Reviews tagging 'Body shaming'

Det kvinnliga sällskapet by Kate Quinn

23 reviews

adventurous emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted mysterious reflective fast-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: Complicated

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adventurous dark emotional funny inspiring mysterious sad medium-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: No

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adventurous mysterious tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

Grace March has a knack for bringing people together and getting her housemates to open up to her. Each woman boarding at The Briar House has a unique past and secrets. The women bond over their dislike of their cheap landlord and a desire for friendship. But as bonds grow, secrets are revealed, until eventually their lives are forever altered. 

Quinn kept ‘The Briar Club’ engaging for the reader with the layout - each chapter (they’re LONG chapters, but plenty of breaks in each) tells the backstory of a different boarder. She also gives the house a voice, which was interesting and, I thought, unnecessary. The house didn’t play a large enough role to make an impact. Each character is sufficiently complex. The book felt drawn out a little longer than it needed to be. The reader knew a twist was coming, that Grace wasn’t completely as she seemed. While I guessed what Grace’s backstory would be, Quinn writes well enough that I didn’t feel let down by being able to guess. I appreciate that Quinn does thorough research for each of her novels and bases her characters at least vaguely on real life people. 

Was this knock-your-socks-off great? No. Was it enjoyable enough that I’d recommend it to others, especially those into historical fiction? Yes. 

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
challenging emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring lighthearted mysterious reflective
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
challenging emotional funny mysterious sad tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
adventurous emotional hopeful informative mysterious reflective tense medium-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

Prompt 25 - a book where the main character is an immigrant or refugee - June 7, 2025 - This book is a genre cross of historical fiction and murder mystery. Each chapter follows one of the members of the Briar Club, a few of which are immigrants and refugees, telling their life stories and how they came to be at the Briarwood House the night of a murder. It takes place in Washington DC in the 1950s during the early days of the Cold War. It is captivating. 

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adventurous emotional hopeful mysterious sad medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
mysterious slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
emotional mysterious medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Expand filter menu Content Warnings