Reviews tagging 'Xenophobia'

Cress by Marissa Meyer

7 reviews

noellegrace8's review against another edition

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

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

4.75

The plot really saves this one for me. It's gotten so intricate at this point that it's impossible not to enjoy it! The epitome of a great storyline. So good. But I am going to rant about one piece that bothered me, but not enough to affect my rating much:

While I love Thorne SO much, and understand Cress and her lack of social interaction and therefore knowledge even if I personally find her to be a little exhausting, the *way* their romance is written really irks me. It's entirely limmerance from Cress and nothing from Thorne until random moments. These random moments are thrilling, with scenes written better than even Cinder+Kai or Scarlet+Wolf, but they're not enough to make up for the underlying underdevelopment of their actual romance throughout the rest of the book. The entirety of them crashing in the desert fell flat for me. My personal "I hate the miscommunication trope!" is, "I hate the 'I don't want to hurt her' trope!" And that's (sort of? It's unclear, and therefore infuriating, at times) what we're given from Thorne.

Hoping the 4th book quickly clears up the limmerance from Cress and intermittent apathy from Thorne. It's a WONDERFUL series.

I don't factor audiobook performance into my star ratings, but I would give Rebecca Soler a 4.5/5. At this point, I've gotten very used to her narration and voicing. As previously stated, she can be a bit too flat at times or have a tone that isn't quite right for what's described, but she's generally good at differentiating voices in scenes with accents and tones. I really like the way she voices Iko haha. It's perfect for that android! I don't understand why Soler wasn't asked to re-record a couple places where she says "kAY-toe" instead of "kEYE-toe" though.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism, Death, Violence, Pandemic/Epidemic, Terminal illness, and War

Moderate: Kidnapping, Medical content, Xenophobia, Death of parent, Murder, Child abuse, Genocide, Injury/Injury detail, Confinement, Death, Abandonment, Ableism, Colonisation, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Medical trauma, Blood, Body horror, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, and Torture

Minor: Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual content, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Car accident, Sexual assault, Gun violence, Mental illness, Animal cruelty, Bullying, Adult/minor relationship, Cursing, Gore, Grief, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Sexual harassment, Slavery, and Trafficking

As this series is very political and based around a clear power imbalance, the things I sorted into "Graphic" are fundamental in this book. "Moderate" listings have mostly to do with plotpoints such as the classic Rapunzel-and-her-abusive-guardian retelling, the events that led to Cinder's current cyborg state, Thorne losing his vision, the tortured nature of Wolf/ his genetic alterations, and the general tension between Lunars and Earthens. "Minor" labels are due to Scarlet and Cress both being taken (separate contexts), the push and pull between most of the relationships in this series thus far (but particularly Wolf+Scarlet), and our brief encounter with Princess Winter. Lastly, the only reason I warned of adult-minor relationship is because I believe most of the male love interests in this series are quite a few years older than their female, teen counterparts. More importantly, Cress is said to be 16, and Thorne is most definitely an adult, likely about 20 (has served in the military and is a well-known criminal at this point) so... a bit gray.

taque's review against another edition

fast-paced

3.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Terminal illness

Minor: Death of parent, Torture, Suicide, Pandemic/Epidemic, Kidnapping, Hate crime, Medical content, Slavery, Racism, Mental illness, Genocide, Xenophobia, Child death, Death, War, Abandonment, Mass/school shootings, and Blood

prashiie's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

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

5.0

 "Maybe there isn't such a thing as fate. Maybe it's just the opportunities we're given, and what we do with them."

In this book we meet Cress who has been imprisoned in a satellite for 7 years. She is an extremely talented hacker and was therefore tasked to become the Queen’s hacker and spy. Now she is asked to find Cinder and her team. She is smart enough to find Cinder, but keeps it a secret from Sybil. Instead, she decides to join Cinder’s team. Carswell is tasked with bringing Cress to the Rampion and of course a lot goes wrong! There are so many things happening. Scarlet gets taken by Sybil, and Carswell and Cress get separated from the rest of the crew. It was so cute to see how Cress kept crushing on Carswell. We see how each group is struggling to survive and on the other hand we have Kai who has to prepare for his marriage to Queen Levana to save Earth.

I really liked the similarities with Rapunzel. Cress has long hair and Carswell gets blinded just like the prince in Rapunzel. And I was shocked to find out more about Dr. Erland. 

The story was very intense but I loved it!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Confinement, Xenophobia, and Violence

Moderate: Medical trauma, Blood, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, and Death of parent

risten's review against another edition

adventurous funny hopeful lighthearted fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pandemic/Epidemic, Kidnapping, Child abuse, Blood, Death of parent, Death, Trafficking, Torture, Violence, Medical content, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: War, Xenophobia, and Gun violence

inkysplodge's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional tense medium-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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Violence, and War

Moderate: Blood, Mental illness, Self harm, Suicide, Torture, and Trafficking

Minor: Xenophobia, Vomit, Abandonment, Child abuse, Child death, Sexual assault, and Adult/minor relationship

florecita_lectora's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny hopeful tense 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? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Confinement

Moderate: Xenophobia, Torture, War, and Violence

lagiven's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny lighthearted tense medium-paced

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

4.25

I love Cress mainly for the heist in the last section of the book because it's so fast paced and exciting. This is the book where the storylines start to come together, and with Scarlet's chapters, Winter is finally introduced. It's also fun to see how different characters view each other as they all have distinct voices and backgrounds and yet are shoved together. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Kidnapping, Torture, Trafficking, and Xenophobia

Moderate: Grief and Schizophrenia/Psychosis