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teabex's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
Graphic: Gore, Pandemic/Epidemic, Death, Blood, and Violence
Moderate: Cursing, Rape, Pregnancy, Physical abuse, and Torture
Minor: Confinement, Kidnapping, Animal death, Cancer, Medical content, Alcohol, Fire/Fire injury, Child death, and Suicide
bellbookcandle's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Graphic: Death
Moderate: Rape and War
minanonim's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.75
Graphic: Animal death, Injury/Injury detail, Death, Gore, Torture, and Pandemic/Epidemic
Moderate: Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Body horror, Grief, Pregnancy, Racism, Rape, Torture, Sexual assault, Blood, Child death, Confinement, Fire/Fire injury, Murder, Suicide, and Violence
Minor: Vomit, Terminal illness, and Cancer
caughtbetweenpages's review
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.75
Don't get me wrong, it certainly was entertaining--Cronin's writing style lends itself to fast paced action scenes--but the character work just wasn't there for me. In part because the women characters suffered from an abundance of "written by a man" syndrome (women either get to be nurturing mothers or Action Gals, and all of them are pretty/sexualized by at least one man. Plus, if their suffering doesn't include at least some sexual violence, then how do you even know they're women??), but also because, to make room for so much Theme and Plot, the character work is a lot more "told" than demonstrated. The sort-of exceptions to this are Agent Wolgast and Carter/one of the Twelve, and they're gone by page 200ish/900ish.
I did enjoy getting to know the backstory of the Twelve; it made them more rounded as antagonists, and while Amy was more a plot device and a stereotype of girlhood than a character (and certainly not the protagonist Cronin has stated he wanted her to be), I still enjoyed seeing a girl be a Messianic figure of sorts, even though her Trump Card Nature made the ending feel pretty anticlimactic and abrupt.
Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, Racism, Cannibalism, Rape, Violence, and Gore
also TW Military Violence