Reviews tagging 'Death of parent'

Upgrade by Blake Crouch

50 reviews

sarahbliss's review against another edition

3.25

adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gun violence, Violence, Medical trauma, Death of parent

Moderate: Suicide, Torture, Murder, Injury/Injury detail

astridhawk's review against another edition

3.5

adventurous fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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The plot was fast-paced and action-packed, but a lot of the science in the sci fi was cringe or exaggerated to the point it wasn’t believable. A lot of the action felt contrived - characters quickly turned to extreme violence (literally within seconds) and moved from family/long-term friends to trying to kill each other in a blink of an eye. I usually like spec sci fi, but this one was a little too stuck on the first year of Covid as its inspiration.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Gun violence, Violence, Blood, Death of parent

nick13's review against another edition

5.0

dark reflective tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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With ease, I can say that this book is the best I've read so far this year. I really liked how deep the author went into the science behind everything and

how they really set up a good moral dilemma that made it, in the end, even feel like the main character wasn't the truest form of a hero, yet, if I were in their shoes, I can see myself doing the same thing.

That alone is worth a good review, but then there is the intriguing worldbuilding on top of it that makes this book impossible for me to not give a five-star review. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Toxic relationship, Kidnapping, Car accident, Death of parent

Moderate: Body horror

Minor: Torture

cursed_sapphire's review against another edition

4.5

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

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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. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Confinement, Death, Gun violence, Violence, Blood, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Child death, Torture, Medical content

atamano's review against another edition

3.0

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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Death, Gun violence, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Death of parent, Murder, Abandonment, Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Suicide, Dementia

shawnbakergibson's review against another edition

3.25

adventurous dark tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Suicide, Death of parent

strawberrypinch's review against another edition

4.5

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

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Confinement, Death, Drug use, Gun violence, Suicide, Violence, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Drug abuse, Gore, Suicide, Terminal illness, Torture, Blood, Dementia, Cannibalism, Car accident, Alcohol

loveallthis's review against another edition

3.0

adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Suicide, Blood, Grief, Car accident, Death of parent

rstegema's review against another edition

5.0

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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence

Moderate: Violence, Death of parent

This book was great! It was very well researched and made it scarily easy to believe the things that happened in the story could happen in reality.

kathleencoughlin's review against another edition

1.5

medium-paced

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

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I set this book aside for a while and tbh I wish I had left it unfinished. I had a lot of issues with the book that I won't bother to go into. 

However,

I'm just absolutely baffled that Crouch thought, after everything that happened before and during the main plot of thr book, that the best ending would be more nonconsensual gene editing. I just don't even know where to begin with how problematic that is.

If you want to read something about upgraded humans, save yourself some time by skipping this and reading Ted Chiang's short story "Understand." 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Confinement, Gun violence, Medical trauma

Moderate: Blood, Car accident, Murder

Minor: Death of parent