Reviews tagging 'Cursing'

Solange Du lügst by Stefanie Retterbush, Sarah Waters

20 reviews

aduqu's review against another edition

4.0

dark emotional mysterious sad 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: Complicated

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Thoroughly enjoyable, and definitely a page turner! There was twist after twist, and each twist colored the events before it differently. 

It didn't quite reach 5 stars for me because it did drag a bit in the middle, but otherwise was a captivating read! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Cursing, Death, Mental illness, Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual assault, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder

Moderate: Fatphobia

im_just_m's review against another edition

3.5

dark tense slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

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It was quite exciting, even though it sometimes seemed to be dragged on for longer than was really necessary for the plot or the characters.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Sexism

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Bullying, Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Murder

Minor: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Sexual content, Torture, Grief, Death of parent, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, Classism

josie9's review against another edition

4.0

adventurous mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Torture, Toxic relationship, Forced institutionalization, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Body shaming, Child death, Cursing, Death, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Death of parent, Lesbophobia, Gaslighting, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail

occhilism's review against another edition

5.0

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing

Moderate: Sexual assault, Lesbophobia

Minor: Sexual assault

nialiversuch's review against another edition

3.75

emotional mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death, Forced institutionalization, Gaslighting

Moderate: Cursing, Mental illness, Violence, Blood, Grief, Murder

Minor: Sexual content, Medical content, Medical trauma

elinthenilsson's review against another edition

5.0

challenging mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: N/A

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Bullying, Cursing, Mental illness, Misogyny, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Medical content, Murder, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Alcohol

Moderate: Child death, Death of parent

marthadude's review against another edition

4.0

dark inspiring sad tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexism, Sexual content, Forced institutionalization, Death of parent, Murder, Lesbophobia, Gaslighting

Moderate: Religious bigotry

Minor: Rape, Sexual assault

There's a point in the book where a character seems like they are being forced into a nonconsensual marriage, and, therefore, rape by proxy, but this is later revealed to not be the case.

sofipitch's review against another edition

5.0

adventurous emotional tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

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I watched the Handmaiden (2016) first and so I thought I knew the plot going into this book. But nope, I was still enraptured with this book and was shocked by all the twists and turns it took.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Forced institutionalization, Murder

Minor: Animal cruelty, Racial slurs

birdbrainbooks's review against another edition

4.0

adventurous dark mysterious slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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This book is so Dickensian, I kept forgetting that it wasn’t written during the 1800s. Sarah Waters is a phenomenal writer—no surprise she’s been shortlisted for the Man Booker prize three times. I enjoyed this one overall! I loved the intrigue, the twists (particularly the first BIG twist), and the organic integration of more authentically representative experiences for queer folk in historical settings. I will say that the book’s structure leads to some parts feeling repetitive and slow, and I think it could have been significantly shorter overall. But I look forward to reading more from Waters!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Child abuse, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, Murder

kimmysanders's review against another edition

4.0

challenging dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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Read as an ebook from the local library]

Books like this generally don’t hit my radar. I do love well executed historical fiction, but as you might know from reading my review of The Unlikely Escape of Uriah Heep, I’m not a Dickens person. Victorian England is not my particular wheelhouse. But I do like Korean film, and The Handmaiden, Park Chan-wook’s sumptuous 2016 film, follows the initial plot of this book relatively closely, so I was curious to read the original.

Because this is a suspense/mystery book, describing the plot too much would give up some of the twists, so once again I’m going to be light on details. The twin hearts of the story are Sue Trinder, a 17-year-old orphaned girl raised in a London thieves’ den by her adoptive mother Mrs. Sucksby with hopes of eventually doing something that will make her fortune, and Maud Lilly, a 17-year-old orphaned girl raised by her uncle in his lonely country house to be his secretary and reader. The two are connected by Richard Rivers (called Gentleman in London for his fancy ways), a conman determined to marry Maud for her inheritance and use Sue to help him by installing her as Maud’s maid. Once Maud and Gentleman are married, Maud will be declared insane and committed to an asylum, and Gentleman will inherit her fortune. That’s the original plan, but Sue and Maud are both keeping secrets, and nothing will turn out the way that either of them expect.

This is an exceptionally atmospheric book. You really feel the damp and slow decay of the Lilly house, the claustrophobic heat in Mrs. Sucksby’s London rooms. You can almost hear the clock tick and the soft swish of silks in the silence of slow passing hours. There’s a lot that doesn’t happen, which serves to set off the things that do. The narrative depends on its two main characters, and you are kept in suspense as to how you feel about them — whether you pity one and root for the other, love one and hate the other, or accept both with all their graces and faults. It’s quite effectively done, and until the end you’re not sure where anything is going or what will work out, if anything at all.

This is a long book, at 511 pages, and some of it does drag in places when you’re waiting for something to happen. If you can bend yourself to the pace, it’s worth it, but it’s difficult. Also, the content warnings for this one are numerous. There are very detailed scenes of involuntary confinement and medical trauma/abuse. There is also what Maud does for her uncle, which

could easily be considered sexual abuse of a minor or at the very least a deeply inappropriate adult/minor relationship

. There is a lot of child abuse, this being Victorian England. And of course, there’s sexual content, although it’s really not particularly racy by today’s standards.

I found this overall fairly enjoyable, if long. I had forgotten a lot of the main plot points from the film, and the third act is quite different altogether. Sue and Maud are flawed heroines but they’re thoroughly engaging, and in the end you cannot help but fall for both. Their story is quite lovely, in its own awful way, and they each have grit and beauty to spare.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Forced institutionalization, Medical trauma

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Toxic relationship, Murder

Minor: Child death, Cursing, Drug use, Blood, Death of parent