Reviews tagging 'Gore'

Gemina by Amie Kaufman, Jay Kristoff

34 reviews

cait's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Minor: Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Mass/school shootings, Medical trauma, Murder, Gaslighting, War, and Injury/Injury detail

escapelifeinthepages's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious sad tense fast-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? No

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, and Violence

candicereadsx's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny tense fast-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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Drug use, Gore, Gun violence, Violence, Blood, Death of parent, Murder, and War

short_circuit's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny inspiring sad tense fast-paced

• 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? Yes

4.0

"good luck, hannah donnelly. the universe itself depends on you. ...no pressure."

i didn't like this one as much as i liked illuminae, but hannah and nik have quickly made their way into my favorite battle couples of all time. right next to kady and ezra and AIDAN, in fact. huh. funny how that works out.

best character is by far ella. sorry AIDAN, still love you more than anything, but i love me a sassy hacker genius. she and hannah and nik are the girlbosses of all time.

all in all, gemina is definitely an excellent follow-up to illuminae. can't wait to get my hands on obsidio!

(once again, heed the content warnings. this one's just as violent as the first, now with added drug use.)

'and waiting for her on the other side? just like he promised.

'a whole sky of different stars.'

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Drug use, Gore, Gun violence, Violence, Blood, Grief, Mass/school shootings, Death of parent, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

lucilaroife's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional tense fast-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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death, Drug use, Gore, Gun violence, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Grief, Murder, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Child death and Cursing

ellianderjoy's review against another edition

adventurous dark inspiring tense fast-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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Drug use, Gore, Gun violence, Violence, Medical content, Grief, Murder, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Ableism, Chronic illness, Gore, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexism, Excrement, and Death of parent

madeleine_wilks's review against another edition

4.0

I never really like the beginnings of these books but BOY OH BOY WHEN STUFF STARTS GOING DOWN. This book isn’t as stellar as the first but it’s still phenomenal! The beginning is very cringe-worthy though, and most of if not all my PG reader warnings come from it.
I’m loving this series! Beautifully put together, and though in some ways it IS cliché, in many others it is unique, different, and intense.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore and Murder

Moderate: Sexual content

Minor: Drug use

caoimhe9876's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Drug use, Gore, Gun violence, Violence, Blood, Death of parent, and Murder

Moderate: Addiction, Child death, Chronic illness, Cursing, Drug abuse, Drug use, Suicide, Torture, and Grief

itsmeyseniab's review against another edition

adventurous tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

2nd read:
May 2021 - 5 stars

I'm scratching my head, wondering why I gave this 4 stars the first time around? This was incredible!

I am still completely in love with the mixed-media formatting of this series: it kept me engaged, and intrigued with the turn of every page. Although I enjoyed Kady and Ezra more in Illuminae, Hanna and Nik were still very fun to read from (and their tension? *chef's kiss*) Ella was a great character as well, as were our villains Falk and Rapier! I can't wait to see how this series ends!

1st read:
January 2018 - 4 stars

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Death, Gore, Gun violence, and Violence

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Child death, and Death of parent

Minor: Drug use and Suicide

death of a pet, mention of mutilation of a corpse

nytephoenyx's review against another edition

adventurous dark lighthearted tense fast-paced

• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.25

And so continues the story of the Illuminae Files.

First off, I have to once again applaud the audiobook production of Gemina.  I know this has nothing to do with the actual book, but like Illuminae, the full cast production was stellar.  Each voice actor was great, but the music and sound effects take the story to the next level.  This series is in my top three for favorite audiobooks – they’re so immersive.

Story-wise, I didn’t like Gemina quite as much as much as Illuminae.  It felt too similar.  Much of the book was spent in a space survival situation, hiding in vents and avoiding or negotiating with an enemy. In fact, I’d even go so far as to say that Hanna and Nik felt like photocopies of Kady and Ezrato me, only lacking some of their depth.  None of this made Gemina a bad book, but it did make me grateful for the length of time I waited between books so it wasn’t as exhausting as it could have been.

If you want to find a series with constant action and small, quick twists, I think the Illuminae Files does a great job.  The science is well explained and accessible for those who aren’t science fiction aficionados, but there isn’t so much of it that it drags down the story or becomes pretentious.  The characters tend to be witty and there are a lot of quips.  The only thing that bothered me about the dialogue was a single repeated joke, “I’d like to buy a vowel please,” implying that not only is Wheel of Fortune alive and well deep into this distant future, but it’s cool enough to be quoted by teens.  Since that isn’t true now, this struck me as a bit out of place.  That’s such a small little nitpick, but it got under my skin, so I wanted to mention it.

Overall, I still think the series is interesting and generally original, particularly in the YA genre.  I was a little thrown off in the beginning (where are Kady and AIDEN?  Who is this Hanna character?), but I think the way Kaufman and Kristoff tied both storylines together at the end was really good.  My hope for Obsidio would be that we don’t get another whole new cast of characters and then have to tie these ones in again, because that trick has already been done before, and it just wouldn’t be as good the second time.  For myself, I’ll definitely be reading Obsidio.  The Illuminae Files gets a lot of praise and while I’m not sure it’s at the level of gushing-I-can’t-even-describe-my-feelings-omg-this-book, it’s a highly entertaining read and worth your time!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Gun violence, Violence, Blood, Death of parent, and Murder

Moderate: Cursing