Reviews

The All-Consuming World by Cassandra Khaw

invisibleninjacat's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional 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

This was hard to rate, because it was incredibly well done but also a little darker than I really wanted to read. The language is rich and poetical while also being incredibly brutal and coarse. The book also takes the found family trope and asks, what if the family you found makes everyone worse, actually? 

acanthae's review

adventurous emotional tense medium-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

3.0

You can see how Khaw will go on to write The Salt Grows Heavy in the writing style of this book, even if it doesn't work so much in this novel.

Also, you can tell Khaw used to be a tech journalist by the way she writes tech in her novels. It's not wrong, just shallow and boring.

willow1113's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional 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? Yes

4.5

anomieus's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark tense medium-paced

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

4.5

coris's review against another edition

3.0

If the problem with heist stories for you is that they don't spend 90% of the book getting the team together, then have I got a book for you!  Or if you just want wall-to-wall swearing, yep, right here.

But, not for me, at all.

readerette's review

This is a slog. The words and phrases don't flow. There are lots of unfamiliar terms and names with very little explanation. I deeply appreciated _The Salt Grows Heavy_ and this book lacks the same emotional tenor and intrigue. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Suicide and Violence

booksdearest's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious medium-paced

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

4.75

abbief's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark slow-paced

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

3.25

This book took me 227 pages to get invested, that is way too long, especially for a 343-page book. I didn't like most characters, except for two characters that really got me through this book. Most other characters were boiled down to rather 1 dimensional to me. But I really like one of the characters, so in terms of a character driven book, it's a pass for me. However, I didn't care about the world, the plot is very slow paced, took a long time to build up, and half of the time I'm figuring out what the hell is happening. 

The ending is not only abrupt but also unsatisfying.

The main character has been manipulated by her partner for decades, she was emotionally blackmailed, her love towards her partner was used to force her to do all sorts of dirty work. In my opinion, her partner is the true villain of the story. It took the main character quite some journey to realize the situation she had been in, and it was a tough journey too.  Yet the manner that her partner died in was anticlimatic, and it wasn't executed by the main character.

It made me feel like there is a missing part of the character arc, and also the closure she deserved. 

This is not a bad book, but it wasn't a good fit for me. Though, perks to this book is that all the main characters are women and queer. I quite like the representation.

bingsoojung's review against another edition

5.0

This is a book that, in my opinion, truly suffers from the lack of the right audience reviewing it. Most often I can respect a books goodreads rating as simply a reflection of general sentiment towards a book, even if I disagree with said sentiment. But in regard to ‘The All-Consuming World’ by Cassandra Khaw, I shan’t agree in the slightest. This book simply needs more people to read it, for when they do I’ve no doubt that they won’t love it.

‘The All-Consuming World’ was preeminently good, and lusciously mellifluous. Yes, it is crass and yes, there’s a ‘fuck’ thrown in every other sentence with the same amount of spice I put on my rice (and I’m Thai and Korean mind you), but what greater joy is there in the profane and profanity? Very little in my opinion. This book was excellently queer, it embroiled itself in the messiness of metal bodies and queer identity like all good books with mechas should, there is, after all, nothing more trans than transformation of oneself, and what better way to embrace that than disposable bodies?

All of that to say, read this gd book! It’s good and soft and it made me ache like a sapphic who wants to be hugged and not fucked. Which is to say me every day when it’s 2AM and I’m feeling particularly morose.

wanderlustqueen's review against another edition

3.0

Felt like I didn't know or understand what was happening for most of the story, though there were moments where I could appreciate the writing.