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maryellen's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Graphic: Blood, Animal death, Child death, Death, Grief, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Death of parent
crossbun's review
- 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
Take a look at the content warnings but as someone who's sensitive to a lot of the things on this list, it was all handled with respect and care and didn't feel gratuitous or out of place.
Loved the ending:
I really thought the book was going to be about her journey and not what it took for her to leave (like a typical adventure story) and it was such a delightful surprise to see that her story was about the choice to take the journey and not the journey its self. It's a story I needed.
I would love a follow up to this, I adored it.
Graphic: Animal death, Blood, Death, Abandonment, Suicide attempt, and Terminal illness
Moderate: Body horror, Chronic illness, Grief, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, and Torture
Minor: Death of parent, Ableism, Abortion, and Medical content
sailormegan's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Moderate: Violence, Blood, Chronic illness, Death, Terminal illness, Animal death, Confinement, Injury/Injury detail, and Panic attacks/disorders
Minor: Cursing, Death of parent, Abandonment, Child death, Medical content, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, and Grief
hmatt's review
- 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
4.5
- Canadian setting that is foolproof (i.e. I can look up locations on Google Maps and they're exactly as described. This is one of my favourite things to do in nonfiction and it was such a delight and added so much credibility to this fictional narrative.)
- Really rich world-building that doesn't feel like its being over-explained
- Nothing happens. Like, things do happen, but the story is mostly about this kind of liminal time in the protagonist's life. It's a very tense, unsure time, and I loved how we were just getting a little glimpse of a bigger world.
- SHORT, ohmygod, I love a short book where nothing happens. 2022 is the year of short stories and novellas for me. This was great to tote around on a couple weekends away where I wanted to travel light, and it's helping me combat a 2-month-long reading slump.
- So many little (but painful) quotable passages, which I will now insert some examples of:
For generations we have waited for it to become normal. And it has not. We are still horrified.
It was not instantaneous, the "end of the world," the way it is in nightmares. The sky didn't tear open around an asteroid, the earth didn't swallow us up. And of course, the world did not end at the same time for everyone. No one back then would have been able to say: This is the day our world ended. Or even: This is the year.
On a human scale it was slow enough that for a long time it did not seem truly dire; on a geological scale it seemed that nothing was happening; till suddenly the feedback cycles tipped over, became too front-heavy to regulate themselves.
I wonder what they do in the domes if they catch someone like this. Or do things like this simply not happen there? No, they must have a system. People are people wherever you go; and they aren't any better than us.
I'm an infrequent Readerly user, but sometimes you just gotta do "book maths", so here's my gist: https://www.readerly.com/gists/4079816 - and here's the maths bit:
- Take the eeriness of the unknown phenomena in Annihilation
- Add the teen-girl body horror of Wilder Girls
- Set it in Canada(ish, lol) and in an established post-apocalyptic society like in Station Eleven
- Throw in a mysterious "other place" that the protagonist is drawn to - same vibes as The Giver
Graphic: Body horror, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Animal death, Blood, and Death
Moderate: Grief, Death of parent, and Chronic illness
Minor: Torture and Suicide
"Chronic illness" tag used in reference to the fictional parasitic infection that is passed down genetically(?)rorikae's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Reid lives in a post apocalyptic world where humanity has had to come together in small pockets to sustain life. A fungus has started to infiltrate the population, curbing reckless behaviors as it takes over the lives of its hosts. People are expected to live in their small communities, contributing to help everyone survive. But when Reid gets a letter inviting her to university across the country, she will have to decide if she will give up everything she has known to take advantage of this opportunity.
Mohamed does a great job of peering into the specifics of hard decisions as seen through every day interactions. Reid is faced with the people around her and their different opinions. Some think that she would be out of her mind to not take the opportunity while others think that she will be betraying her community and more specifically her mom. The quiet moments of contemplation, including her conversations with her friends and family, add emotional gravity to the story even though it is relatively short. The small glimpses of Reid's world do a good job of creating the world while leaving more that could be explored and expanded on. I would love for Mohamed to write a sequel that explores what happens after the end of this initial story as where it leaves off does leave some questions unanswered.
Moderate: Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Death, Grief, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, and Violence