Reviews tagging 'Violence'

Upgrade by Blake Crouch

57 reviews

adventurous tense fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
adventurous challenging emotional hopeful informative reflective tense fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

This book read like an action move- but a great one. The explorations of genetic science and its relationships to humanity, intelligence, and emotion were really compelling. I saw another reviewer recommend this book if you like the movie Gattaca, and I think it's a great comparison, although this book had more action scenes mixed in. 
My only real complaint is that the main character's arc fell a bit flat at the end- mild spoiler, but
he's still doing the same things he was in the beginning of the story, but on a greater scale.

I will definitely check out Blake Crouch's other books based on this one. This was the fastest I've finished a book in a while, and was a very rewarding experience. 

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
dark sad tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
adventurous dark hopeful inspiring reflective sad fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Expand filter menu Content Warnings

Boring, too many gene code references. Also violence too much

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
adventurous emotional medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
adventurous challenging dark emotional informative mysterious reflective fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
hopeful reflective tense medium-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: Yes

The first "meh" reaction for a Crouch novel from me. Maybe it's the sign of the times, or I'm truly becoming jaded, but "average white male briefly becomes even more insufferable before making the right-ish choice" just doesn't have the same appeal it used to. 

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
adventurous dark 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: Yes

This book was so unmemorable I truly do not even remember what happened despite reading it only a few months ago. I don’t recall much about what I didn’t like about the novel except for the fact that it dragged and felt unoriginal. Crouch set a really high bar with his other two novels so I was bound to be disappointed at some point. 
 
Upgrade’s plot revolves around something involving genes and a man named Logan who discovers his genome has been hacked. And there is something to do with his mother being involved in a gene editing scheme? All and all, it felt like the plot went nowhere and I was just pushing myself to finish it. I recommend reading Dark Matter and Recursion though - those are the books I have placed into the hands of a lot of library patrons time and time again.

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
adventurous tense fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Expand filter menu Content Warnings