Reviews with content warning for War - The Pillars of the Earth

Reviews tagging 'War'

The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett

116 reviews

mcmallory's review against another edition

4.75

dark informative reflective tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Content Warnings

rdjs's review against another edition

3.75

medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: N/A

Content Warnings

honest1y's review against another edition

4.25

adventurous dark emotional hopeful medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Content Warnings

heysunfish's review against another edition

4.75

adventurous dark hopeful tense

Content Warnings

fionagerman's review against another edition

5.0

adventurous challenging dark hopeful informative inspiring sad tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: N/A

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

What an absolute cracking read. This had me hooked from beginning to end the characters were fleshed out and flawed as all humans are. Who knew a book about building a cathedral should be so enthralling. Obviously the length allows more character development but it never drags very much and seeing the characters grow and change over the course was a true delight.
Was the graphic descriptions of women's bodies being brutally raped necessary? Animal torture? One could argue its reflective of the times and provided necessary character insight but I'm not sure.

Content Warnings

technically_direct's review against another edition

3.75

dark emotional 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

Until the last quarter, nothing was particularly grabbing me, and it really felt like it was unsure of what story it was trying to tell for a good portion of the book. At a certain point I kept thinking about other, better books I could be reading. That's not do say I regret reading this or that I had a terrible time or anything -- I very much didn't, and I maintain that things really start cooking towards the end -- but it was all very dour. A very "people and their problems' style of plotting, where every section break we go to a different one of our pov characters, and boy do they have their own problems, and boy are some of them never mentioned again, and very few have anything to do with the overarching plot or theme.

There's this but in the second season of Twin Peaks, where the evil entity, BOB, has lept into a few different bodies and is generally causing havoc and upset throughout the town, so the sheriff and the gang are discussing the nature of this evil. Miguel Ferrer's character essentially looks down the camera and says "BOB is the evil that men do." And like while I appreciate that as a moment in a television show that seems to be one of the primary themes of the book -- isn't humanity nasty -- with very little elaboration. I'm not saying that every atorcity had to have narrative justification or have characters receive a cumuppence, but at some point it just starts feeling voyeuristic.

And aside from all of that I do truly love a "will someone rid me of this turbulent priest" moment and due to the historical setting this bad boy gets to have the original.

Content Warnings