Reviews tagging 'Animal death'

The Marriage Portrait by Maggie O'Farrell

45 reviews

brynpemery's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.25


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rzh's review against another edition

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mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix

4.0


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machenn's review

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

3.5


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ellieintherye's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark mysterious reflective fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

5 full stars; no rounding!!

This is the best book I've read in a long time. It has everything I want in a good-ass book: great storytelling, whydunnit, history, girl power, beautiful descriptive language, and time to get to know the characters (aka, it's long).

Because I loved this book so much, I want to defend the most common criticisms I've seen of it. It'll save you from my endless gushing (kind of, lol) and will help me think about the book a little more critically too.

Common criticisms I've seen:

The ending is rushed. First, the ending is 2 pages; I get that. But, when we consider that the entire book is a setup for "Lucre's" "death" scene, which we know about from the very beginning... aren't there actually ~400 pages of ending? OK, it's a stretch, but that's my truth!

The history isn't right. Ok! To the folks who say, "just read the wiki articles about these people and you've got it," I have two words for you: historical fiction. You should know what you're getting yourself into before you get into it, no? Generally, I admit, I prefer to read a biography (let's call it the history major in me) instead of historical fiction. But, we all (should) know that history is generally far from objective truth anyway; historical records were largely written by men in power. So take this book with a grain of salt, remember that it's art, and think critically about historical texts you read too! For what it's worth: I'm already planning a trip to Florence to soak up the rest of this setting. I understand this critique in a major way, but also just let us have this one!

There's an excess of description. Boooo. This take is entirely subjective, and I'm taking the exact opposite stance! I definitely don't recommend this book to people who prefer to skim dialogue to get the whole picture — and no judgment! I like that sometimes too, don't we all (See: Daisy Jones and the Six)? But if that's your m.o., The Marriage Portrait is probably not for you! It's not a beach read! O'Farrell's endless setting descriptions truly make this book what it is for me. Lucre is imprisoned in and by her privilege; she was born and raised to breed nobles and act the part. The fact that readers can see her cage(s) so clearly throughout the book is one of the most important aspects of the entire thing.


Anyway, I LOVED THIS BOOK and I will never stop singing its praises!

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tiepilot_dandy's review against another edition

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

4.0


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dizzymisslizzy's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious sad tense 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? No

4.5


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kristinamj's review

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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


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jhbandcats's review against another edition

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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. 

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notoriousjft's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective 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? It's complicated

5.0

This was one of the best books I’ve ever read. 

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leannanecdote's review against another edition

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dark informative mysterious reflective tense medium-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

3.75


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