Reviews tagging 'Violence'

The Book of Life by Deborah Harkness

40 reviews

smargopittman's review against another edition

dark medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture

Moderate: Violence, Child death, Blood, Kidnapping, Rape, and Sexual violence

johannaplatt's review against another edition

adventurous emotional slow-paced

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

2.5

Hate read the final book in this trilogy as I am a completionist. I did genuinely enjoy the magic system, world building and supporting characters, but Diana and Matthew are just simply not likeable for me. Everyone loves or is in love with Diana, who can do no wrong and is all powerful once she comes into her magic. Matthew remains possessive (under the guise of blood rage) and misogynistic (but this is how vampire families work).

The miracle babies are born and then largely ignored/papped off to family members.

Despite this, I likely will read the follow up, as I am a sucker for a time jump and would like to see how characters have developed 7 years in the future.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Toxic relationship, Sexual violence, Torture, Child death, Death, Pregnancy, Rape, Violence, and Confinement

gillian_aftanas's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Pregnancy, Mental illness, Torture, Violence, Gore, Grief, Murder, Rape, Cursing, Death, Child abuse, Child death, Sexual violence, Vomit, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Medical content, Medical trauma, Sexual content, and Sexual assault

Moderate: Confinement and Alcohol

Minor: Animal death, Classism, Genocide, Homophobia, Antisemitism, Lesbophobia, Drug use, and Death of parent

oksmithie's review against another edition

adventurous funny mysterious reflective 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? It's complicated

4.0

This was a final book of a trilogy that did not disappoint. There were some things that seemed over the top and unnecessary, but all-in-all, I was not mad at where the story/characters ended up (as is often the case for me with trilogies). This will be a trilogy that I will re-read… all 1500+ pages. The audiobook is also well done (for all three installments). I used a combo of paper and audiobook to read this trilogy. It was the only way I could get through it and still have a life! Well worth the commitment! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence, Religious bigotry, Murder, Misogyny, Confinement, Infertility, Child death, Miscarriage, Violence, Pregnancy, Injury/Injury detail, Torture, Rape, Kidnapping, and Death

There is one scene of kidnapping of a male character and his torture in particular that includes most of the graphic content.

It did not feel unnecessary or manipulative by the author (it was manipulative by the story’s villain).

booknerderika's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Gore, Kidnapping, Medical content, Child abuse, Murder, Torture, Vomit, Death, Violence, Fire/Fire injury, Pregnancy, and Blood

Moderate: Miscarriage

Minor: Antisemitism, Sexual violence, Rape, Misogyny, Sexual assault, Sexual content, and War

joey_paige's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious tense 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence and Torture

Moderate: Blood, Death, Death of parent, Infertility, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Medical content, Stalking, Confinement, Cursing, and Medical trauma

Minor: Murder and Rape

saroreen's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Injury/Injury detail, and Violence

Moderate: Rape, Pregnancy, Misogyny, Death, Sexual assault, War, Torture, Child death, and Child abuse

Minor: Racism

micaelamariem's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

3.0

This series started out so strong but it gradually got worse, in my opinion. I don’t think the book needed to be as long as it was, as a lot of the detail seemed to be just deliberation on how to handle their problems. There were action scenes but these seemed few and far between. I also am a little biased as I hate the pregnancy trope, so I was doomed to hate this part of the series. I also felt like this Matthew De Clermont I fell in love with in the first book was not here; I get that characters change but I did not like this new Matthew. I did like the themes of fighting for change and learning about new and strange things versus fearing them. It’s a very important theme, especially today, so I admired that’s what the characters were fighting for: loving and embracing difference. That being said, I’m glad this series is done. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence, Drug use, Torture, Violence, Alcohol, Abandonment, Child death, Death of parent, Murder, Sexism, Cursing, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Pregnancy, Injury/Injury detail, Rape, and Blood

lucyatoz's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

5.0

Diana and Matthew. Witch and vampire. Their love has brought conflict and hope. But only together can they learn at last what the witches discovered so many centuries ago. And it will have consequences for all...

The Book of Life is the last novel in a trilogy which tells the story of Diana, a witch, and Matthew, a Vampire, coming together (Book 1, A Discovery of Witches) and their time living in Elizabethan England in 1590-1 (Book 2, Shadow of Night), picking up their tale now that they have returned to the present day. 

The final book in this trilogy brings in the wider De Clermont family and is a much darker story compared to the first two novels. It also does brings nicely to an end the story of the couple's troubles with the Congregation and their violation of the Covenant. I do hope that further novels are written about some of the other characters in the story, such as Gallowglass, Matthew's nephew, and their children Phillip and Rebecca.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Kidnapping, Sexual content, Murder, Rape, Violence, Blood, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Pregnancy, and Torture

Minor: Cursing

laurenleigh's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

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

5.0

Wrapped up this trilogy! I really enjoyed this whole series. I read afterwards that Harkness set out to write a trilogy in three different genres: the first to be romance, second historical fiction, third sci-fi. And that makes perfect sense now that I’ve read them all! Yet they all blend together nicely. The sci-fi slant here is about vampire/witch/demon DNA and how they differ from each other or from humans. I loved this part of the book. I want to say more about it but can’t give spoilers! There were a few plot points and loose ends that maybe didn’t get tied up as cleanly as possible, but I still think she did a great job. And wow what a fantastic narrator! With so many accents and characters done so well, the story was really brought to life.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Blood, Violence, and Torture