Reviews tagging 'Stalking'

Axiom's End by Lindsay Ellis

5 reviews

brnineworms's review against another edition

adventurous tense fast-paced

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

4.0

This is YA. That’s not a positive or negative judgement, just an observation. It wasn’t marketed as YA fiction as far as I recall but that is absolutely how it reads – a college-age protagonist who needs to learn a lesson or two about responsibility, an intermittently-relevant family, awkward romance, drama, angst, queer rep, etc. I enjoyed it but I can see I’m not the target audience.

Also,

I feel like a lot more could have been done with the fact that Ampersand’s knowledge of Earth culture was hundreds of years out of date. He could have spoken Middle English, for example. The point was that he thought humans were violent and backwards, owing to the fervent religious fundamentalism and purges he witnessed in the wake of the Black Death. But then that seems kind of unnecessary, because we’d already seen him horrified by humans eating meat – there was no need to invoke medieval atrocities when there are already aspects of modern life which he finds abhorrent.

This may seem nitpicky but it’s superfluous details like this that end up making the book at least a hundred pages longer than it needed to be. Thankfully, the quick pace prevented the story from feeling like a slog.

I’d recommend Axiom’s End to fans of Stephenie Meyer’s The Host. It has a similar vibe.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Genocide, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Medical content, Suicide, Confinement, Self harm, Stalking, and Violence

Moderate: Racism, Death, Antisemitism, Cursing, Drug use, Gore, Panic attacks/disorders, and Sexual content

Minor: Torture, Toxic relationship, Xenophobia, Ableism, Car accident, Colonisation, Grief, Gun violence, Islamophobia, Slavery, Vomit, Murder, War, Abandonment, Addiction, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Excrement, and Fire/Fire injury

mind control, not having control over one's own body

arcaadepunk's review

adventurous challenging funny informative mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, and Violence

Moderate: Death, Genocide, Medical content, and Suicide

Minor: Car accident, Confinement, Stalking, and War

A lot of people (especially on TikTok) label this book as a romance and/or a mnstrfkr novel; the "romance" is actually minimal and the main focus of the story is not on the human/alien relationship in regards to romantic attraction but rather on the barriers that would stand between an alien and a human trying to understand each others' cultures.

slimy's review

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious 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? No

5.0

2007
Aliens
Snowden
Empathy
Who has a right to know the truth? 

This is such an intelligent, well-written book; surprisingly witty, charming in unexpected ways, accessible to someone who doesn’t read a lot of sci-fi. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Car accident, Abandonment, Blood, Confinement, Death, Genocide, and Stalking

stormwise's review

adventurous mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot

4.0

Extraterrestrial life is such a fascinating concept and I love media that explores the possibilities of alien cultures and how we would interact with them. With this in mind, it's no surprise that I enjoyed Ellis' debut novel, an alternate history first-contact tale that examines if it is possible for two alien cultures to truly coexist. 

I really enjoyed how the aliens were presented - I liked the main character's awareness of the human tendency to anthropomorphise. I also loved the discussion of linguistics within the text and found the way alien communication was portrayed very interesting.

Oh, and there's a scene where a human and an alien play cards together.<\spoiler>

I'll admit that the book took a little while to set itself up and the tone felt a bit "young adult" at the beginning, but once the action started it really picked up steam and I found myself completely absorbed. Overall I thought the writing was excellent and incredibly effective at conveying horror, tension and anxiety in certain scenes. 

I'm very excited for the sequel! I'd recommend this to any sci-fi fans who like aliens, government conspiracies, and mid-2000 pop culture references. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Blood, Car accident, Confinement, Death, Gore, Medical content, and Panic attacks/disorders

Moderate: Gore, Kidnapping, Stalking, Vomit, and Torture

bencaroline's review

adventurous emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Blood, Car accident, Confinement, Death, Genocide, Gun violence, and Xenophobia

Minor: Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Kidnapping, Medical content, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, Sexism, Stalking, Suicide, and Torture