Reviews tagging 'Violence'

The Marriage Portrait by Maggie O'Farrell

84 reviews

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

---

Content Warnings

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

bezzlebob's review

emotional tense medium-paced

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

4.5

What a way to kick off the year! This has everything I love about historical fiction - three dimensional characters, interesting pacing, riiiiiiiiiich descriptive writing, and layers. I guessed the main plot points in the latter third of the book, and for some people, that would spoil the experience. For me though, I loved feeling vindicated. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Sexual assault, Violence, Murder, Death, and Physical abuse

Minor: Infertility

laurakfinnegan's review

mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Murder, Sexual assault, and Violence

kristinamj's review

challenging dark emotional 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? Yes

3.75

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Toxic relationship, Physical abuse, Infertility, Emotional abuse, Adult/minor relationship, Domestic abuse, Sexual assault, and Violence

jhbandcats's review against another edition

dark informative mysterious sad medium-paced

• 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

An intriguing look at the court of one of the royal fiefdoms of Italy in the Renaissance, this novel of a teenage girl’s ill-fated marriage just didn’t grab me. The writing was beautiful and the details richly described, but the story felt flat and bloodless. 

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. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Grief, Abandonment, Death, Eating disorder, Animal death, Murder, Confinement, Infertility, Misogyny, Violence, and Vomit

thekeyescollection's review

dark emotional sad 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

4.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Rape, and Murder

Moderate: Violence and Death

musicalpopcorn's review against another edition

emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

• 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

When Lucrezia is married to Alfonso II of Ferrara at the age of fifteen, she is taken from the only life she knows and thrown into one she will not survive. 

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.

The only reason I’m not giving this book five stars is because they did Emilia dirty.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Vomit, Adult/minor relationship, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Rape, Violence, and Confinement

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Child death, and Classism

madamelacy's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional sad tense 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? No

4.5

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Toxic relationship, Death, Adult/minor relationship, Child death, Murder, Violence, Sexual violence, Rape, Pedophilia, and Emotional abuse

Minor: Infertility

ncghammo's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense 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

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Violence, Child abuse, and Misogyny

amyvl93's review against another edition

dark mysterious slow-paced

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

2.5

My first experience with Maggie O'Farrell was a bit mixed, but I found Hamnet incredibly moving so I was intrigued to pick up The Marriage Portrait when it was shortlisted for the Women's Prize.

This novel tells the story of Lucrezia, a daughter of the house of de Medici in Florence, who is married off to the Duke of Ferrara at the age of fifteen - and becomes convinced that her husband is going to murder her. This is in part based on historical sources, whilst Lucrezia's death is thought to be caused by TB, there were many rumours that she was killed. Her story was also immortalised in Browning's poem 'My Last Duchess'.

Whilst there is certainly intrigue here, I think what fell down for this novel is that part of its tragedy - Lucrezia's very young age at her death - means that there isn't a great deal for the book to focus on. We get a very slow burn of her young years growing up with her wider family in Florence, where she is deemed the black sheep of the family. Like Hamnet, it is clear that O'Farrell really immersed herself in the historical context of this story, but it was a slow read for the first two thirds. Once Lucrezia enters her marriage to Alfonso there is definitely more to go at, and I found O'Farrell's writing of a claustrophobic, controlling relationship to be very effective, but it takes a long time to get there.

Overall, this novel made me feel like it would have been a great short story but the content felt overstretched.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse

Moderate: Murder and Violence

Minor: Pregnancy