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caitlins_bookshelf's Reviews (434)
okay so this is the fourth Witcher book (not including the prequels) and I did struggle with it a little. this seems to be a recurring issue with this series, me taking ages to get into each book. even though they are really exciting I just find them quite hard to follow. this one in particular because the narrative wasn't in a straight order, it sort of jumped back and forth in time quite a lot except it would take me a few pages to place when things fitted into the story
wowee there was sooo much I loved about this book!! firstly it was spooky, and a little scary to read late at night which was of course perfect for the season! secondly, and my reason for wanting to read it, it had lots of queer characters!! I won't spoil who they are, but it made my gay heart very happy.
what I wasn't expecting was for the book to get so deep into the bad parts of Irish history. it looked at abortions, the obvious struggle women there had to go through to get one, and the stigma and judgment they faced from the catholic country after. and it also looked at Magdalene laundries, something I hadn't come across before this book. essentially from the 18th century, right up until 1996, unmarried pregnant women would be sent here to work, and carry out their pregnancies away from the prying eyes of the general public. I won't go into more detail because I don't want to spoil stuff that's revealed in the book, but I do recommend either reading it, or just researching into the laundries, as it's pretty shocking.
the book was sort of a mystery, elements of the family history being revealed all the way through, which was exciting and made it a hard book to put down! the only thing I didn't quite like was that the whole way through it was hard to tell whether something supernatural was going on or not (obviously I won't say one way or the other). not sure why, I just found this ambiguity a little annoying at times. and it sometimes felt like the writing was aimed at someone younger than me (or maybe it was just to reflect the young characters?) overall though, this was such a wonderful book and it covered so many important topics! I haven't really seen it mentioned on booksta at all so I implore you all to read it!!
what I wasn't expecting was for the book to get so deep into the bad parts of Irish history. it looked at abortions, the obvious struggle women there had to go through to get one, and the stigma and judgment they faced from the catholic country after. and it also looked at Magdalene laundries, something I hadn't come across before this book. essentially from the 18th century, right up until 1996, unmarried pregnant women would be sent here to work, and carry out their pregnancies away from the prying eyes of the general public. I won't go into more detail because I don't want to spoil stuff that's revealed in the book, but I do recommend either reading it, or just researching into the laundries, as it's pretty shocking.
the book was sort of a mystery, elements of the family history being revealed all the way through, which was exciting and made it a hard book to put down! the only thing I didn't quite like was that the whole way through it was hard to tell whether something supernatural was going on or not (obviously I won't say one way or the other). not sure why, I just found this ambiguity a little annoying at times. and it sometimes felt like the writing was aimed at someone younger than me (or maybe it was just to reflect the young characters?) overall though, this was such a wonderful book and it covered so many important topics! I haven't really seen it mentioned on booksta at all so I implore you all to read it!!
