Take a photo of a barcode or cover
2.69 AVERAGE
2.69 AVERAGE
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
dark
tense
adventurous
emotional
reflective
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This book presents a unique story, blending adventure and emotional depth, but it sometimes struggles with pacing and tone. The writing is solid, and the themes explored are compelling, but there are moments when the narrative feels a bit sluggish, which may deter some readers.
Thank you to the publisher for the ARC! The premise of this book was very interesting and dystopian; however, it was EXTREMELY verbose. I felt like I was just slogging through words to get to a point. Sometimes I didn't even understand what was happening. There was a lack of clarity and continuity on many aspects of the storyline, and it was hard to follow who was talking at times. I do like birds, but also felt like the extreme amount of very detailed bird descriptions just added to the pile of words to get through.
adventurous
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I liked the idea of this book. I like a spooky earth-fights-back narrative. But then it was aliens, and then it was people, and then it just kind of sat there. I kept thinking something big was about to happen and then it would just be over. Certain betrayals and concepts needed to have been fleshed out more to have an impact.
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
sad
tense
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
This book is fantastic, I was worried at first given some of the other reviews on here but after looking at people’s read list it was clear they read safe simple booktok books and probably have never read any eco-horror or weird fiction. This book is smart and full of wit, shows beauty in darkness. Perfectly lovecraftian
this has some good ideas and there are times where they shine through but it's bogged down by the writing. i don't even have as much of a problem with all the birding info as other reviewers do, it more came down to that it was extremely obvious at different parts (but especially in the beginning) that the author is a white man writing the POVs of characters of color and women.
the first chapter from Kumi Sato's point-of-view has an all-time worst line I've ever read ("I'm seventy-five and falling apart. My body, not my womanhood, nor my Japanese-Americanness." truly what does that mean. what would it mean for her "Japanese-Americanness" or her "womanhood" to be falling apart. it's clear he's just trying to establish we are reading from the POV of a Japanese-American woman but surely it could have been done much more elegantly than this!) and there was a line later that made me roll my eyes ("A woman can tell when another woman wants to vomit.").
Blaz's POV often felt inauthentic as well, though there weren't any lines that stood out as clearly as Kumi's. I understand what the author is trying to do (he lays it out very clearly in the end) but this feels like it should have been looked at more by sensitivity readers.
other than that, there are some very, very overwrought sections (usually from the goth deading group, who make many references to Important Women that also made me roll my eyes and felt inauthentic to who teens would pull for that kind of thing) that made reading this a real slog at points. none of the teen POV feel real to teenagers, and a lot of them blend together (with one of them being first person plural, usually a convention I like but one that didn't do well here). it also has a pet peeve of mine where an entire population of people all agree to use a proper noun for something we already have words for (referring to government workers as The Faceless, so corny).
there's good body horror moments that I wish we could have had more of, and some moments that stuck out to me. it just really needed some more editing and possibly restructuring to be something good.
the first chapter from Kumi Sato's point-of-view has an all-time worst line I've ever read ("I'm seventy-five and falling apart. My body, not my womanhood, nor my Japanese-Americanness." truly what does that mean. what would it mean for her "Japanese-Americanness" or her "womanhood" to be falling apart. it's clear he's just trying to establish we are reading from the POV of a Japanese-American woman but surely it could have been done much more elegantly than this!) and there was a line later that made me roll my eyes ("A woman can tell when another woman wants to vomit.").
Blaz's POV often felt inauthentic as well, though there weren't any lines that stood out as clearly as Kumi's. I understand what the author is trying to do (he lays it out very clearly in the end) but this feels like it should have been looked at more by sensitivity readers.
other than that, there are some very, very overwrought sections (usually from the goth deading group, who make many references to Important Women that also made me roll my eyes and felt inauthentic to who teens would pull for that kind of thing) that made reading this a real slog at points. none of the teen POV feel real to teenagers, and a lot of them blend together (with one of them being first person plural, usually a convention I like but one that didn't do well here). it also has a pet peeve of mine where an entire population of people all agree to use a proper noun for something we already have words for (referring to government workers as The Faceless, so corny).
there's good body horror moments that I wish we could have had more of, and some moments that stuck out to me. it just really needed some more editing and possibly restructuring to be something good.
Extremely meh.
While I did not reach anything particularly offensive, I didn't feel like slogging through a climate change horror (one of my least favorite things to read, given the current state of the world) just to see why everyone was so disappointed in this book.
While I did not reach anything particularly offensive, I didn't feel like slogging through a climate change horror (one of my least favorite things to read, given the current state of the world) just to see why everyone was so disappointed in this book.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Death
Moderate: Infidelity