Reviews tagging 'Confinement'

Haven by Emma Donoghue

3 reviews

vireogirl's review

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adventurous challenging dark 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

4.5

This author is very good at finding perspectives I’ve never contemplated before. 
Lots of birds mentioned. 
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hmatt's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging reflective tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Fantastic characterization and a deliberately slow-moving plot that really serves its purpose of putting you in the headspace of (well, two of) the monks.
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redwrapped's review

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adventurous challenging dark hopeful reflective slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Haven is a rich, evocative meditation on the frailty and strength of mankind and the psychological effects of faith and isolation, bound by duty to God and each other, bolstered by crystalline, reflective descriptions, and a focus on the world and history of the setting. Always thoughtful and often breathtaking, Haven is a immense but fraught study on the intersection between history, nature, religion, and psychology. 

One monk, Artt, has a dream that he takes to believe is a command from God to break away from the monastery and escape from sin and rote temptations and leave for a new world where he and two others will not be distracted from their holy work: copying a Bible by hand and building an altar and a church, surrounded only by nature and isolation. 

Soon, Artt is sworn loyalty to by his two followers and they listen to his directives, even as he becomes more fervent in his desire for an ideal world and overzealous in religiosity, meting out punishment and sacrificing their safety for demonstrations of worship and penitence to God. As winter nears closer and they run out of wood to burn and food to eat, and Artt becomes more deluded and needy for absolution, will the three of them be able to survive the island and their own self-doubt?

Trian and Cormac are some of the most well-rounded, well-intentioned, and honest characters I've seen for some time. Their trust and eventual bond between each other is heartrending. The change in Artt is imperceptible; maybe because his drive and ambition at the cost of others was always there under his good works.

As the story goes on, layer after layer of reverberations and aftereffects are uncovered, and the centuries between when the story takes place and the contemporary time we live in dissolves into a translucent allegory and warning to us all. 

Is Artt a man bent on destruction in his selfish quest for sainthood, or a man willing to do nearly anything to get closer to God? Is Haven an allegory on religious fanaticism to the point of endangering people, or the portrait of men seeking God regardless of personal risk? Does mankind always destroy nature in a personal quest, chasing fulfillment, or does nature have to dwindle and be destroyed before men can look around and realize their fulfillment? Are men in isolation only capable of destruction or are they reduced to destruction due to their own limitations? What drives a man to make himself be worthy of God, anyway? 

Haven is an engrossing and mesmerizing look into humanity's greatest faults and strengths, and shows a world on the verge of change, just as the world is right now. 

Thanks to Little, Brown and Company and Netgalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.
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