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onlylonelystars's review
challenging
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
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? No
4.25
There's a lot of technobabble, but the themes of love, perseverance, and ethics are strong enough that I can overlook it. Plus, Cole and Catarina are pretty fun characters that I enjoy exploring.
lclowe's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
amybraunauthor's review
5.0
This book has been sitting on my To Be Read shelf for a while now, and I don't know why because it is AMAZING. I can't believe how much I adored it! From the very first chapter, I became hooked into a unique, terrifying world. The story kept my attention even after I had to put it down.
The characters are wonderful. Cat is a great character with a complex history and backstory. Cole is a sweetheart and definitely book boyfriend material. I loved the tenderness and honesty of their romance.
The story is one of the best I've written. Not only was it packed with magic and science and expertly written, it had some amazing twists and surprises. Pieces of the plot were wonderfully tied together for an ending that shocked and riveted me.
I loved this book in a way that stunned me, and I recommend it to anyone who loves sci fi, complex human relationships, and science. A smart, quick, adrenaline-filled must read!
The characters are wonderful. Cat is a great character with a complex history and backstory. Cole is a sweetheart and definitely book boyfriend material. I loved the tenderness and honesty of their romance.
The story is one of the best I've written. Not only was it packed with magic and science and expertly written, it had some amazing twists and surprises. Pieces of the plot were wonderfully tied together for an ending that shocked and riveted me.
I loved this book in a way that stunned me, and I recommend it to anyone who loves sci fi, complex human relationships, and science. A smart, quick, adrenaline-filled must read!
becxas's review against another edition
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
4.25
Fun, quick YA read. The story moved along with nice surprises, and interesting plot points. Excited for the next one.
frekinney's review against another edition
5.0
This hit on all the good tropes for me: strong, intelligent heroine, enemies to lovers, protective boyfriend, save the world, psychological games. All the plot twists really kept my attention. The futuristic world building was fascinating and terrifying. This book checked all the boxes, in my opinion.
chemwitch's review
3.0
3/5 stars. Predictable, but certain things about it left me with a lasting fondness. Your mileage may vary.
Okay, let me try to summarize this book for everyone.
We have our protagonist (Catarina), her father (Lachlan), and her father's cute assistant (Dax) living together in their isolated mountain home, studying gene hacking. Gene hacking is a big, normal thing now. It's like iPhones but in your body. It's fine, don't think about it too much. Side note: Catarina is allergic to body iPhones so she's immediately established as different. A disease called Hydra does fucked-up things to the human body and makes you explode, and if you're around someone who has it you'll... eat them. Again, don't think about it too much. The super-evil mega corporation that controls lots of the gene hacking tech (where Lachlan used to work, but had to escape because of the aforementioned super-evilness) shows back up and kidnaps Lachlan and Dax because they wanna force them to research a vaccine to people-explodey disease. Catarina hides in a secret panic room during the kidnapping and is left behind with her father's advice to never let the evil mega-corporation catch you. Good advice, in all honesty.
And then, with a little time skipping magic, we are up to now. The world is a pretty standard "zombie apocalypse" situation. Catarina has been hiding out in the mountain home for some time, and has picked up an old lady friend along the way. She's helping out a resistance group who do hacker stuff and leak code from the corporation and all that. The corporation has formed safe underground bunkers, but the only way you can get into them is if you agree to let all your coding and apps and whatnot be standardized and controlled by them. With all this established, we get the main plot force start to happen: a super-soldier human experiment (Cole) working for the corporation shows up with a message for Catarina. Her father is dead, but he finished the vaccine before he went. He wants her to decrypt it and release it to the public, because he fears that the corporation will withhold it because they can kind of be a dick about things. Together, Cole and Catarina go on a journey to figure out how to decrypt the vaccine, figure out why her father was so mysterious and sciencey, and get caught up in a lot of different plot points along the way.
Ffs. And that was me trying to be brief about it. With that poorly accomplished, let's get into why I think this book was good, and why I also kind of didn't.
The Good
-Engaging enough plot to keep me going. I've been in a hard reading slump for 6 months and this was the first non-manga I've picked up and finished. I give it props.
-This book paralleled real life in some ways that have become a lot more real and relevant post-COVID. Worldwide pandemic, people suspicious of a quickly-released vaccine, the authority of a corporation to control people's access to healthcare, etc. etc. We're all tired of hearing about COVID, I know but the themes of this book will haunt me
-The world-building in this book was honestly pretty catching. Even if I didn't love all the pseudo-scientific, hacker-y talk. I usually despise post-apocalyptic settings but the world in this still felt real to me. Still felt very much struggling against the idea of being "post-apocalyptic". I liked that.
The Bad
-The romance. It was insta-lovey and overall just very bland. And obviously there's a little love triangle in there as well, because all books need to have one.
-The gene-hacking stuff felt a little cringe to me at times. Idk if it's just me but the pseudo-scientific stuff in the narrative just made me stop and close my eyes and take a breath before continuing
-During much of the plot, I felt like the characters were just meandering along without aim, without drive. The plot pushed them along but I never felt the sense of decisiveness of "This is what we should do next." And if they do decide something, it's often derailed by the plot itself. I guess this maybe comes down to the characters. They don't feel... real. Their decisions don't feel real. Catarina is super-special-awesome and can do everything. Cole is there simply to be obsessed with Catarina. Cole's friend (whose name I have forgotten, apologies) exists only to dislike Catarina and then soften up towards her because everyone has to love Catarina. Dax is just kind of there.
-The plot twist/reveals towards the end. I won't spoil anything but suffice it to say I was not a fan of the ending of this story.
As I write this, I realize that overall, I have more bad to say than good. It's hard to understand why I liked this story with its flat/overdone characters, post-apocalyptic setting, and plot twists that left me feeling cold. It feels very much "been there, done that" but in a new place that I kind of liked. I'm going to give it 3/5 stars, despite its many flaws, because Suvada at least wrote book worth finishing, even if just to see how it crashes and burns at the end. Perhaps I just left with a fondness for it because it got me out of my reading slump. The world may never know.
1/28/22. Might actually want to review this one later. Honestly? Pretty good (with some sizable flaws). Either that or I've gone softhearted in my old age.
Okay, let me try to summarize this book for everyone.
We have our protagonist (Catarina), her father (Lachlan), and her father's cute assistant (Dax) living together in their isolated mountain home, studying gene hacking. Gene hacking is a big, normal thing now. It's like iPhones but in your body. It's fine, don't think about it too much. Side note: Catarina is allergic to body iPhones so she's immediately established as different. A disease called Hydra does fucked-up things to the human body and makes you explode, and if you're around someone who has it you'll... eat them. Again, don't think about it too much. The super-evil mega corporation that controls lots of the gene hacking tech (where Lachlan used to work, but had to escape because of the aforementioned super-evilness) shows back up and kidnaps Lachlan and Dax because they wanna force them to research a vaccine to people-explodey disease. Catarina hides in a secret panic room during the kidnapping and is left behind with her father's advice to never let the evil mega-corporation catch you. Good advice, in all honesty.
And then, with a little time skipping magic, we are up to now. The world is a pretty standard "zombie apocalypse" situation. Catarina has been hiding out in the mountain home for some time, and has picked up an old lady friend along the way. She's helping out a resistance group who do hacker stuff and leak code from the corporation and all that. The corporation has formed safe underground bunkers, but the only way you can get into them is if you agree to let all your coding and apps and whatnot be standardized and controlled by them. With all this established, we get the main plot force start to happen: a super-soldier human experiment (Cole) working for the corporation shows up with a message for Catarina. Her father is dead, but he finished the vaccine before he went. He wants her to decrypt it and release it to the public, because he fears that the corporation will withhold it because they can kind of be a dick about things. Together, Cole and Catarina go on a journey to figure out how to decrypt the vaccine, figure out why her father was so mysterious and sciencey, and get caught up in a lot of different plot points along the way.
Ffs. And that was me trying to be brief about it. With that poorly accomplished, let's get into why I think this book was good, and why I also kind of didn't.
The Good
-Engaging enough plot to keep me going. I've been in a hard reading slump for 6 months and this was the first non-manga I've picked up and finished. I give it props.
-This book paralleled real life in some ways that have become a lot more real and relevant post-COVID. Worldwide pandemic, people suspicious of a quickly-released vaccine, the authority of a corporation to control people's access to healthcare, etc. etc. We're all tired of hearing about COVID, I know but the themes of this book will haunt me
-The world-building in this book was honestly pretty catching. Even if I didn't love all the pseudo-scientific, hacker-y talk. I usually despise post-apocalyptic settings but the world in this still felt real to me. Still felt very much struggling against the idea of being "post-apocalyptic". I liked that.
The Bad
-The romance. It was insta-lovey and overall just very bland. And obviously there's a little love triangle in there as well, because all books need to have one.
-The gene-hacking stuff felt a little cringe to me at times. Idk if it's just me but the pseudo-scientific stuff in the narrative just made me stop and close my eyes and take a breath before continuing
-During much of the plot, I felt like the characters were just meandering along without aim, without drive. The plot pushed them along but I never felt the sense of decisiveness of "This is what we should do next." And if they do decide something, it's often derailed by the plot itself. I guess this maybe comes down to the characters. They don't feel... real. Their decisions don't feel real. Catarina is super-special-awesome and can do everything. Cole is there simply to be obsessed with Catarina. Cole's friend (whose name I have forgotten, apologies) exists only to dislike Catarina and then soften up towards her because everyone has to love Catarina. Dax is just kind of there.
-The plot twist/reveals towards the end. I won't spoil anything but suffice it to say I was not a fan of the ending of this story.
As I write this, I realize that overall, I have more bad to say than good. It's hard to understand why I liked this story with its flat/overdone characters, post-apocalyptic setting, and plot twists that left me feeling cold. It feels very much "been there, done that" but in a new place that I kind of liked. I'm going to give it 3/5 stars, despite its many flaws, because Suvada at least wrote book worth finishing, even if just to see how it crashes and burns at the end. Perhaps I just left with a fondness for it because it got me out of my reading slump. The world may never know.
1/28/22. Might actually want to review this one later. Honestly? Pretty good (with some sizable flaws). Either that or I've gone softhearted in my old age.
the_bookfox's review
5.0
„This mortal coil“ ist ein großartiges, intelligentes, dystopisches Jugendbuch, welches alle Eigenschaften eines guten Buches mit sich bringt. Es ist unglaublich spannend, die Charaktere sind sympathisch und es ist glaubwürdig. Die Heldin ist intelligent und selbstbewusst. Die Liebesgeschichte wirkt nicht verkrampft.
Den deutschen Titel „Cat und Cole“ finde ich nicht so passend, da er sofort an erotische Stereotypbücher denken lässt, mit denen dieses Buch überhaupt nichts zu tun hat.
Den deutschen Titel „Cat und Cole“ finde ich nicht so passend, da er sofort an erotische Stereotypbücher denken lässt, mit denen dieses Buch überhaupt nichts zu tun hat.
deaton9's review
3.0
Strange reading this book about a deadly virus after Covid. I didn’t like the Wrath aspect of the book. Otherwise, standard dystopian romance and rebellion tropes.
marareading's review
adventurous
challenging
mysterious
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
Dystopian, tech, unbeatable virus... This was great. The pace was awesome and the twists just keep coming! Can't wait to keep going with the series!
lildrinkwater's review
4.0
This Mortal Coil is a post-apocalyptic science fiction novel by Emily Suvada. The story follows Catarina Agatta, a teenage hacker who is also a gene-hacker genius. When a deadly virus wipes out most of humanity, Cat is left to fend for herself in a world where people can change their bodies with the press of a button.
I have read a lot of post-apocalyptic novels, and I can honestly say that This Mortal Coil is one of the best I have ever read. The story is well-written and engaging, and the characters are well-developed and believable. I especially liked the way that Suvada explored the scientific aspects of the novel in a way that was both informative and entertaining.
One of the things that I really appreciated about This Mortal Coil is that it didn't rely on tired tropes. There is no insta-love, and the characters' relationships feel genuine and believable. The ending is also very satisfying, and it left me wanting more.
Overall, I highly recommend This Mortal Coil to fans of post-apocalyptic science fiction. It is a well-written and thought-provoking novel that will stay with you long after you finish reading it.
Here are some additional things that I would mention in my review:
The novel's exploration of the ethics of gene editing.
The way that the novel raises questions about the nature of identity and what it means to be human.
The novel's fast-paced and action-packed plot.
The novel's strong female protagonist.
I would give This Mortal Coil 4 out of 5 stars. It is a well-written and thought-provoking novel that I would recommend to fans of post-apocalyptic science fiction.
I have read a lot of post-apocalyptic novels, and I can honestly say that This Mortal Coil is one of the best I have ever read. The story is well-written and engaging, and the characters are well-developed and believable. I especially liked the way that Suvada explored the scientific aspects of the novel in a way that was both informative and entertaining.
One of the things that I really appreciated about This Mortal Coil is that it didn't rely on tired tropes. There is no insta-love, and the characters' relationships feel genuine and believable. The ending is also very satisfying, and it left me wanting more.
Overall, I highly recommend This Mortal Coil to fans of post-apocalyptic science fiction. It is a well-written and thought-provoking novel that will stay with you long after you finish reading it.
Here are some additional things that I would mention in my review:
The novel's exploration of the ethics of gene editing.
The way that the novel raises questions about the nature of identity and what it means to be human.
The novel's fast-paced and action-packed plot.
The novel's strong female protagonist.
I would give This Mortal Coil 4 out of 5 stars. It is a well-written and thought-provoking novel that I would recommend to fans of post-apocalyptic science fiction.