Reviews with content warning for Gun violence - The Disasters

Reviews tagging 'Gun violence'

caseythereader's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny lighthearted tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.75

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kate_mac's review

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adventurous emotional funny lighthearted

3.75

lgbtqia+, science fiction, space, adventurous, teen

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morganish's review

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adventurous funny lighthearted 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

5.0

I speed-read this during a 48-hour readathon, and this was one of the best possible choices to include in that. I wouldn't say this is a groundbreaking book - for me, a lot of the plot was more comfortable than surprising or reinventing the genre. But I have such a soft spot in my heart for diverse, queer-friendly, found-family, soft-scifi space opera. More than any other subgenre, this has been my bookish comfort zone lately. And The Disasters pretty much checks all the boxes I look for in these kinds of books. (I want to own a physical copy of this very badly, and not just because I really need more purple books on my bookshelf.)

The ragtag heroes of this story were all rejected from the local space academy. Which was lucky, in this case, because it's the reason they survive an attack by a specific type of space terrorists (an interesting element I haven't seen before). Of course, this forces them to band together, learn to work with one another, and become friends (and more-than-friends) in order to push back against the powers that attacked their would-be academy. Genre-typical hijinks ensue - hijinks which include but aren't limited to dodging authorities, space-gun shootouts, and a whole lot of light-hearted bantering in the face of almost-certain death.

The main character is a bi Muslim boy; I can't verify how authentic the depictions are in this book, but it's interesting and unique from what I've seen, in that Muslim culture is very prominent in this futuristic space-faring society. The rest of the crew is similarly diverse. Slight content warning for transphobia though - the lone trans character has had to deal with transphobia in the culture she came from, so if you're looking for a story where all types of bigotry are completely absent in your fun futuristic scifi, it might be good to know that going in.

My only other personal caveat is that there's a lot of touching in this book, both friendly and flirty. This might be a great book for someone feeling touch-starved (or terrible, if it makes you miss touch even more). But I'm not a touchy-feely person generally and always like boundaries on touch to be very clearly outlined, so that's probably the only part of the book that was iffy for me personally. But otherwise, it was just nice, easy, and doesn't try to hard. Had all the right kind of simple, inclusive, space-adventure vibes I love.

As with other reviews, when I really like something it's hard for me to get myself into the headspace of someone who wouldn't. But if any of the above caveats aren't your thing, or if you really prefer scifi that's harder, both in terms of the "science" aspect or the intensity of the themes and plotlines, this definitely isn't that. If you prefer your fun space opera to be about adults, or even just to be a little more on the raggedy side of ragtag, keep in mind this crew is composed of characters who fit more traditionally YA mold. But if you're like me and you just love this subgenre for it's lightheartedness and fun, this is a good one to try out.

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emohell's review

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adventurous funny inspiring fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

just a really fun adventure! i've seen people complain about the lack of space for a book whose tagline is "space is hard. grab a helmet," but i honestly really liked it. sci-fi lite, almost

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booksthatburn's review

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adventurous fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

1.0

THE DISASTERS by M.K. England is a heist story with frustratingly persistent copaganda and unexamined colonialism, with a ragtag ensemble who carry off the heist so smoothly that it leaves the story without satisfying tension.

I have two levels of complaints about this book: first there’s the couple of big things which completely tanked my enjoyment of it, and there’s the stuff that exasperated my dislike once I was already irritated but I might have otherwise just mildly disliked as stylistic choices I disagree with. The big things that broke my immersion and were complete deal-breakers: copaganda from the protagonists in a fugitive/heist book, and a starkly pro-colonization story with anti-colonialists as the villains without exploring what that actually means. The things that made me more irritated but I might have otherwise excused were the lack of on-page relationship and emotional development with the characters, stylistic quibbles over what a heist story needs, and the way that all their actual obstacles were solved by talking to authority figures rather than being sneaky or cool. The rest of this review will contain mild spoilers.

The thing that initially broke my immersion an jolted me out of the book was when the protagonist first talks about how his mother is a cop back on Earth. The inclusion of an off-screen sympathetic cop character who is repeatedly brought up during the frameup/heist story... that is a choice that, to me, undermines the book. The most egregious instance of this was when his thoughts about how doing the right thing doesn't always go well uses his ammi's frustration when guilty criminals go free as example of life's unfairness.

I shrug but my heart pangs with sympathy for Case. I get whey she did it. It's hard, accepting that we've done nothing wrong and somehow came out looking like the bad ones. We're raised to believe that if we do all the right things, the law will protect us. Reality is much harsher, apparently. How many times have I heard my ammi come home, frustrated over some case where a guilty criminal went free because of technicalities, or politics, or money? I, of all people, should have known the opposite must be true sometimes too. Can't help but hope, though.

He's on the run, framed for a mass murder he didn't commit, and his way of processing his own situation is to think about guilty criminals who get away and then how his situation is the opposite of that. This attitude becomes especially dissonant and strange when the big reveal of his tension with his brother is that he had the equivalent of a new-driver accident with his brother in the vehicle (except with a spaceship) and was banned from flying so he started breaking into a facility that had flight simulators, eventually he got caught, and his mother (the cop) made the charges go away. On the one hand, it's a consistent lack of self-awareness that makes him feel like a real person. On the other hand, it makes him a terrible protagonist for a heist novel because he's literally one the run and sympathizing with the cops. He convinces one of the characters who's deeply uncomfortable with guns to carry one, and then, when someone in their group gets shot (not by that person) he has an on-page realization that guns can actually hurt people.

Case steps through the door first, her chem gun held awkwardly in front of her. She hadn't wanted to carry a gun at all, but I insisted. Even without any training even without ever having fired one, it's better to have it just in case. It's nonlethal, so what's the worst that happen?

A little while later:

One of us actually got shot. Shooting kills people. Oh my god.

The attitude that someone who is uncomfortable with guns, has never fired one, and has no training should carry one just in case... that makes me deeply uncomfortable and it doesn't seem like anything bad happens from that decision. I'm all for characters making bad decisions and then dealing with the consequences, but the story is weirdly consequence free. I'm not saying I want characters punished. Narrative consequences aren't punishment, narrative consequences are what make the world feel real because when the protagonists push at the world of a story and press at its seams some things are going to push back, and that interplay of boundary breaking, tension, and release is, to me, essential for certain kinds of stories, and a heist story definitely needs it. Breaking boundaries and having interesting things happen because of those cracks is one of the best parts of heist stories.

The second big thing is that it's a story about space colonialization that treats the goodness of colonialization as unquestionable and has anti-colonialists as the villains. The backstory for the anti-colonialists is no deeper than "people were against colonialism from the beginning a hundred years ago and they're still against it except now they're killing people". The colonized planets are terraformed, canonically, and a major thing in the book is that if anyone goes far enough from Earth they can't go back ever because they might have space pathogens that are bad for Earth, so I was expecting some awareness of how their terraforming has changed and devastated the colonial worlds (replacing space plants with Earth plants is not inherently better and I'd argue it's definitely worse), or how Earth bacteria might be bad for the other worlds. Nope, it doesn't touch that at all. It's just taken as read that colonialism is good and so the villains don't need any more complicated motive than being against it.

They're literally on the run from law enforcement for most of the book (I'm not sure whether the cops, military, or some third option are their actual pursuers), and yet everything is framed so that if they just can save the day from the anti-colonialist terrorists then explain things well enough to the authority figures then everything will be fine. I was expecting there to be some twist, something undermining this unquestioning confidence in the goodness of authority figures (IN THE GODDAMN HEIST BOOK) and then... nope. That's how it works out. They save the day for most of the threatened colonial worlds (one planetary genocide does happen, no the story doesn't touch the emotional weight and grief of that devastation at all), explain things to the people in charge, then get to take their stolen spaceship (with newly forged registration) and go be in space together. I was frustrated and underwhelmed.

Overall, making the falsely-accused fugitives in a heist book be pro-cop is a rot at the heart of the story which poisoned the whole experience for me. When paired with unquestioned colonialism and the other smaller problems I discussed, my reading experience alternated between angry and bored. I don't remember any of the secondary characters well enough to discuss them individually even though I just finished this book, and the romance was simultaneously rushed and empty.

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honeyhistory103's review against another edition

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adventurous medium-paced

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

1.5

I was so looking forward to this book, despite the relatively mixed reviews, and I am just...so disappointed.

Starting with the good: I am so, so glad to see books full of diverse characters whose point isn't to be diverse. There were no tokens, nor was the story About How Different They Were. Individually, I liked each of the characters - their personalities were fun, and their backstories interesting. However...this leads us to the bad, of which I had three main complaints that spoiled the reading experience for me:

Contrived Found Family. There was never a moment in the book where the closeness of the relationships between the characters made sense. I am such a sucker for well-done found family, and this book let me down in almost every way concerning it. Practically upon their very first meeting, they were already ribbing and talking about their backstory - and then quickly after that, Nax was physically comforting Case through a panic attack? Like not even a full day later, he's already grabbed her hand and run his thumb over the back of it? The intimacy felt forced, and I know I would have yanked my hand back from someone I'd known less than a day, even if life-or-death situations had just occurred. Asra's introduction to the story felt much the same - they crashed into her, and then she was almost immediately accepted into their little group for the convenience of moving the plot along.

Convenient Plot. The feeling of convenient plot hooks and beats like Asra's introduction plagued the book. They crashed onto the first planet so they could meet Asra. Their heist was interrupted by guards so Rion could take a bullet to the shoulder. Nax's brother was a security guard so they could discover the device. I know that this is how stories have to move sometimes, but it felt like at every turn there was a quick fix - Case would have a "Genius Girl" moment, or Asra would hack the right lock, or Zee would kick someone. There are ways to write plot-driven stories without having them feel like the characters lucked out of each situation. It made any successes feel empty, and generally like the stakes weren't very high at all.

Poor Romance. More than this, though, I was bothered by the author's handling of ~romance~ through the entire novel. They were rocketing through space and literally being hunted, and then trying to stop an interstellar terrorist attack, and yet it felt like almost every chance he got, Nax was commenting on how attractive Case and Rion were. I would have been fine with a mention here or there, but the way Nax was constantly holding himself back from trying to kiss Rion (less than three days after meeting him) felt more like England was trying to hammer home his bisexuality than putting any real thought into if a romantic relationship could - or really, should - develop in the middle of the plot she had dropped them in. I also deeply resented the way Nax, at multiple points throughout the book, debated who he should go after: Case or Rion, only for there to be absolutely no resolution as to those plot lines in the end. IDK if this was to keep things open for future books or what, but if there wasn't going to be a resolution, I feel like it could have been eliminated entirely - especially the scene where Nax and Case kissed, which made me vaguely uncomfortable through the whole thing. Who kisses someone almost immediately after waking them up from a nightmare??? Especially someone you've known, again, less than three days.

Beyond these three major disappointments, I found myself more neutrally disappointed by how juvenile the whole thing felt. I am not a newcomer to YA, and I've read many, many books that do a better job of handling topics like mental health, strained family relationships (Nax's entire disagreement with his brother was based on misunderstanding and Ihateitsomuch), and science fiction in general. I loved England's idea of human colonies on other planets, but ultimately I feel like she could have done so much more. Would not recommend.

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