldfish's review
Nevertheless, I'm glad to have read it. Some of the most stomach-churning accuracy I've ever seen in evoking the dread and desperate inner rationalization of being stuck in a relationship with someone who wants to hurt you.
Graphic: Sexism, Sexual assault, Misogyny, Rape, Violence, Confinement, Gaslighting, Sexual violence, Adult/minor relationship, and Domestic abuse
Minor: Animal cruelty
heather_freshparchment's review
- 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
Graphic: Death, Confinement, Gaslighting, Infertility, Domestic abuse, and Murder
Moderate: Child death, Medical trauma, and Vomit
acorny's review
- 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? No
5.0
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Murder, Death, Emotional abuse, and Domestic abuse
Moderate: Confinement
veposve's review against another edition
- 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
5.0
Graphic: Sexism, Death, Murder, Vomit, Domestic abuse, Adult/minor relationship, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, and Rape
Moderate: Toxic relationship, Emotional abuse, Grief, Sexual content, Miscarriage, Infidelity, and Blood
Minor: War
heini's review against another edition
- 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
Graphic: Child death, Animal cruelty, Confinement, Murder, Rape, and Adult/minor relationship
Moderate: Infertility
jhbandcats's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Despite the book being told from Lucrezia’s perspective, I never felt I got to know her. We learn of her lonely childhood with emotionally distant parents and siblings, her compulsion to paint the natural world around her, her increasing isolation and desperation, but she remained unknowable. The husband and his consiglieri are stock villains, the latter especially so. The loving and helpful maid was another stock character.
That said, the scholarship is so exemplary that I found the novel more than worthwhile. I enjoyed learning about Renaissance Italy - Lucrezia was born two years before the death of England’s Henry VIII but the world of Florence and Ferrara seemed quite different from London. I confess I prefer Hilary Mantel’s Thomas Cromwell trilogy to this.
Everyone says Hamnet is fabulous so I’ll have to try it, just not right now.
Graphic: Bullying, Grief, Abandonment, Death, Eating disorder, Animal death, Murder, Confinement, Infertility, Misogyny, Violence, and Vomit
musicalpopcorn's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
This book was lurid and imaginative. It kept me hooked from the very beginning. Lucrezia was a fantastic main character who is stuck questioning herself and her husband bit by bit until the end. She is the kind of main character that people love in historical fiction.
Graphic: Vomit, Adult/minor relationship, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Rape, Violence, and Confinement
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Child death, and Classism
rinofnowhere's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
4.5
Moderate: Infertility, Gaslighting, Sexual content, Adult/minor relationship, Confinement, Rape, Emotional abuse, and Vomit