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A review by helenid
Dark Cathedral by Freda Warrington
3.0
I listened to this on a Library audio so have no idea on the spelling of names! There are SPOILERY glimpses in this, sorry!
Three stars means I enjoyed but a lot of this book is not to my liking and more than a little is really distasteful and many times I decided to abandon it.
Years ago, a Freda Warrington book was a must read, I devoured the Blackbird series and whilst I don't really have a clue what they were about now, I remember loving them. The Jewelfire books, the Rainbow Gate all scored highly with me so when I saw that the library had this book plus its sequel, I jumped at it.
Friends will know that I'm not a reader of romance and while I can squee over romantic aspects in a book, its not my focus. Likewise, I'm in for Grimdark - who isn't a fan of Jorg or the Malazan books all of which contain some truly distasteful imagery.
So, this book.... Two children are raised by psycho-religious nutters, they are whipped for any reason, they don't play, watch tv or anything else connected to childhood. Then one summer they get to stay at their grandparents who foolishly allow them to go out alone into the village. There they meet the witch!!!
Goddess (Earth magic) versus an evil, corrupted man-god.
Naturally teens and over-strict parenting lead to a pregnancy although a talking baby didn't enter my head as a possible option. The sex scenes are supposedly sweet but the descriptions don't really differ from the (many) rape scenes - throbbing, purple, glistening, thrusting, member, splitting membranes, you name it then I bet the adjective was there! Most of this made for an uncomfortable read, even the scenes that were supposedly love filled and cute!
The child can see into the past, to witch-hunting times and her consciousness can travel back to visit a healer, where we see savagery and rape. The scenes are brutal and this child is around 6 years old. In a much later scene, a young boy is raped and 'blood squirted in an arc'. His mother knows that the Cult leader is pure and has good reason. Its all very uncomfortable.
You root for the baddies to come a cropper and dying would seem fitting you think until you read their endings and then begin to wonder whether their fate could ever be deserved.
The child who is one of our 'heroes' isn't very nice, she has a grown up (the crone) aspect where everything is black and white and she believes that death is a reasonable option to any slight. Her mother repeatedly looks at her with frightened gazes yet loves her and has no concern over her actions.
I ask myself why did I continue reading and basically I wanted to know what would happen. Would Beth and her child find happiness and safety? Would the cult become unstuck? Would we ever find out why everyone in Beth's family hated Rhianwen (the witch) so much that they'd shoot at her son? Plus I hate to abandon a book!
I will not read the second book. This book rates highly on GR although one reader states that she'd blanked out the more distasteful aspects.
Added: when I first started listening it sounded almost like a child's book or a very young YA. The narrator does good voices but the rest is almost a monotone.
Three stars means I enjoyed but a lot of this book is not to my liking and more than a little is really distasteful and many times I decided to abandon it.
Years ago, a Freda Warrington book was a must read, I devoured the Blackbird series and whilst I don't really have a clue what they were about now, I remember loving them. The Jewelfire books, the Rainbow Gate all scored highly with me so when I saw that the library had this book plus its sequel, I jumped at it.
Friends will know that I'm not a reader of romance and while I can squee over romantic aspects in a book, its not my focus. Likewise, I'm in for Grimdark - who isn't a fan of Jorg or the Malazan books all of which contain some truly distasteful imagery.
So, this book.... Two children are raised by psycho-religious nutters, they are whipped for any reason, they don't play, watch tv or anything else connected to childhood. Then one summer they get to stay at their grandparents who foolishly allow them to go out alone into the village. There they meet the witch!!!
Goddess (Earth magic) versus an evil, corrupted man-god.
Naturally teens and over-strict parenting lead to a pregnancy although a talking baby didn't enter my head as a possible option. The sex scenes are supposedly sweet but the descriptions don't really differ from the (many) rape scenes - throbbing, purple, glistening, thrusting, member, splitting membranes, you name it then I bet the adjective was there! Most of this made for an uncomfortable read, even the scenes that were supposedly love filled and cute!
The child can see into the past, to witch-hunting times and her consciousness can travel back to visit a healer, where we see savagery and rape. The scenes are brutal and this child is around 6 years old. In a much later scene, a young boy is raped and 'blood squirted in an arc'. His mother knows that the Cult leader is pure and has good reason. Its all very uncomfortable.
You root for the baddies to come a cropper and dying would seem fitting you think until you read their endings and then begin to wonder whether their fate could ever be deserved.
The child who is one of our 'heroes' isn't very nice, she has a grown up (the crone) aspect where everything is black and white and she believes that death is a reasonable option to any slight. Her mother repeatedly looks at her with frightened gazes yet loves her and has no concern over her actions.
I ask myself why did I continue reading and basically I wanted to know what would happen. Would Beth and her child find happiness and safety? Would the cult become unstuck? Would we ever find out why everyone in Beth's family hated Rhianwen (the witch) so much that they'd shoot at her son? Plus I hate to abandon a book!
I will not read the second book. This book rates highly on GR although one reader states that she'd blanked out the more distasteful aspects.
Added: when I first started listening it sounded almost like a child's book or a very young YA. The narrator does good voices but the rest is almost a monotone.