Reviews tagging 'Sexual violence'

Captive Queen: A Novel of Eleanor of Aquitaine by Alison Weir

1 review

ravensandlace's review against another edition

hopeful sad tense slow-paced

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

2.0

Title: Captive Queen

Author: Alison Weir

Genre: Historical Fiction

Format: hardback from the library

Series: NA

Star Rating: 2 stars

tw: execution, sexism, cheating, parental death, rape, imprisonment, child marriage, homophobia, incest-ish relationships, spousal abuse, misogyny 

Every so often, your favorite author writes a book you think is going to be good. You think you will learn a lot bout a royal family you don’t know much about. Instead, you find out that sometimes, you won’t like every book. You find out that sometimes, it might be best to not finish a book.

This book was not good at all. Literally, the entire book consisted of three things: Eleanor talking about how hot and sexual she and Henry are, Henry being an absolute rake and cheating constantly, or Henry being a sexist pig. That's all. It was so damn annoying to constantly read about how hot Eleanor was, how amazing the sex between her and Henry was. It got so old. I felt like I was reading about a couple of teenagers, not people in their late thirties. 

There were some parts that were written that made it seem like we were supposed to feel sorry for Henry. Absolutely not. Henry was awful and it enraged me to see how we were supposed to sympathize with Henry. Like when his mistress died. Sure, it is very sad someone died but he expected everyone to be just as sad as him, including Eleanor. Or the way he treated Eleanor. We were supposed to think he was doing it for her own good, like putting her in prison. Yeah, no thank you. 

Overall, this book was a complete waste of time. I wasted so many days attempting to persevere through this book because I don’t like not finishing books. I really need to change that. Maybe I’ll try to find another book about Eleanor to see if she is actually as insufferable as she was in this book or if she is actually redeemable. I would like to think she is redeemable.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Terminal illness, Violence, Cancer, Death of parent, Grief, Pregnancy, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Alcohol, Blood, Child death, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Murder, Sexism, Domestic abuse, Infidelity, Rape, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, and War