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brycestevenwilley's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
Graphic: Sexual content, Violence, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Gun violence, and Adult/minor relationship
booksthatburn'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
4.5
It's using and remixing available stereotypes to their limit to create cartoonishly distilled essences that allow for quick action in the partitioned but not wholly divided setting. There are stark boundary lines all over the place, governing laws, behavior, and life-or-death stakes for everyone within these borders, lit by each Franchise's signage and governed by their franchisee manuals. Where the grooves of life are so well worn around most denizens that they barely notice a disturbance to their routines, unless they’re the protagonist, Hiro Protagonist or perhaps the Kourier Y.T. There's a franchise for most things, and some of those things are racism. There's some fatphobia and scattered ableist language which seem to be regular levels of bigotry instead of forming the kind of pointed social commentary which underpins and incorporates the other -isms.
Hiro’s biracial identity (Black/Japanese) matters to the story and exists for more than the surface-level excuse to name the main character “hero protagonist” with alternate spelling. There are several moments where he figures out things based on how someone reacts (or doesn’t) to his appearance and background.
Y.T. isn't as introspective as Hiro, but she gets a decent amount of focus and her perspective is integral to the story, both as an active agent and as an observer with a very different point of view from Hiro, a non-hacker one.
As a cultural artifact, this feels more prescient than it perhaps has a right to be because a lot of people have tried to make things more like the world imagined here, and that's not always a good thing. Reading it now is strange because even something like the word "avatar" as a representation of one's physical self in a digital context was popularized by this book and so it doesn't feel new, though it was at the time.
Graphic: Racial slurs, Racism, Sexual content, Adult/minor relationship, Blood, Gore, Violence, Gun violence, and Death
Moderate: Ableism, Xenophobia, Fatphobia, Homophobia, Sexism, Misogyny, Drug abuse, Drug use, and Animal death
Minor: Pregnancy and Excrement
lucieslibrary's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
0.25
Graphic: Death, Drug abuse, Forced institutionalization, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Homophobia, Kidnapping, Mass/school shootings, Medical content, Murder, and Pedophilia
sequelmage's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
This would have been a 5 star read, but I was a little disappointed with the ending. It wasn’t terrible, but it just fell a little flat considering the great world building and plot that had come before.
Graphic: Gun violence and Violence
Moderate: Adult/minor relationship and Racism
confusedmuse'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
4.5
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Car accident, Cursing, Drug use, Gun violence, Homophobia, Kidnapping, Police brutality, Racial slurs, Racism, Religious bigotry, Self harm, Sexual content, Violence, and Adult/minor relationship