Reviews tagging 'Mass/school shootings'

Gemina by Jay Kristoff, Amie Kaufman

9 reviews

itsbumley's review against another edition

challenging dark 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Genocide, Injury/Injury detail, Self harm, Drug use, Body horror, Blood, Death, Death of parent, Gore, Grief, Gun violence, Mass/school shootings, Violence, and Murder

birdy's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Injury/Injury detail, Gun violence, Murder, Violence, Animal death, Blood, Death, and Death of parent

Moderate: Chronic illness, Drug abuse, Child abuse, Grief, Child death, Gore, War, Vomit, Cursing, Suicide, Self harm, Medical content, and Mass/school shootings

cait's review against another edition

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

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Minor: Blood, Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Grief, Gun violence, Kidnapping, Mass/school shootings, Medical trauma, Murder, Physical abuse, Body horror, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Drug use, Gaslighting, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Violence, and War

short_circuit's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny inspiring sad tense fast-paced

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

4.0

"good luck, hannah donnelly. the universe itself depends on you. ...no pressure."

i didn't like this one as much as i liked illuminae, but hannah and nik have quickly made their way into my favorite battle couples of all time. right next to kady and ezra and AIDAN, in fact. huh. funny how that works out.

best character is by far ella. sorry AIDAN, still love you more than anything, but i love me a sassy hacker genius. she and hannah and nik are the girlbosses of all time.

all in all, gemina is definitely an excellent follow-up to illuminae. can't wait to get my hands on obsidio!

(once again, heed the content warnings. this one's just as violent as the first, now with added drug use.)

'and waiting for her on the other side? just like he promised.

'a whole sky of different stars.'

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Violence, Gun violence, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Child death, Chronic illness, Murder, Mass/school shootings, Injury/Injury detail, Gore, Grief, Death of parent, and Death

nxclx's review against another edition

emotional 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? It's complicated

4.0

Giving this three stars hurt me, so I didn't. It was still intriguing and drew me in, but it was almost the same formula as the first one: BeiTech attacking with an non-human secondary threat. But still good.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Ableism, Blood, Body horror, Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Drug use, Grief, Gun violence, Mass/school shootings, Murder, and Violence

crunchycrystals's review against another edition

adventurous funny

• Loveable characters? Yes

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Death, and Mass/school shootings

Moderate: Grief

vendela's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Gore, Gun violence, Death, Genocide, Confinement, Blood, Body horror, and Mass/school shootings

Moderate: Child abuse, Animal death, and Drug use

Minor: Medical content, Medical trauma, and Terminal illness

triptych_turning's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark hopeful mysterious tense fast-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

I LOVED Illuminae, so I was eager to follow up with the sequel. This was an amazing follow-up. There were a ton of plotlines that all tied up satisfactorily, and I enjoyed many of the characters. The worldbuilding, like its predecessor, was immaculate, and I highly, highly reccomend this book to amyone who enjoyed the first book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Gore, Mass/school shootings, Terminal illness, and Death

Moderate: Animal death, Confinement, Drug use, and Police brutality

ravensandlace's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny inspiring mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

My heart is sooooo happy right now! So freaking happy! Like I did with  Illuminae , I will try and gather my thoughts into something that is coherent. Because lord knows, my mind is a jumbled mess of happy and eek noises.

So this takes place after the events of the Kerenza invasion and all that. We have Hanna, who I didn't care for at first but she grew on me and is also the captain's daughter and Nik, who is part of a mob called the House of Knives, which deals a drug called dust on the ship. Basically, their ship, the Heimdall, is invaded by BeiTech terrorists. Written in the same way  Illuminae is, with all the chat logs, video surveillance, emails and all that jazz, this is a story that I will not be forgetting for a long time.

Hanna, as I mentioned above, was at first okay for me. She was kind of snotty and I didn't like how she led Nik along. I enjoyed her journal entries though and her drawings were really well done. I also thought it was really cool that she was into martial arts. Girls in martial arts don't get enough rep in books, I think. As the story progressed, she grew on me more and more. She wasn't just a snobby rich kid. She was a warrior, determined to live by any means necessary.

Nik was cool. He reminded me of Ezra. I did enjoy the back and forth Nik and Hanna had. The added Russian mob story was really cool. It give Nik more character and who doesn't love a good background story. I really felt bad for him that he was in the situation that he was in due to family. Also, his cousin Ella was amazing! EVerything she said was just pure gold! I could read a whole book about her and not get bored!

Okay. This next little part I am putting under spoiler tags. I don't know if it would really be considered a spoiler but I don't want to be yelled at. I am also going to reference something that might help you to understand this story. But, like I said, it's probably a spoiler. So read at your own risk.

 Alright. One of the many plots really was about multiverses. I actually understood what they were talking about and I appreciate the fact that they dumbed it down for those that don't understand a lick of science. For those that didn't quite understand, I'll put it in super easy layman's terms. Basically there is this theory that there are multiple universes. For example: there is this universe, where I excel at reading and can't stand math. In another universe, there is another me, who loves math but can't stand reading. If things are still foggy for you, I would suggest watching the Family Guy episode  Road to the Multiverse . That should help clear up any confusion about this plot.

I'm going to wrap this up before it gets to ridiculously long. This made my heart happy. I'm going to buy this book as soon as I can and treasure it like I do  Illuminae . I'm going to eagerly await the third installment. I'm going to throw this book at everybody and demand that they read it because they don't know what they are missing.

 Just kidding. I would never throw a book. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Confinement, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Genocide, Gore, Grief, Gun violence, Mass/school shootings, Physical abuse, and Violence