Reviews tagging 'Torture'

Gearbreakers by Zoe Hana Mikuta

71 reviews

alouette's review against another edition

adventurous challenging 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? Yes

5.0

*cries in the comfort that is the found family trope*
big robots! amazing fight scenes! cool as heck concepts! maybe the background idea had some holes but the execution was so perfect that i didn't even care. every character was unique, the descriptions were so good, the dialogue so endearing and heart-wrenching, and the plot amazing. it's a lot of what i've wished i could write so i'm so happy the author made it :)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, War, Violence, Torture, Police brutality, Murder, Blood, Confinement, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Medical content and Child death

Minor: Alcohol

cottlestonpie's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

2.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, Violence, War, Xenophobia, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Torture, Suicidal thoughts, Self harm, Physical abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Gaslighting, Forced institutionalization, Emotional abuse, Dysphoria, and Gun violence

Moderate: Abandonment, Alcohol, Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Confinement, Kidnapping, Mental illness, Genocide, Gore, Death of parent, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Sexual content, Vomit, Stalking, Infidelity, and Cursing

angelsfw's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny hopeful inspiring sad 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

“yeah we’re small. yeah we’re human. but we’re also gearbreakers, and we’re here to dismantle the fuckers who thought we’d just sit back and take it.”

i was really really excited for this book when it was announced. the premise of this book was just so cool to me. however, there were several places it fell flat for me. the mechas were so detailed and flushed out; however, i think the worldbuilding suffered because of this. i had so many questions about godolia and how it even came to be. none were ever answered in this book. i am still holding out hope that they will be in the second book.

another thing was this book very much reads as a debut novel. that being said, i think this author is extremely talented and this series has some major potential. i loved the characters, particularly sona’s POVS. one thing this author does extremely well is capture the feeling of grief and losing important pieces of yourself. sona’s grief was portrayed in such a poetic way and it was overall really done well.

i do encourage people to give this series a chance and i will definitely be picking up the second novel when it releases.

tw: grief, murder, blood, torture, kidnapping, panic attacks, body dysmorphia, body mutilations, and PTSD.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Torture, and Violence

Moderate: Body horror

tigerproofrock's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional tense medium-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

3.0

Great book. But it doesn't actually have an ending. It just stops in a cliffhanger to force you to buy the second book. Which feels like such a scarcity mentality that the author won't have new good ideas for the next book. Or not trusting the readers to care enough about the characters and world to read a sequel. The time and heart that does into reading a novel should be honored with an ending. This kind of marketing ploy feels like a breaking of the fundamental agreement about how novels work. And now I don't trust the storyteller (really, the publisher, I assume) to take me safely to the end of the journey, and so I don't want to read any more of their stuff.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing and Torture

Moderate: Confinement, Medical trauma, Self harm, Injury/Injury detail, War, Blood, Car accident, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Kidnapping, Medical content, Child abuse, Colonisation, Death, Genocide, and Violence

lotten4's review against another edition

dark emotional funny tense fast-paced

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

3.0

Different from other dystopian ya novels. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Blood, Death, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Gun violence, Kidnapping, Murder, Torture, Vomit, and War

abbyschalupa'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

Moderate: Abandonment, Blood, Self harm, Violence, and Torture

izzy_reads's review against another edition

3.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Torture

paperbrownies's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad 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? It's complicated

5.0

am just,,,, v speechless 
let me process it alright?? 

- lgbtqiap+, ya fantasy, scifi, sff, dystopian, found family, sapphic, romance, enemies to lovers, giant bots, angry girls, AM OBSESSED, 'a sapphic cyberpunk story, renegade kids w/ god complexes, korean/wasian rep '
- w|w
- asian-coded lesbian mc, asian-coded bi mc and other diverse characters

imagine the society of the anime no. 6 nestled in the world of pacific rim minus the kaijus, let nezumi have a family of misfits and an unhinged mentor + old sister, then make it sapphic, make it queer and put in large amounts of amazing and that pretty much sums up the book!!

i'll start with how i want eris shindani to adopt me into her family of gearbreakers even though ik for sure that i would not last long in that world.
gearbreakers is Everything you wanted a sapphic scifi to be: it is dark and brutal and vicious and had me in its grip the entire time i was reading it and when i was not, i was still thinking about it which is why when i tell you that that ending made me gasp in a six-of-crows ending way,,,,  y'all better believe me!!!  this story is beautiful still bc it manages to be tender under all its harshness and pull at one's heartstrings with its tender moments not just the ones between the MCs but also also the ones that involved the crew. id say that the author did the found family trope justice in this one.

as for the romance,,,,,, it had me on my knees. 
i never knew that i needed to read about two girls so utterly smitten dance on a table with the steady warmth of the fireplace blanketing them both, i did not know how much i craved for this angsty-idiots-pining-for-each-other romance in my life until i read this book, and i sure as fuck wasnt prepared for this line:
" where is she?” i say, again, because we save each other, and i need to be saved."
 their is nothing soft about their lives, it is uncertain and dangerous so they love, live and protect each other fiercely and just,,,, wow this book really did it, huh?
and after all of that,,,
zoe hana mikuta you are cruel /lh and this book makes me want to scream in pain, and want to protect these people i have come to care about more than anything else so even tho am terrified of what you are going to do in the sequel am excited nevertheless!! 

tw: blood, death, guns, violence, murder, war, torture, off page death of parents, brief mention of the death of a loved one, grief, loss

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Grief, Gun violence, Murder, Violence, and War

Moderate: Torture

Minor: Child death and Death of parent

betweentheshelves's review against another edition

adventurous 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

4.0

This took a bit to get going, but once it did, oh my goodness. The second half of the book definitely makes it difficult to put down. The found family aspect was probably my favorite, as is the budding relationship between Sona and Eris. I loved them! And with that cliffhanger, I definitely need to know what happens next.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Murder, and Violence

Moderate: Death of parent, Blood, and Torture

Minor: Confinement

ibazelle's review against another edition

adventurous emotional inspiring sad 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: Blood, Death of parent, Mental illness, and Panic attacks/disorders

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Death of parent, Torture, War, and Murder