Reviews tagging 'Confinement'

The Christie Affair by Nina de Gramont

10 reviews

hcwarn's review

dark mysterious reflective medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Forced institutionalization, and Infidelity

Moderate: Pregnancy and Rape

mels_reading_log's review against another edition

emotional mysterious medium-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

4.25

I’ve always been more interested in Agatha Christie’s real life than her amazing stories. I love the mystery that no one can figure out, and this novel fills in all the gaps in such a mysterious and satisfying way. There is so much love in this book, all wrapped up in mystery and deception. I really enjoyed it, and would like to hope the real life mystery was a lot like this.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Physical abuse, Rape, Religious bigotry, Sexual violence, Emotional abuse, Confinement, Murder, Infidelity, Mental illness, Pregnancy, Sexual assault, War, and Suicide

mags88's review

adventurous emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

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

3.75

Twists - historical - empowerment- female lead - trauma - resilience 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abortion, Rape, Medical trauma, War, Pregnancy, Confinement, Miscarriage, Murder, and Death

Moderate: Sexual content, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Racial slurs, Abandonment, and Murder

raemow's review

mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, War, Religious bigotry, Miscarriage, Grief, Pregnancy, Sexual assault, Suicide, Rape, Child death, Confinement, Death, Infidelity, Kidnapping, and Murder

frantically's review against another edition

emotional informative reflective sad slow-paced

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

3.5

This would've been so much more fun without Agatha Christie. Sorry. Nan's story was so well-written and just deserved its own place, especially in this climate, where we're more openly talking about the horrible things that have happened due to organized religion. The "historical" details of what happened to the Christies always took me out the story and didn't really fit within the plot, in my opinion. I got really into it at the end but the writing was a bit confusing at times.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Animal death, Death, Infidelity, Murder, and Pregnancy

Moderate: Child death, Confinement, War, and Physical abuse

Minor: Death of parent and Abandonment

feebles640's review against another edition

mysterious sad slow-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? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Forced institutionalization, Rape, Infidelity, Abandonment, Misogyny, and Pregnancy

Moderate: Classism, Suicidal thoughts, Confinement, and Death

Minor: Child death and War

shelfofunread's review against another edition

emotional mysterious sad slow-paced

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

2.0

The Christie Affair has a fantastic premise: what if there had been a real-life mystery behind the period during 1926 when best-selling novelist Agatha Christie disappeared for 11 days? Even better, what if that mystery involved both Christie and her husband Archie's mistress, here re-named Nan O'Dea?

Sadly, for me, the execution didn't deliver on the concept. And that reimagining of Archie's real-life second wife, Nancy Neele, into Nan O'Dea is one of the primary reasons for that.

Nan's personal story is a tragic one involving an Irish lover, an unexpected pregnancy, and a brutal forced incarceration. But it only becomes entwined with Agatha's life towards the end of the novel and has little relevance to her disappearance. Indeed, the 'twist' at the end that links the two women was, to me, both somewhat disrespectful to the real Agatha, Archie, and Nancy and also rather far-fetched and bizarre.

Nan's tale is, in and of itself, a very compelling one - and it is well told by the author, with an evocative sense of both character and place coming across on the page - but I just couldn't understand why the Christie connection had been made.

I understand that this is fiction but the title, blurb, and marketing of The Christie Affair suggested that the book "reimagines the unexplained eleven-day disappearance of Agatha Christie in 1926 that captivated the world". Yet instead of Nan's story revealing "the truth of [Agatha's] disappearance", it wholly alters several aspects of both Christie and Nancy Neele's lives, replacing the real women with compellingly-written but barely recognisable figures and 'reimagining' their biographies by inventing fictitious romances (for Christie) and traumatic secrets (for Nancy/Nan).

If The Christie Affair hadn't promised to be a novel about Agatha Christie, I suspect I'd have enjoyed it a lot more. It is clear that the author can write a compelling historical novel and create interesting, believable, and empathetic characters. Sadly, the Christie link ended up feeling like little more than a convenient and underutilised hook that detracted from an otherwise interesting - but very different - novel. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Confinement, Infidelity, Pregnancy, and Forced institutionalization

Minor: Suicide, War, Sexual content, Rape, Sexual assault, Religious bigotry, and Infertility

kaylamoran's review

dark mysterious sad medium-paced

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

3.0

This was a 5 star prediction for me, and it fell so flat.  It never managed to get me to care about the characters, despite all of its efforts.  It's not bad per se but I'm extremely disappointed.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Forced institutionalization, Miscarriage, War, Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Pregnancy, Rape, Abandonment, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Confinement, Physical abuse, Sexual harassment, and Sexual assault

jessgreads's review

challenging emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

2.5

Rating: ⭐⭐✨⬜⬜

Title: The Christie Affair

Author: Nina de Gramont

Genre: Historical Fiction

Setting: London, England

Month Read: February 2022

Book Type: Hardcover

Publication: 2022

Publisher:  St. Martin's Press

Pages: 311

*Book of the Month Selection

TRIGGER WARNING- 

Abuse / Infidelity / Murder / Kidnapping / Trauma / Religious Abuse / Rape

"Perhaps a woman has a different kind of measuring stick. For when it might be acceptable, or even necessary, to commit a murder."

No Spoiler Summary:

The Christie Affair is a fiction take on Agatha Christie's mysterious 11 day disappearance told in the POV's of Agatha, and her husband's mistress, Nan. You follow both women through the days before, during, and slightly after the disappearance takes place. You also follow Nan through her past, filled with trauma, treachery, and abuse. 

Review:

I'm not quite sure how I felt about this novel, and I think the completely fabricated storylines sort of lost me a bit more than I thought they would. For fans of Agatha, I think this misses the mark quite a bit on being a good mystery novel, and Nan's stakes in this seem incredibly far fetched (and a little forced.)

Nan's past was an incredibly hard part of this book to get through, for me, and I could have probably just read an entire book about this and enjoyed it a lot more. The Irish Catholic religion and the harm they did to unmarried women is disgusting, and as a newer Mom this sent me into rages. I cannot imagine what all of these women went through, and it just hurts so much to know that religion, and those who upheld it, caused people so much pain.

I wish we got to know Archie more, besides just being the man in the center of these two women.I feel like he was really underdeveloped and one sided, and I left the novel unsure why anyone even wanted him in the firs place. 

See more reviews at:  https://jessgreads.wixsite.com

"As if the sheer force of her anguish had made her, inexplicably, the most important person on earth"

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Trafficking, Violence, Abandonment, Child death, Death, Forced institutionalization, Kidnapping, Physical abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Emotional abuse, Pregnancy, Rape, and Sexual content

Moderate: Cursing, Suicidal thoughts, Misogyny, Alcohol, Bullying, and Confinement

fireblue22's review against another edition

emotional mysterious 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Miscarriage, Murder, and Confinement