Reviews tagging 'Confinement'

A Wizard's Guide to Defensive Baking by T. Kingfisher

11 reviews

twoweeeeks's review

adventurous dark hopeful sad medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Genocide, Violence, and War

Moderate: Police brutality, Grief, Murder, Death of parent, Excrement, Confinement, and Abandonment

Minor: Fire/Fire injury and Animal death

flaminggecko's review

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful lighthearted reflective tense slow-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism, War, Colonisation, Confinement, and Death

Moderate: Animal death, Excrement, Xenophobia, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Vomit, Blood, and Panic attacks/disorders

Minor: Excrement, Alcohol, Ableism, Death of parent, Panic attacks/disorders, Cannibalism, and Pandemic/Epidemic

heoleen's review against another edition

adventurous funny tense medium-paced

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

3.75

The ending was very entertaining and funny. The beginning was quite slow and I had to force myself to keep reading. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War and Violence

Moderate: Confinement

elltea11's review

adventurous dark emotional funny inspiring medium-paced

• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No

3.5

There were several places where I felt like the book could and perhaps should have ended. Not as good as Nettle & Bone imo, but still worth a read.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child death, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Excrement, Animal death, Confinement, Stalking, War, Xenophobia, Violence, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Classism, Death of parent, Vomit, Mental illness, Alcohol, Cannibalism, Sexism, Self harm, Suicide, and Police brutality

anntharai's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny sad fast-paced

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

5.0

T Kingfisher is fast becoming an instant read for me, this book is frankly phenomenal. You wouldn't think a book about semi sentient flour based goods could be heart wrenching and epic BUT YOU WOULD BE WRONG. Fight for books like this, share them widely and listen to what they're saying because appearances can be deceiving. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, War, and Murder

Moderate: Confinement

Minor: Death of parent and Police brutality

purplesaturday's review against another edition

dark funny inspiring lighthearted

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes

4.75

A really enjoyable read. It’s a fairly dark story shown through a more lighthearted perspective. The protagonist is really likeable and sweet, and reading this book was just a really nice experience.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Murder, Classism, War, and Death

Moderate: Vomit, Excrement, Confinement, and Animal death

Minor: Death of parent

bexi's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny lighthearted mysterious fast-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Xenophobia

Moderate: Blood, Child death, Injury/Injury detail, War, Murder, and Violence

Minor: Confinement, Animal death, and Ableism

maryellen's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful 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

5.0

This book was an utter delight. Wonderful characters, humor, suspense... I just loved it. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Death of parent, War, and Grief

Minor: Animal death, Confinement, and Injury/Injury detail

novella42's review

adventurous dark funny hopeful lighthearted fast-paced

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

4.25

Such a fun, weird, dark-yet-delightful book! I love baking bread and reading fantasy stories, and found this book to be hilarious and just the right amount of snarky. I usually avoid dark/horror themes but I love Kingfisher's style and take on mental health and relationships enough that I keep going back to read a lot of Kingfisher's other books in the Clocktower universe. I kept imagining this story taking place there, too. It's certainly dark enough for it, to the point where I kept feeling surprised that this is a young adult novel. But then Mona would do or say something and I'd have a little argument with myself that of course this is a young adult novel. If Hunger Games is Young Adult, than this can be too, and is a heck of a lot sweeter. (And not just because of all the scones and gingerbread.) I genuinely love Mona and all the people in her life. Kingfisher has a real talent for writing group dynamics and I think that shows here. I was surprised to learn in her afterword that she first wrote this in 2007, as many of the themes are especially relevant in the 2020s. I'd love to read another in a series, and I also think this makes a lovely standalone story too. Well done, Kingfisher!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Death, Hate crime, Police brutality, Excrement, Murder, Violence, Grief, Vomit, Child death, Animal death, and Blood

Moderate: Ableism, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Stalking, Body horror, Xenophobia, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Classism, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, and Confinement

Minor: Genocide, Cannibalism, Body shaming, Fatphobia, and Medical content

bex_knighthunterbooks's review

adventurous funny hopeful lighthearted fast-paced

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

4.5

With Kingfisher's distinctive humour and dark whimsey, this children's adventure was charming and easy to love. The baking elements were well incorporated and the baking magic paid off nicely as the action ramped up at the end. The peril felt real, and I loved the messages around the dark side of heroism and how it often shows a failure of a system (and how a city probably shouldn't be saved by two kids). Mona had a distinctive snarky voice that did feel somewhat realistic for a 14-year old, and she had some good character growth. The side characters were also well drawn, in particular the magical ones: bob the sourdough starter, the gingerbread man that sticks with her, and Molly (whose power is horse necromancy). My only criticisms are that the plot resolution was a little overpowered, making all the hard work up to that point seem wasted, and that the world building was pretty light and generic, although parts of the city did come to life for me. Overall, this was a funny light hearted and entertaining read.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder and War

Moderate: Death and Violence

Minor: Animal death, Excrement, Confinement, Death of parent, Police brutality, Child death, Grief, Vomit, and Stalking