Reviews tagging 'Child death'

The Evening and the Morning by Ken Follett

16 reviews

kimrahn's review

dark emotional hopeful inspiring sad medium-paced

4.75

Ken Follett is a master. It follows his formula but nevertheless it’s shocking and there are twists and turns throughout. Loved it 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Slavery, Child death, and Rape

jaqxun's review

dark slow-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Injury/Injury detail, Infidelity, Slavery, Bullying, Death, Excrement, Toxic relationship, Kidnapping, Rape, Torture, Sexual violence, Sexual harassment, Domestic abuse, Murder, Alcoholism, Violence, Pregnancy, Pedophilia, and Child death

mariana_mm's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional inspiring medium-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? Yes

4.0

 I’m a Ken Follet fan. I’m not an avid reader - I’m trying to read more this year - but, ever since I read The Pillars of the Earth, I’ve been reading more of Ken Follet’s books - the Century Trilogy, the Kingsbridge series - and loving them all. 

I have to say, I really liked The Evening and the Morning but, so far, it is the Ken Follet book I loved the least - still 4 stars though! The only reason: too many similarities to the original source. 

The Pillars of the Earth was the first book of Ken Follet’s “Kingsbridge Series”, and the book The Evening and the Morning serves as its prequel, taking place in the same place, but a couple of centuries earlier. 

The evil greedy Bishop; the ambitious scholarly Priest; the smart hardworking Builder; the independent cultured Noblewoman. This could be a brief description of the main characters from either The Pillars of the Earth or The Evening and the Morning.

The characters from both books - although different people from different centuries - seemed the same.  And for that reason alone: I liked the book but didn’t love it. 

What I enjoyed most about the book was reading about life in the turn of the 10th to 11th centuries. It’s not a particularly common age authors tend to write about, I believe mainly because there isn’t as much information about it as other ages, making it harder to research. I enjoyed learning more about this particular time. To realize how life and quality of life changed so much after the Romans left the British Isles, and other people like the Saxons and the Vikings started to invade. To the point where a lot of knowledge seemed lost in the Middle Ages - for example in ways of construction. It was a difficult time: war, constant invasions, famine. Surviving was the priority. But by the turn of the millennia, that will start to change, and it's interesting to see that in the book.

I also enjoyed learning how the places we first knew from The Pillars of the Earth, came to exist in this book. The background of it all. 

 

Ken Follet’s writing is impeccable. The detailed yet familiar way he describes the surroundings, the characters, their development, is amazing to read. We feel like we are in the story. I love history and historical fiction, especially European History, so it’s always interesting to read books like these, and Ken Follet makes it easy and enjoyable even for someone like me - who does not read a lot - to binge-read a 500-1000 tome! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death and Sexual violence

eatingfiction's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

3.25

Another great start to my reading year with another great Ken Follett historical epic. As always, his writing is immerserve and detailed. I was transported to the dark ages and invested in the tumultuous lives of our vast cast of characters. Follett really has a way of making you despise his villains and rooting for his heroes.

Unfortunately though, at this point I've read the following three Kingsbridge novels and they begin to feel formulaic. I doubt any of them will ever reach the heights of Pillars of The Earth (and maybe that was because it was the first one). I didn't connect with the characters as much in this one, and the plot was aimless at times. But i enjoyed the nitty gritty of everyday medieval life and the politics. This remains a great read, especially for the beach where this 900 page tome only took me 3 days to consume instead of 3 weeks! 

Looking forward to reading Armour of Light next summer. 😅

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Violence, Child death, Slavery, Murder, Rape, Religious bigotry, and Sexual violence

laurareadsbig's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional sad tense slow-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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Slavery, Emotional abuse, Rape, Sexual violence, Sexual harassment, Religious bigotry, Physical abuse, Misogyny, Death, Sexual assault, Injury/Injury detail, Child death, Kidnapping, Domestic abuse, Murder, Gore, Pregnancy, and Confinement

charliebuck's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful inspiring sad 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? Yes

5.0

This book has reignited the love I have for the Kingsbridge series! The third book Column of Fire was only a four-star for me, however, The Morning and the Evening has been a joy to read. I'm so excited for the fifth book due to be published later this year

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Child death, and Child abuse

Moderate: Rape, Kidnapping, and Violence

Minor: War and Slavery

sramac's review against another edition

adventurous emotional sad tense fast-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Sexual content, Child death, and Death

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Bullying, Chronic illness, Death of parent, Dementia, Domestic abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Forced institutionalization, Gore, Infertility, Kidnapping, Misogyny, Sexual content, Emotional abuse, Abandonment, Adult/minor relationship, Infidelity, Mental illness, Murder, Vomit, War, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, and Violence

sirius_feanor's review

2.75

It was rather a captivating story. But the amount of rape and misogyny in it was almost off putting. I understand it was for "historical accuracy" or whatever, but still yikes. 

The sex scenes are one of the worst I've ever read! And most of them are told from a female point of view. They are so obviously written by a male it's just ridiculous. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Slavery, Child death, Death of parent, Infidelity, Misogyny, Emotional abuse, Rape, Religious bigotry, Sexual assault, Murder, and Pregnancy

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Pedophilia, Torture, Chronic illness, and Grief

vibrantautumn's review

emotional hopeful slow-paced

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

3.0

I enjoyed the other books in this series, and this book was no exception, and no different. At all. The characters and plot were the same as in previous books. Nevertheless, I was hooked halfway through. I had hoped that this book wouldn’t feature women being raped, but of course that was there just like everything else.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Slavery, Confinement, Sexual violence, Child death, Violence, and Sexism

Moderate: Infidelity, Grief, Mental illness, Injury/Injury detail, Rape, Terminal illness, and Pregnancy

Minor: Sexual harassment, Pedophilia, War, Infertility, Suicidal thoughts, Death of parent, and Religious bigotry

fruity999's review against another edition

adventurous medium-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

3.5

I enjoy most of the story and the characters but there were some things I didn’t enjoy that I’ve mentioned in the content warnings. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Sexual assault, and Sexual violence

Minor: Fatphobia

There are a number of scenes involving young female slaves, around 12 years old, being sexually mistreated.