Reviews tagging 'Confinement'

The Library at Mount Char by Scott Hawkins

20 reviews

szyca's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Grief, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Animal death, Slavery, Drug use, Abandonment, Animal cruelty, Child death, Murder, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Body horror, Confinement, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Medical content, Alcohol, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Physical abuse, Rape, Suicide, Blood, Violence, Self harm, Suicide attempt, Torture, and Gun violence

jamie_rich's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

2.0

This book was strange as hell. And needs to have *all* the trigger warnings.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Self harm, Suicide attempt, Child abuse, Death of parent, Car accident, Confinement, Murder, Gore, Rape, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual assault, Suicide, Torture, Cursing, Death, Gun violence, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Violence, and War

librarymouse's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This book is fantastic! I think the non-linear narrative really added to the suspense as the plot unfolded slowly. I enjoy how this novel puts readers into the position to root for Carolyn as she does exestentially terrifying things, the consequences of which ramp up slowly. Yet the author is still able to root the horrors of the reality Carolyn creates to the reality we know through Steve and Erwin.

This was recommended to me as horror, but I can't help but feel that while it is scary and gory, horror isn't the correct genre for this novel. Horror makes me panic at night. I stayed up into the wee hours of the morning reading The Library at Mount Char.
This is everything I could want and more from a book that starts out with the vibes of a post-hayday magic school memoir of sorts.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Child death, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Grief, Gun violence, Sexual violence, Toxic friendship, Violence, Confinement, Death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Sexism, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Murder, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Car accident, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Misogyny, Sexual assault, Sexual content, and Sexual harassment

meg_elyse's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional inspiring sad tense medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Death, Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Rape, Animal death, Body horror, Self harm, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Gun violence, Sexual assault, Toxic relationship, Blood, Child abuse, Gore, Suicide, Murder, Physical abuse, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Death of parent, Sexual assault, Drug use, War, Animal death, Confinement, Excrement, Self harm, Rape, Torture, and Vomit

ceridwyn's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective tense fast-paced

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

3.75

This is a well written page Turner. Bleak, full of horror and too nihilistic for me to enjoy.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Genocide, Medical content, Animal cruelty, Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, Murder, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Torture, Blood, Body horror, Bullying, Confinement, Domestic abuse, Gore, Child abuse, Death, Grief, Gun violence, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, Slavery, and Violence

chrisljm's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious medium-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? Yes

2.5

This was a well written story, but it’s not something I enjoyed. The vibes were just so terrible, I wanted to throw up a few times. It was as if Scott Hawkins heard the phrase “until the room stinks” and wanted to literally infuse that into the very core of the book. 

The best part of the book, for me, was the resolution to the mystery of what happened to Father. It seemed like a great conclusion, only to find out I still had ~150 pages left. I know part of the premise is Carolyn finding her humanity again, but since that arch is set after the climax of finding out about Father, the juxtaposition in tone of these two parts seemed very strange to me and made me enjoy the last quarter a lot less. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Cursing, Child abuse, Child death, Blood, Animal death, Toxic relationship, Sexual content, Confinement, Body horror, Injury/Injury detail, Homophobia, Fire/Fire injury, Violence, Gun violence, War, Torture, Suicide, Rape, Murder, and Gore

Moderate: Bullying, Drug abuse, Alcohol, and Death of parent

Minor: Slavery, Car accident, and Cancer

aformeracceleratedreader's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? It's complicated

3.25

I really dislike using r*p* as character development and this book uses that a little bit. So hated that. Also kind of hated throwing sex/peens in the story too. Like no I didn't need to know that one character could not get erect no matter how much the other character involved tried in any level of detail, but here we are.

Also wasn't a fan of making a large portion of carolyn's motivation being her romantic crush

. 
But overall the book was okay. Super slow going, but the idea was good. I understand needing quite a bit of the back stories leading up to the present time now that I've finished it, but while reading, it made the story drag on a little. It also kind of feels like a couple ideas were thrown together that didn't get fully fleshed out, but the main thing of the book is

creating/raising/training a god or a god-like being. It also really embodies the meme "I want to punch god in the face"

. People are saying it's weird but I didn't find it so much as it was just kind of graphic.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Grief, Child abuse, Cursing, Violence, Animal cruelty, Car accident, Gun violence, Murder, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Alcohol, Animal death, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Rape, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Drug use, Kidnapping, Suicide, Blood, and Confinement

Minor: Sexism

mommarex1221's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

Do not be discouraged by the 3 ⭐️ rating, this novel is crafted with care and the premise is unique, at least it's unlike anything I've ever read before. I would still recommend it. I did enjoy about half of it, not to say I disliked the remaining half, I just struggled. I was a bit sad about some of the choices made in reference to a certain character, but that's on me and not the book. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Confinement, Death, Death of parent, Violence, Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Fire/Fire injury, Medical content, Murder, Suicide, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Torture, Rape, Sexual content, Forced institutionalization, Abandonment, Animal cruelty, Child abuse, Alcohol, and Gun violence

Minor: Addiction, Alcoholism, Car accident, and Cancer

dovedozen's review against another edition

slow-paced

• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No

This book was written by a man whose blog says he's fostered a bunch of dogs, but who I can only infer never learned to trim their nails and also seems to think lions are more interesting, because they're epic or whatever. Also, the racism is WILDLY out of line and VERY OBVIOUSLY comes from the author's entirely unexamined history of personal mass media consumption. The hyperviolent rapist is a man who wears a tutu for most of the book, because haha, get it, he's ~not human~ and doesn't understand which clothes go with which gender, lol? Oh, also, it's dropped halfway through the book in a throwaway line that he's black. Also the tutu came from the childhood bedroom closet of a gay man, I guess? I wish this dude didn't know what gay people were. I also wish he didn't know what dogs were, to be perfectly honest with you.

Listen to me. The pacing is awful. Scenes that don't matter are explained in excruciating detail and the lore is nothing but a series of vague gestures towards the CONCEPT of real-life mythological systems. The main character is bait-and-switched from the Woman Who Might Be Losing Her Humanity the blurb tells you about to the author's epic quipping self-insert everyman, who has the same conversation with rando after rando about how HE KNOWS, RIGHT, what's happening is REALLY weird but he has a gun and will shoot them if they don't help him fail to advance the plot. This is a book written by a middle-aged man who has seen a lot of movies and reads Neil Gaiman sometimes. Whoever edited it didn't do shit, because it barely hangs together as a coherent narrative at all. Instead it reads like the idle dark fantasy of a guy who had some free time to write one book, one time. It's a story that uses sexual assault and graphic descriptions of violence to ask the reader "wouldn't it be fucked up if" and it doesn't even have the decency to do it in a way that's well-written enough to be cathartic. It's not even that weird. It's, like, an intensely boring person's idea of what a weird book is probably like, they think.

Mount Char is nothing. It's a desperately sad waste of my ears and brain cells. It's fodder for my lifelong vendetta against Artists Who Are Just Some Guy. It's "John Dies at the End" for assholes. Whoever wrote the blurb for it is some kind of chaos genius and I hope they were paid accordingly, because if you'd asked me to describe this novel concisely, in a way that might trick people with brains into taking a chance on it, I would have simply said "no, thank you".

Fuck this book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Blood, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Murder, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Torture, and Violence

Minor: Bullying, Drug use, Fatphobia, and Homophobia

whatellisreadnext's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark funny mysterious 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

5.0

"𝘊𝘢𝘯 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘬 𝘰𝘧 𝘢𝘯𝘺 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘰𝘯 𝘐 𝘴𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥𝘯'𝘵 𝘨𝘳𝘢𝘣 𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘴𝘦 𝘬𝘪𝘵𝘤𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘬𝘯𝘪𝘷𝘦𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘣 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘧*𝘤𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘯𝘦𝘤𝘬?"
𝘊𝘢𝘳𝘰𝘭𝘺𝘯 𝘱𝘶𝘳𝘴𝘦𝘥 𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘭𝘪𝘱𝘴, 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘴𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘨. "𝘠𝘰𝘶 𝘮𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵 𝘨𝘦𝘵 𝘣𝘭𝘰𝘰𝘥 𝘰𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘤𝘪𝘯𝘯𝘢𝘮𝘰𝘯 𝘳𝘰𝘭𝘭𝘴."

Carolyn has spent most of her life locked inside an infinite library alongside her adopted siblings. Father gives each of them different catalogs to study, all becoming experts in their given fields. After a turn of events, father is missing, and none of them can reach the library, they need the help of an outsider.

I love this book so much. It has without a doubt cemented it's place in my top 10 favourite books of all time. It is everything I want from a story and more. The Library At Mount Char might be one of the weirdest, funniest and most confusing books I have ever read, but I loved every single second of it. There is something so special about reading the first 30 pages of a book, and just knowing it's going to be one of the best things you've ever read.

This book isn't going to be for everyone, if you like a linear structured narrative that isn't confusing, then this probably isn't the book for you. I spent the first 200 pages, so confused, but I just couldn't tear my eyes away from the craziness that was unfolding. And then the last 190 pages, when it all came together was so bloody satisfying.

I can't really say much without ruining this one. I recommend going in as blind as possible, but if you're into weird, witty, gory sci-fi, then you need this book. I mean you should buy it for Carolyn alone, she is such a fantastic main protagonist.  I love her with my whole heart. You know what is frustrating? The fact that this is the only book Scott Hawkins has written so far. I need more books like this in my life 😭

Thanks to my bookish bestie Kathryn for gifting me this book for Christmas. You are the best, and I never would have picked this up if it wasn't for you

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Death of parent, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Grief, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Suicide, Suicide attempt, and Violence

Dog attack