Reviews

The Athena Protocol by Shamim Sarif

juliahint's review

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adventurous lighthearted fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

malinuknow's review against another edition

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5.0

Wow wow wow! I really liked this book! It was very fast paced and something new happened all the time. I thought Jessie was an interesting character with so much stuff going on for her. I liked the growing love she felt for Paulina and the way their relationship worked out (or not).

I definitely want to read the sequel, but I'm not sure if I can wait for the book to arrive so maybe I'll buy the ebook right away and get the paperback later...

I HIGHLY recommend this book! The writing is fenomenal!

izzys_internet_bookshelf's review against another edition

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2.0

1/5

I really have not had a lot of luck with books lately. I’ve been wanting to go back into some mysteries and some action heist books but this one just felt rushed in a way. There was so much going on and it was hard to keep track of it all. The plot itself seemed slow to me, it was a weird back and forth between slow and fast

2.5/5

Ok so I felt like this book wasn’t as eventful as I thought it to be. Thought at times it was interesting, there wasn’t enough of it to make me excited to go back to reading it.

clesh01's review against another edition

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

2.75

melg14's review against another edition

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3.0

It’s been over 2 years and I decided to continue this book regardless of forgetting about everything haha

Postpones @ 75% on 4/17/21

sidneyellwood's review against another edition

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4.0

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Spy thrillers will never fail to be straight-up cool, and The Athena Protocol is no exception to this. It's a James Bond-esque story starring women and with lots of action and adventure from start to finish.

Here, the spies aren't working for the government, which was an interesting change; instead, it's a small, private, almost vigilante organization called Athena, with three heads and three main agents who work undercover to save women from dangerous situations.

Jessie was a really great main character; she's tough and resourceful, if impulsive and reckless. There were so many tight situations she wormed her way out of that it had me in absolute awe. After a reckless decision early in the book, Jessie finds herself operating without the help of Athena for a lot of the book, and it's really great at showing how clever she really is and how much she cares about the people in her life, even when they've abandoned her.

And a lot of the book focuses on the people in Jessie's life. There's Kit, Jessie's mother, whom she has a very complicated relationship with; her teammates, Hala and Caitlin, and the two other leaders of Athena, Li and Peggy. The Athena Protocol explores all these relationships in depth, but the one that fascinated me most was Jessie and Kit, which is one of the most complex and real mother/daughter relationships I've read in YA. In addition, Jessie and the daughter of the human trafficker Athena is taking down, Paulina, spend a lot of the book flirting. Jessie being queer was so lowkey in the story, but it was nice.

One thing that bothered me, however, was that Jessie didn't seem like a teenager; if the book wasn't YA, I'd have pegged her for twenty-four, minimum, and I don't think the book ever directly says her age but I really can't see her or frankly any of the characters as younger than nineteen. They all seem far too experienced and mature.

The plot made the book practically unputdownable. Jessie gets herself in and out of so many dangerous situations that the book had me on the edge of my seat. The people that Athena go after are wholly evil, human traffickers, corrupted politicians and the like, so the cathartic need to see bad things happen to them also kept me reading. It's tense and packed with action but leaves a lot of moments for emotional beats.

If you like a good, fast-paced story about clever women and justice, definitely pick up The Athena Protocol. It entirely succeeds in being a fun, fast, well-crafted spy thriller, and leaves room for a sequel that I will definitely be hoping for.

content warnings | human trafficking, rape mentions

representation | sapphic main character, characters of colour (arab, black, chinese)

sandmoe's review against another edition

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4.0

This book gave me

megintherainbowhouse's review

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fast-paced
  • 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

justiceofkalr's review against another edition

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3.0

Kind of DEBS meets Charlie's Angels. Lots of ridiculous fun and fighting evil.

alessandra's review against another edition

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3.0

Eu esqueci umas 90482390482390 vezes que esse livro deveria ser YA.