Reviews tagging 'Confinement'

Flowers for the Sea by Zin E. Rocklyn

7 reviews

discarded_dust_jacket's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

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

2.0

My rating of this book is based entirely on personal preference and not necessarily a reflection on how good or bad it is. I could see someone with different tastes than me absolutely loving this, and that’s totally cool.

This is one of those books that is purposefully unclear for the first, like, 75%, until you’re granted some grand revelation that’s supposed to make it all make sense. Except I still had more questions than answers at the end of this story, and feeling lost the entire time didn’t make for a very enjoyable reading experience for me.

The writing was beautiful and descriptive yet very cryptic in nature, which made it hard to connect with the protagonist and the story. I think I’d need to re-read this two or three times before having a clearer understanding of what’s going on. There’s definitely some allegorical meaning at play here, and if I had to guess, something to do with generational trauma.

Huge trigger warning for pregnancy and childbirth which is depicted in probably the gnarliest way I’ve ever encountered.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Death of parent, Body horror, Grief, Pregnancy, Blood, Death, Gore, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Confinement and Infertility

Minor: Excrement

mmccombs's review

dark emotional reflective fast-paced

4.0

This is a novel shaking with fury. Like the plot doesn’t really matter, but the anger from our main is palpable and delicious to read. The writing was really immersive and the dark vibe was complimented by the setting. A perfect little bite size treat of a story buzzing with energy and thirsty for revenge.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Body horror, and Death

Moderate: Confinement

bluebrooks's review

challenging dark emotional sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

female rage, beautiful beautiful beautiful writing.... we love to see it. i will be thinking about this for a while and will probably return to write an actual review but for now i'm just gonna drop the 5 stars this little book deserves. 

(if u like this u will probably also enjoy here, the world entire !!) 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical trauma, Injury/Injury detail, Excrement, Body horror, Vomit, Toxic relationship, Slavery, Sexual content, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Violence, Physical abuse, Infidelity, Grief, Abandonment, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Death of parent, Blood, and Emotional abuse

Moderate: Abortion and Suicidal thoughts

cheye13's review

dark fast-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Child death, Blood, Body horror, Death, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Pregnancy, and Sexual content

Moderate: Confinement, Infidelity, Medical content, Grief, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Infertility, Miscarriage, and Excrement

An unwanted pregnancy carried through to birth is the majority of the narrative

talonsontypewriters's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Body horror, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, and Pregnancy

Moderate: Murder, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Child death, Death, Death of parent, Grief, Medical content, Miscarriage, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Vomit, and Confinement

Minor: Infidelity and Sexism

Unwanted/forced pregnancy; childbirth and post-natal care. Infant death/harm. Generational trauma; discrimination/persecution. Urination, various other bodily fluids, brief emetophobia. Animal attacks, including on children. Needles in the context of wound care.

shadeyc's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• 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

3.0

Well. This certainly delivers on creep factor.
I was a bit confused at the beginning, and part of the middle. There are a few flash backs that I got mixed up with dreamscapes, so it felt a bit muddly. BUT! The end is triumphant.
The last quarter/end ramped this up a whole star for me, even though it feels abrupt.
Someone else has mentioned they felt the same reading this as they did reading The Deep.
I personally liked The Deep a little better, but I'm used to Solomon's writing style and I felt that book was a little longer, had more room to fully immerse you. Plus that one got me in the feels hard.
This is an excellent novella - it's full of anger and maternal horror. Perhaps I was a little disconnected from it as I am not a mother and don't plan to be, so it had to lie solely on body horror and painful history to get to me.
I'm definitely interested to read more from this author in the future though. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Emotional abuse, Pregnancy, and Racial slurs

Moderate: Body horror, Bullying, Confinement, Fire/Fire injury, Racism, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, and Toxic relationship

laurareads87's review

challenging dark emotional reflective 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? Yes

4.0

I've been waiting to read Flowers for the Sea since I first learned of its release, saw that gorgeous cover, and read of comparisons to Octavia E. Butler.  I was not at all disappointed.  The story follows a group of survivors who've been at sea for over seventeen hundred days, surrounded by water and threatening creatures both above and below.  Iraxi is pregnant, and seems to be the only one on the ship who has been able to carry to term; she fears the fetus is not entirely human.  Iraxi is an incredible character, her rage and pain captured perfectly in gorgeous prose; the ship feels like a key character in its own right, and Rocklyn brought the sounds, sights, and horrifying smells to life with their descriptions.  The entire novella is profoundly claustrophobic, and nowhere in the tiny setting feels safe.  There is a lot to say about the intricacies of the story but for the sake of not including spoilers, I will not say too much.  This may be a book best gone into knowing as little as possible.  Recommended; look forward to reading more from Rocklyn.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Medical trauma, Medical content, Fire/Fire injury, and Confinement

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts

Minor: Miscarriage