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lateromantic's review against another edition
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Could've been a 5* book if it had fewer twists, strands, characters. I liked the voice, it was kind of Arthur Koestler x Dan Brown. as a bridge player, I'm obsessed with the idea of grand jeu now. wish it had been queerer tbh.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Hate crime, Mental illness, Misogyny, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Xenophobia, Blood, Antisemitism, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Abandonment, Alcohol, and Colonisation
added a trigger warning for antisemitism because the persecution ofrowanrelph's review against another edition
challenging
hopeful
mysterious
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? Yes
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Bullying, Confinement, Death, Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicide, Grief, Religious bigotry, Suicide attempt, and Sexual harassment
Moderate: Alcoholism, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Grief, Religious bigotry, Stalking, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Gaslighting, Abandonment, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism
torturedreadersdept's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
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
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Bullying, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual content, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Blood, Grief, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Fire/Fire injury
Minor: Homophobia, Infidelity, Forced institutionalization, Vomit, Pregnancy, Alcohol, and Classism
angry_tortoise's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Suicidal thoughts and Suicide
Moderate: Bullying, Death, Misogyny, Sexism, Blood, Religious bigotry, and Alcohol
jessiereads98's review against another edition
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
TL;DR: The Betrayals is a poorly crafted, offensive Christian persecution fantasy featuring multiple other discriminatory stances that wants to be taken seriously as a literary work, but has nothing to say.
The Betrayals’ merits begin and end with a gorgeous cover. There is somehow both a lot and nothing going on here. Crucial elements are vague for the sake of vagueness, so much of the book both in major and minor elements is offensive, and the craft itself isn’t even particularly well done.
According to the blurb, The Betrayals centres around the grand jeu. The national game (or not a game, or a performance, or a religion, take your pick honestly) of some European nation (that is not France or Britain or Switzerland but deliberately not disclosed for some reason). The grand jeu is clearly made intentionally vague so the reader can never actually get a handle on what it is, how it is played, or what elements really make it up. This vagueness truly serves no purpose in the story or for the themes of the book. The author is also intentionally vague about what country this is taking place in, what time period it takes place in, and the details of the ruling political party. I believe this was an attempt to demonstrate that fascism can happen anywhere at anytime, but ultimately it is not effective and just leaves things feeling confused and hollow.
This book is also wildly offensive with absolutely no hint to what the reader is in for in the back cover description. This book is actually less about the grand jeu and more about the ruling political party’s oppression of Christians. The Christian oppression complex is weird and disgusting in and of itself, but Bridget Collins succeeds in making it worse. Collins has essentially recreated pre-Holocaust/World War II Nazi Germany and substituted Christians for Jewish people in her ahistorical fantasy world. Collins goes out of her way to inform us that the ruling party in the book came to power by gaining the support of the working class through blaming the country’s struggles on communists and Christians. In this reimagining of history Christians are marked with a cross on their clothing, put on a registry which requires special papers, and secretly rounded up by police then left in a hostile area. There was no creativity here, just a disgustingly antisemitic warping of history to satisfy the bizarre Christian desire to be oppressed. As if this wasn’t enough, Christians are lumped in with Muslims and Jewish people, who are actually oppressed (pages 51 and 78). The author also uses the slur g*psy (derogatory term for Romani people) and maligns their beliefs (page 183) for no real reason with nothing else done to combat that behaviour in the text.
The misogyny in this book both of the time period (which isn’t even specified but implied to be historical) and the characters goes completely unchallenged. Women are repeatedly maligned as less than the men, stupider, more frivolous, overly sensitive, petty. The two main female characters (Magister Ludi Claire Dryden, and The Rat) are almost never referred to by their names but rather their titles. Their supposed differences from other women are also repeatedly pointed out. The result is two dehumanized “not like other girls” caricatures who exist solely to further the development of male characters’ stories (Léo and Claire, Simon and The Rat).
The twist of Claire being the Carfax that Léo knew was predictable and boring. It diminished Léo’s previous relationship with Carfax, his current relationship with Claire, and the significance of Carfax’s death. In conjunction with the rest of the book it also came off as both transphobic and homophobic, whether that was the intention or not. Earlier in the book there is a seemingly throwaway line about an irrelevant side character who dresses in typically male clothing. It is said that, “she’d rather be an honorary man than speak up for women” (page 203). This is the exact attitude that TERFs hold towards trans men and trans masculine people. TERFs believe, that just as is portrayed in this book through Claire/Carfax, that trans men are really women pretending to be men due to not wanting to be disadvantaged under patriarchy. This story seems to play into that belief, and taken in conjunction with the Christian persecution fantasy it entertains, I’m not inclined to give the author the benefit of the doubt. In addition, the story gains little to nothing by retconning the queer relationship between Carfax and Léo other than getting to bury its gays. While there is less explicitly homophobic in this story, eliminating the only queer relationship retroactively once again does not look good in combination with everything else going on in this book.
The least of Bridget Collins’ sins in The Betrayals is the craft, however it also does not hold up under scrutiny. Bridget Collins clearly intended to write a Very Serious Literary Work with Something To Say. Ultimately what she created is something that can’t be taken seriously and has nothing to say. She is vague just for the sake of vagueness, it doesn’t accomplish anything. The character of The Rat seems to serve little purpose to the story. The character’s main function seems to be an attempt to shock readers through grossness and light body horror to enhance the impression of this as a serious literary work. The Rat’s secondary function is to further the Christian persecution narrative through her interactions with Simon, but that is irrelevant to the main plot of Claire/Léo/Carfax. We are also repeatedly told things instead of shown them. Collins just can’t seem to deal in subtleties that would be so much more compelling in this book. She can’t just show us that Léo is is romantically interested in Carfax (although it is obvious), she has to spend two pages telling us that Léo has a crush on Carfax. We are told, seemingly out of nowhere, that Léo loves Claire separately from his memory of Carfax. What led to that? Why are we suddenly being told this when up to that point Claire has been a sort of stand in or surrogate for Carfax in Léo’s mind? It might be shocking for Bridget Collins to find out that readers can, in fact, figure things out on their own and through subtext, and don’t need to be bashed over the head with them. Perhaps, instead of explicitly stating the obvious, she could spend those pages criticizing the disgusting attitudes displayed in this book.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Bullying, Antisemitism, and Religious bigotry
Moderate: Ableism, Body horror, Death, Mental illness, Misogyny, Sexism, Suicide, Blood, Grief, Murder, and Classism
Minor: Racial slurs, Self harm, Vomit, Islamophobia, Death of parent, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Alcohol
glammster's review against another edition
challenging
dark
mysterious
reflective
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Mental illness, Self harm, Sexism, Suicide, Grief, Abandonment, and Alcohol
Moderate: Confinement, Genocide, Misogyny, Religious bigotry, Colonisation, Classism, and Deportation
theirgracegrace's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.75
What I liked about the book: the richness of the language and the complicated system of roles and reversals that kept me reading. What I disliked: literally everything else. The attempt at Holocaust imagery is absurd, the love story completely overshadows the setting and the threats, and the characters are completely forgettable and ordinary. The author is also a TERF and you can see it in the way that the final reveal is played out. Honestly want my money back.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcoholism, Child abuse, Death, Genocide, Hate crime, Mental illness, Misogyny, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Grief, Religious bigotry, Suicide attempt, Abandonment, and Alcohol
Moderate: Blood, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Police brutality, Death of parent, and Sexual harassment
While the book itself does not handle transphobia and related topics, a particular reveal late in the book comes across as transphobic on the part of the author.kindra_demi's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.75
Honestly, if it weren't for my curiousity in what the Grand Jeu was and how to play it, I would have DNF'ed this book. The twist/surprise only really caught me because I had also spent the 300+ pages before it trying to piece together the game. And all of that was to ultimately never get a complete answer.
I do appreciate a slow paced book, but there are points where it is so slow that I put it down and didn't pick it up for a couple weeks. There are 4 different pov:
- The Rat: her point of view doesn't really matter until the end of the book though you did get to see her grow with it starting in her pov and ending in it.
-Léo (in the past. His journal from when he attended school): probably the pov where you see the most growth. It was typically the only pov I looked forward to because it actually built the story.
-Léo (present day): a man who is so self absorbed he can't see 2 inches past his nose to realize he is being set up in a trap. I get there was a tragedy where it could have stopped his growth at the end of his journal and into present day him, but that being said, seeing him grow in the journal only to be so ignorant in present day was frustrating. He held records. Played this complex game that was worthy of an elite school (the one he attended). With all of this, I would hope that he would be smart enough to realize that him being forced into quitting his job and return to his old school to "rekindle his love of the Grand Jeu" isn't just that...
-Magister Ludi: One of the heads of the school Léo attended/was forced to return to. And don't forget that SHE must do it alone because SHE is a WOMAN and SHE is going to be the future of the Grand Jeu because women aren't allowed to play but SHE worked for it. Did I mention that the Magister Ludi is a woman? This pov gave me "written by a man" energy. It felt like there wasn't an understanding of being a woman actually, but every time this pov came up, it was overly emphasized.
I don't know if it should be called miscommunication, but that is about the closest thing to describe this whole background of the problem in the book. One character was purposely left in the dark by another. Another character took their understanding of Léo's journal and ran with it in a total opposite direction than the original meaning. It's a journal but in this character's mind, they could have been purposely misleading (like the purpose of a journal is for other people to read).
Before I got to the twist, I was weirded out by the fact Léo went from having feeling for Carfax to having feelings for Claire. After it is revealed she is Carfax, it makes sense, but it just wasn't something that sat right with me.
I know Bridget Collins has another book, and I've seen good reviews for it, but I don't have hopes for it and won't be picking it up any time soon after this book.
I do appreciate a slow paced book, but there are points where it is so slow that I put it down and didn't pick it up for a couple weeks. There are 4 different pov:
- The Rat: her point of view doesn't really matter until the end of the book though you did get to see her grow with it starting in her pov and ending in it.
-Léo (in the past. His journal from when he attended school): probably the pov where you see the most growth. It was typically the only pov I looked forward to because it actually built the story.
-Léo (present day): a man who is so self absorbed he can't see 2 inches past his nose
-Magister Ludi: One of the heads of the school Léo attended/was forced to return to. And don't forget that SHE must do it alone because SHE is a WOMAN and SHE is going to be the future of the Grand Jeu because women aren't allowed to play but SHE worked for it. Did I mention that the Magister Ludi is a woman? This pov gave me "written by a man" energy. It felt like there wasn't an understanding of being a woman actually, but every time this pov came up, it was overly emphasized.
I don't know if it should be called miscommunication, but that is about the closest thing to describe this whole background of the problem in the book. One character was purposely left in the dark by another. Another character took their understanding of Léo's journal and ran with it in a total opposite direction than the original meaning. It's a journal but in this character's mind, they could have been purposely misleading (like the purpose of a journal is for other people to read).
I know Bridget Collins has another book, and I've seen good reviews for it, but I don't have hopes for it and won't be picking it up any time soon after this book.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Blood, Grief, Religious bigotry, and Murder
Moderate: Mental illness, Misogyny, Sexism, and Alcohol
Minor: Sexual content