Reviews tagging 'Confinement'

The Evening and the Morning by Ken Follett

13 reviews

the_bookkeeper's review against another edition

emotional hopeful inspiring relaxing sad tense 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? It's complicated

5.0

As a lover of all things Kingsbridge I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It was interesting to see how the town of Kingsbridge came to be and I was honestly shocked to see how bitter and twisted some people can be even back then. 

However, this is also a bittersweet book for me... I have devoured all four other Kingsbridge novels over the past four years, falling in love with the town as it grew from book to book and now it has come to an end. 

One of the best series of novels I have ever read! 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Confinement and Rape

Minor: Xenophobia

jessidbee's review

adventurous inspiring fast-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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Confinement, Domestic abuse, Slavery, Rape, and Emotional abuse

goldenlake's review

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Sexual harassment, Kidnapping, Injury/Injury detail, Panic attacks/disorders, Abandonment, Addiction, Murder, Alcohol, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Adult/minor relationship, Slavery, Sexual violence, Sexual content, Rape, Suicidal thoughts, Religious bigotry, Racial slurs, Stalking, Terminal illness, Mental illness, Bullying, Alcoholism, Violence, Sexism, Infidelity, Misogyny, Gore, Chronic illness, Sexual assault, Dementia, Grief, Forced institutionalization, Physical abuse, Blood, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Animal death, Animal cruelty, Xenophobia, Vomit, Trafficking, War, Pregnancy, and Confinement

Minor: Colonisation, Genocide, Excrement, Fire/Fire injury, Infertility, and Cursing

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

siniandi's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful informative inspiring 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

4.25

I loved revisiting King's Bridge, learning about the origins of the town I already spent hours of my life reading about. The story is easy to follow and the three main characters' lives are interwoven in a very skilful way. I feel like I learned slightly less about the historical period and certainly less about architecture in this book than the last, but I still throughly enjoyed reading this book and think it is much improved from Follett's last installment of the Series (Column of Fire).

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Misogyny, Pregnancy, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Animal death, War, Alcohol, Blood, Chronic illness, Classism, Domestic abuse, Excrement, Kidnapping, Pedophilia, Rape, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Violence, and Physical abuse

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

kylieqrada's review against another edition

emotional relaxing sad 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

3.5

3.5 ⭐s. Not the best way to start off 2022, but I'll take it. I've read both of Ken Follett's sweeping historical epic series, and while my heart belongs to the Century Trilogy, the Pillars of the Earth is a very strong story as well. I do think that this entry added something to the saga, and it was fascinating to dive even deeper into history, this time into the Dark Ages, and see the beginnings of Kingsbridge. These books are a quiet comfort reading experience for me, which is weird to say because of my main critique of this book. I think that all of the misogyny, sexual assault, rape, slavery, abuse, homophobia, etc., while perhaps historically accurate, did get a little overwhelming and even gratuitous. I don't love trauma for trauma's sake.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, and Rape

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Confinement, and Pedophilia

Minor: Grief and Infertility

morgiah's review against another edition

adventurous informative relaxing slow-paced

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

3.0

i feel very conflicted about this book.

it only took me about a fifth of the way in to realize follett was a gross perv who needs to take classes on how to write women and queer people. his writing was insensitive, vulgar, and uncomfortable. many passages made me cringe, especially the bit in the middle where ragna basically described an oedipus complex between gytha and wilwulf, and recalled the same behavior in her mother and brother and assumed it was normal. freudian bullshit was certainly not needed at all.

having a woman forced to marry her rapist was also unnecessary. there were many other plot points and conflict that could have been included in place of this. 

nevertheless, i did find myself enjoying everything else surrounding the story. it was well written for the most part, and excluding any talks of appearances or sex, ragna was a riveting character with good amounts of development. i fell in love with her just as quickly as edgar. 

the time period this is set in is rare for historical fiction, which also inclined me to let myself enjoy it despite my criticisms. i haven’t decided whether or not i’ll continue to read the pillars of eternity, aka whether or not i’ll be able to put up with more unnecessary descriptions of a woman’s breasts at random intervals. we’ll see. i think this book is worth reading if you also enjoy this historical time period and are able to separate parts of a book you criticize with parts of a book you enjoy.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Slavery, Kidnapping, Confinement, and Domestic abuse

Moderate: Religious bigotry, Murder, and Misogyny

Minor: Death of parent

carolined's review against another edition

dark informative slow-paced

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

3.0

If you've ever read any Ken Follett you know how it goes, the heroes are well meaning, ambitious and hopelessly naive; the villains are ruthless and cunning and unbeatable until the very end. The author does a lot of research and makes sure the reader knows it, I enjoyed the details of everyday life much more than the plot. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Chronic illness, Death of parent, Death, Domestic abuse, Confinement, Grief, Infidelity, Kidnapping, Misogyny, Murder, Physical abuse, Sexism, Slavery, Torture, Trafficking, Violence, and Terminal illness

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury and Suicide

Minor: Alcoholism

beanjoles's review against another edition

adventurous emotional informative sad tense slow-paced

4.5

Amazing audio production - John Lee made the 24 hours fly by! 

This was my first Ken Follett read. I picked it up as a skip-the-line loan on a whim and I’m very glad I did! Other reviewers have mentioned that the characters don’t have a ton of depth, and that’s true, but it was still a really fun, tense, and informative listen. Spoiler for the ending:

Even though I know the ending was way too pat, with the good characters finally getting their heart’s desires and the villains finally being punished, it felt incredible to see our long suffering protagonists have something good happen to them for a change. I was thrilled by Aldred getting his bishopric and Ragna and Edgar getting, at long last, to enjoy their love and be married.

 

One of my favourite aspects of this novel was the keen attention paid to the minutiae of English life in the Dark Ages. I learned about shipbuilding, construction, and life for common peasants. It was interesting seeing the beginnings of the landlord system and how the laws regarded people of different statuses and genders. I also learned a lot about the horrors of slavery practised by the English, something I didn’t realize they’d been doing even way back then. I’d say I enjoyed the book as much for its world building as I did for the plot and characters. 

I liked this enough to put a hold on the Pillars of the Earth, and I’m excited to see where the story goes next! 

A content note: As you might expect of a book written about this era, there is a good deal of sexual violence in this book. Some of it is gratuitous to the plot but does contribute to worldbuilding (unfortunately). Id probably stay away from this book if sexual violence and r*pe are triggers for you. Examples:

Several female slaves are prostituted against their wills, and one of the protagonists is subjected to repeated rapes during a nearly year-long kidnapping that result in an unwanted pregnancy. It’s a lot!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Kidnapping, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, and Violence

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Emotional abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Torture

Minor: Infertility and Suicidal thoughts