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theotherallie's review against another edition
- 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
Graphic: Body horror, Violence, Transphobia, and Religious bigotry
Moderate: Dysphoria, Child abuse, Child death, Gore, Deadnaming, Genocide, Death, Death of parent, Hate crime, Homophobia, Pandemic/Epidemic, and Confinement
Minor: Blood, Physical abuse, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Grief, Child abuse, Toxic relationship, Domestic abuse, and Gaslighting
itsatyepo's review against another edition
- 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
4.0
Graphic: Pandemic/Epidemic, Transphobia, Alcohol, Body shaming, Child abuse, Medical content, Mental illness, Violence, Gore, Grief, Gun violence, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, Deadnaming, Gaslighting, Genocide, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Religious bigotry, Blood, Cursing, Death of parent, Hate crime, Homophobia, Body horror, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Physical abuse, Child death, Death, and Dysphoria
ziracrow's review against another edition
- 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
Graphic: Physical abuse, Homophobia, Gore, Blood, Murder, Suicidal thoughts, Medical trauma, Injury/Injury detail, Body horror, Gun violence, Death of parent, Religious bigotry, Deadnaming, and Dysphoria
Moderate: Toxic relationship, Gaslighting, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Misogyny, Confinement, and Death
salemander's review against another edition
4.5
Graphic: Religious bigotry, Transphobia, Body horror, Blood, Death, Torture, Emotional abuse, Vomit, Medical content, Homophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Hate crime, Deadnaming, Gaslighting, and Gore
periodblood's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.25
Graphic: Violence, Blood, Transphobia, Vomit, Toxic relationship, Murder, Body horror, Injury/Injury detail, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, and Gore
Moderate: Torture, War, Genocide, Misogyny, Death of parent, and Deadnaming
Minor: Grief
hemlockbabe's review against another edition
- 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
I adored this book. I picked it up entirely on a whim during pride month on the wall of recommended reading at a small bookstore. I read (more like skimmed) the blurb on why the shop employee recommended it so highly. I love reading religious trauma inspired books, so I pretty much was sold immediately.
I devoured this book during the span of one six hour shift at my workplace. I've always been a fast reader- it's my attention span that ruins my ability to read books. This book sucked me in hard enough that occasionally I had to be prompted multiple times by customers to buy their stuff.
I don't know if I would have had a different experience with it if I had known of the trigger warnings, especially the violence, purposeful misgendering, and body horror. I've always loved zombie books, and I read those curled up in chairs in the library of my high school, so I didn't think much of the location I would be reading this book.
Public crying, for me, is the highest form of torture, but I couldn't tear my eyes away from the pages of this book. The pacing, the content, the plight of the main character- all of it kept me hooked until the very end. I'm just glad I didn't snap at a kid for interrupting my reading time with a craving for Pokémon cards.
My review doesn't mean much in the grand scheme of public opinion- I have a history of really liking books and movies that had piss poor reviews and ratings- but I loved this book so much. As I've gotten older and more mentally ill, I don't get sucked into the pages of a book like a used to as a kid. I miss the ability to be absorbed in a story until it's done, and this book brought that back for me.
This book is definitely not for everyone, and all readers should be mindful of their triggers to disturbing content. But I definitely enjoyed myself, hence the five star rating.
Graphic: Body horror, Mental illness, Outing, Child abuse, Cultural appropriation, Child death, Transphobia, Religious bigotry, Pandemic/Epidemic, Homophobia, Gore, Forced institutionalization, and Self harm
Moderate: Ableism, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Body shaming, Suicidal thoughts, Cannibalism, Deadnaming, Eating disorder, and Emotional abuse
Zombie apocalypse, and a religious cult worshipping it as the rapture. Or God's work to cleanse this Earth and remake it anew.biancafrancisco's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
The way the books touches so many themes - genocide (quite relevant to today), religious as a tool of imperialism and oppression vs individual expression, eco-facism, the weaponization of ideology to frighten people into obeying, a contageous virus, trans experiences, and the MC's relationship with his body, how it is gendered but also through its mutation (this is done in a very reflective and surprisingly tender way) - and a ton more, was really interesting.
The three things it could have done well with were:
1. A better fleshed out world, it seemed a bit weird that we barely knew what was happening outside the city and that even within it was like only a group of teens and some kind of nationalist type group existed;
2. Better fleshed out characters, in the middle of all the action I feel like there was a tiny scene or two thrown in there about them hanging out and getting along, but we barely saw any of their personalities beyond "this is their sexuality/identity, this is their ethnicity and here is one personality trait". I recognize this can be hard with so much else going on, and it is a debut so I'm confident their next works might improve on it;
3. It really bothered me that, for people who have been surviving for 2 years in shitty conditions, they showed zero attempts to improvise and adapt?? Are you telling me they couldn't have made reusable pads (this one really stood out to me) or any type of agriculture, etc? One of the kids came from a doom prepper family! And either way, people are nifty and crafty and it would've been so interesting to see the ways the ALC organized and became self sufficient. It just seemed really unrealistic that they basically depended only on the Vanguard's supplies. Also, the initial "there's not really anyone in charge here, we're all contributing" was such pandering to this idea of an anarchist community when during the rest of the book no one, besides the Watch a bit, had any say in any decision - might as well have kept that out. I understand these weren't the main themes the book was meant to focus on but it wouldn't have been that hard to add a thing here or there to make it more plausible.
These weren't egregious enough to bother my reading experience. On the contrary, I loved reading this book and did it almost all in one sitting. The message came across really well and I liked the premise and setting of the world. It kind of reminded me of The Last of Us - gory but very meaningful. There was so much love in this story and a lot of moments stuck with me.
Graphic: Domestic abuse, Dysphoria, Pandemic/Epidemic, Violence, Death, Kidnapping, Transphobia, Body horror, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Vomit, Child death, Genocide, Murder, Blood, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Deadnaming, Gaslighting, Gore, Grief, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Religious bigotry, and War
Moderate: Confinement
Minor: Classism and Colonisation
refrejarator's review against another edition
- 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
Graphic: Death of parent, Dysphoria, Misogyny, Murder, Physical abuse, Grief, Gun violence, Kidnapping, Fire/Fire injury, Medical content, Medical trauma, Transphobia, Animal death, Body horror, Cannibalism, Violence, Vomit, Blood, Child abuse, Deadnaming, Death, Eating disorder, Hate crime, Homophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Gaslighting, Genocide, Gore, Panic attacks/disorders, Torture, and War
renegadereads's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Deadnaming, Death, Dysphoria, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Genocide, Gore, Grief, Pandemic/Epidemic, Religious bigotry, Transphobia, and Vomit
This book is very gory - honest made me feel sick at points.elfinafroghat's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.75
Graphic: Murder, Grief, Vomit, Injury/Injury detail, Death of parent, Dysphoria, Gore, Gun violence, Blood, Body horror, Genocide, Religious bigotry, and Violence
Moderate: Emotional abuse, Child death, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Deadnaming, Confinement, Gaslighting, Fire/Fire injury, and Physical abuse
Minor: Alcohol, Toxic friendship, Animal death, and Sexual content