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adhduck's review against another edition
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Very enjoyable, gritty and interesting and I like how all the mysteries and things unfolded. Also the complexity of the characters was good. Less of a fan of Go’s sudden vibe switch with Kaev, though I guess it was meant to partly be a front or her pretending to him/herself she wasn’t like Podlove? Also, how is Kaev old enough to be Soq’s dad, I thought he was like 33. And Ora’s like 50. Did they just have kids as teenagers and the book didn’t address it?
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gore, Violence, and Terminal illness
Moderate: Classism, Death, Xenophobia, Pandemic/Epidemic, Animal death, Ableism, Medical trauma, Colonisation, Forced institutionalization, and Sexual content
Minor: Suicidal thoughts
Involves a disease that gives you neurological symptoms, the way it’s passed and is treated by the government has some parallels to HIV/AIDS.snowhite197's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
hopeful
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
The ending was very abrupt and themes were suddenly heavy handed at the latter portion of the book.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Xenophobia, Animal death, Death, Confinement, Gun violence, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Toxic relationship, and Chronic illness
marmaladereads's review against another edition
challenging
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
This book is 50% vibes, set in a dystopian futuristic city that is run by crime syndicates with extreme income inequality and in a post climate catastrophe world where most world governments have collapsed. The book follows 5ish seemingly unrelated characters and their varied perspectives of the city - some are rich, poor, criminals, government workers. Most of the characters are queer, and the book is incredibly queer normative despite taking place with a background of a sexually transmitted and fatal pandemic reminiscent of HIV (which the government ignores). So the setting is incredibly interesting and the vibes and atmosphere established dominate the book.
However the plot is quite thin. It took probably 60% of the book for the plot to truly emerge, and when it did finally all come together, I found it somewhat underwhelming. Characters that were pretty interesting as individuals in earlier chapters kind of fell apart in terms of character depth and personality when they were thrown into group situations in later chapters, and a lot of the relationships lacked the emotional charge that should have come with long awaited reunions and the revelations that came with them. A lot of the big mysteries set up throughout the book also fell kind of flat for me when they were finally revealed.
Overall I would rate this book 5 stars for vibes and 2 stars for plot.
However the plot is quite thin. It took probably 60% of the book for the plot to truly emerge, and when it did finally all come together, I found it somewhat underwhelming. Characters that were pretty interesting as individuals in earlier chapters kind of fell apart in terms of character depth and personality when they were thrown into group situations in later chapters, and a lot of the relationships lacked the emotional charge that should have come with long awaited reunions and the revelations that came with them. A lot of the big mysteries set up throughout the book also fell kind of flat for me when they were finally revealed.
Overall I would rate this book 5 stars for vibes and 2 stars for plot.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Pandemic/Epidemic, Injury/Injury detail, Gun violence, Genocide, Forced institutionalization, Classism, Colonisation, Xenophobia, Violence, Toxic relationship, Gore, Animal death, Religious bigotry, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Murder, Medical trauma, and Grief
Moderate: Abandonment, Police brutality, and Deportation
ms_rey's review against another edition
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
2.75
Started too slow, ended too fast. Took me ages to get invested, and I only got through the first half because it was an audiobook. Then the climax ran through a couple different scenarios that were meant to be important and gripping but instead felt glossy and lacking detail. A couple character deaths that meant nothing to me. A punishment for an antagonist shown offscreen. I wish I liked it but I’m not sure I do.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Classism, Injury/Injury detail, Animal death, and Chronic illness
Moderate: Abandonment and Forced institutionalization
nodogsonthemoon's review
dark
mysterious
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Death, Violence, Terminal illness, Mental illness, and Gore
Moderate: Abandonment, Animal death, Genocide, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, and Torture
booksthatburn's review against another edition
adventurous
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
BLACKFISH CITY feels like post-apocalyptic cyberpunk (or maybe seapunk?), where it's been long enough after the destruction of significant portions of civilization that people have had time to rebuild, but nothing is as it was, and even less is as people would wish it to be.
The worldbuilding is great, with a backstory for the place itself which is told gradually throughout the narrative. There's an A.I. running everything, actually there are a lot of A.I.'s running things, and things are going about as well as they can when somebody a while ago built a nearly unaccountable system, put it on autopilot, and stopped claiming any active responsibility (i.e. badly). There are housing issues, xenophobia, immigration, and an illness spreading through the city that the authorities will neither acknowledge nor treat, but it's definitely present. Suddenly a woman shows up with an orca and a polar bear and her presence consumes the city in totally believable way. All of this is told through a rotation of protagonists from different circumstances who are seemingly unconnected. It's an interesting idea fleshed out into an excellent setting in which to place the characters. That's where it starts getting strange for me. The mysterious orcamancer woman was fascinating... until we actually meet her. Soq was really cool and made a ton of sense, with clear goals and understandable motivations... until they find out some of their personal history and start having unexplained goals that seemed to come out of nowhere. I'm not upset that the seemingly unconnected narrators turned out to actually be connected, that's a common trope which helps the narrative hang together so that they interact with the plot. That being said, I wasn't expecting them to be quite so connected. It took something that felt big and epic, people coming together as strangers to do something for the city and each other, and turned it into something much more dense and coincidental. Neither is bad, necessarily, but it meant I spent 70%-80% of the time thinking I was reading one kind of story before it suddenly changed to the other. Rather than feeling intimate it suddenly felt petty, at least for me.
There’s a moment where Soq, the nonbinary character, is implied to be intersex, but it’s conveyed briefly in a scene where a sexual partner is confused by their genitals (not described). Up until that scene they’d been pretty effortlessly and adeptly handled as a nonbinary character (with little explanatory moments but nothing that took me out of a scene), and then this encounter happens. Being intersex, if that’s what was meant, is distinct from being nonbinary. While it’s more than possible for someone to be both, it felt like their evidently intersex anatomy was offered as an explanation for their nonbinary identity in a way that was frustrating to read. They push back against the comment and correct the person, but it didn’t need to be in the story, just a bit of pointless interphobia.
The worldbuilding is great, with a backstory for the place itself which is told gradually throughout the narrative. There's an A.I. running everything, actually there are a lot of A.I.'s running things, and things are going about as well as they can when somebody a while ago built a nearly unaccountable system, put it on autopilot, and stopped claiming any active responsibility (i.e. badly). There are housing issues, xenophobia, immigration, and an illness spreading through the city that the authorities will neither acknowledge nor treat, but it's definitely present. Suddenly a woman shows up with an orca and a polar bear and her presence consumes the city in totally believable way. All of this is told through a rotation of protagonists from different circumstances who are seemingly unconnected. It's an interesting idea fleshed out into an excellent setting in which to place the characters. That's where it starts getting strange for me. The mysterious orcamancer woman was fascinating... until we actually meet her. Soq was really cool and made a ton of sense, with clear goals and understandable motivations... until they find out some of their personal history and start having unexplained goals that seemed to come out of nowhere. I'm not upset that the seemingly unconnected narrators turned out to actually be connected, that's a common trope which helps the narrative hang together so that they interact with the plot. That being said, I wasn't expecting them to be quite so connected. It took something that felt big and epic, people coming together as strangers to do something for the city and each other, and turned it into something much more dense and coincidental. Neither is bad, necessarily, but it meant I spent 70%-80% of the time thinking I was reading one kind of story before it suddenly changed to the other. Rather than feeling intimate it suddenly felt petty, at least for me.
There’s a moment where Soq, the nonbinary character, is implied to be intersex, but it’s conveyed briefly in a scene where a sexual partner is confused by their genitals (not described). Up until that scene they’d been pretty effortlessly and adeptly handled as a nonbinary character (with little explanatory moments but nothing that took me out of a scene), and then this encounter happens. Being intersex, if that’s what was meant, is distinct from being nonbinary. While it’s more than possible for someone to be both, it felt like their evidently intersex anatomy was offered as an explanation for their nonbinary identity in a way that was frustrating to read. They push back against the comment and correct the person, but it didn’t need to be in the story, just a bit of pointless interphobia.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content, Blood, Violence, Torture, and Animal death
Moderate: Ableism, Alcohol, Forced institutionalization, Mental illness, Terminal illness, Fire/Fire injury, Vomit, Suicidal thoughts, and Death
Minor: Sexism, Misogyny, Genocide, and Self harm
kipiekie's review
adventurous
dark
emotional
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
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Genocide and Animal death
Moderate: Violence and Mental illness
achillea's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
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Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood
Moderate: Animal death, Death, Forced institutionalization, Genocide, and Xenophobia
aardwyrm's review
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
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
4.5
Climate change dystopia in which horrible things happen endlessly, but the ultimate choice is hope. The world of Blackfish City is a world that has ended and is beginning to make itself again. The book rejects all easy answers but still loops back to the possibility of a better future. Its patchwork of viewpoints and intertwined themes of family and choice are powerfully executed and throw the reader into the City Without a Map.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Gun violence, Terminal illness, Torture, Trafficking, Sexual content, Religious bigotry, Police brutality, Murder, Mental illness, Medical trauma, Medical content, Gore, Grief, Genocide, Chronic illness, Blood, and Animal death
toriliz's review
challenging
dark
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.5
So, I really wanted to like this. It has a lot a factors I normally love in books; dystopian/futuristic setup, the seemingly out of place character (hello Orcamancer), a shifting POV...but that wasn’t enough. On its face, this had really interesting ideas but the writing wasn’t the best at seeing them through. There was barely any change between character voices, which made it hard to follow along. There were lots of ideas that were either barely explored or mentioned once or twice and then they just disappear (the breaks, nanobonding, the genocides mentioned). And, I’m not sure what the end was supposed to mean, if anything? It felt like someone was writing and said “Nah, I’ll just end it here” rather than writing something that felt purposeful and tied the ends together. It had a lot of potential but fell flat in most areas. On the plus side, I know this doesn’t count towards the actual content at all but whoever did the cover art deserves some kudos. It looks really fantastic.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Violence
Minor: Animal death