Reviews tagging 'Child death'

Escaping Exodus by Nicky Drayden

7 reviews

hahanimation's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny inspiring lighthearted mysterious reflective 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

5.0

Has stayed in my mind. Wonderfully intriguing worldbuilding that is unfurled so well. proper sci fi, raising so many questions relevant to our day.  
Little flavors of Doctor Who, Pathologic, and Hunger Games. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Child death, Blood, Classism, Colonisation, Gore, Medical trauma, Murder, Pregnancy, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Vomit, Grief, Trafficking, Torture, Suicide attempt, Genocide, and Alcohol

Minor: Cancer

salemander's review against another edition

5.0

this book was so fucking WEIRD but so COOL. wasn’t a fan of everything that happened, seeing as the characters are literally children they made some real dumbass choices lol, but the world building was just so unique and i literally never knew where the story was going next. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Slavery, Classism, and Animal cruelty

Minor: Racism

obviousthings's review against another edition

There were a lot of worldbuilding details given, but the setting as a whole just wasn't all that believable to me. In particular, in Chapter 2,

we see children being trained to work in the beast's heart. They are punished very harshly for making very minor mistakes, and several are allowed to die just because they didn't instinctively pick up what to do without being taught. This makes NO sense to me. It's a society with a one-child-per-family rule! Their mothers are right there watching them! You're telling me they're all so on board with societal norms that they'll let their own children die rather than give them basic instruction about how to survive in this environment? No! I don't believe it! Frankly, I think it's stupid. I won't be reading the rest of this.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood and Gore

Moderate: Cancer, Child death, Excrement, and Sexism

Minor: Abortion, Transphobia, and Suicide

bookcaptivated's review against another edition

emotional hopeful mysterious reflective 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Body horror, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Child death, Pregnancy, and Murder

Moderate: Alcohol, Classism, Death, Sexual content, Sexism, Slavery, and Death of parent

Minor: Misogyny

zombiezami's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful mysterious tense medium-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? Yes

4.75

This book was fascinating. I love the way that it unfolded. The worldbuilding was imaginative and engaging. My only complaint is that there were some moments where the author did more telling than showing. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Toxic relationship, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Death, Miscarriage, Grief, Gore, Medical content, Pregnancy, and Violence

Moderate: Slavery, Sexual content, Death of parent, Vomit, Genocide, Child death, Terminal illness, Chronic illness, and Drug use

Minor: Sexism, Racism, and Racial slurs

jennikreads's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Seske is set to become the next matriarch to a spacefaring clan living inside a beast they have restructured for their own survival. Seske is thrust into leadership at a tumultuous time for the clan when everything seems to be deteriorating quickly. 

 

I think I have an unpopular opinion on this one. I missed the content warning about body horror and that is something I am absolutely NOT into, so I should have DNFed it when I realized that the majority of this book was just one body horror scene after another. It can get very graphic, so be warned if that is not your thing. 

 

That said, the characters and the setting of this book are quite imaginative. I also thought the political/social system was well developed and those aspects are what kept me engaged in the story. It’s full of diverse and intersectional characters, which I love to see. 

 

However, I get really frustrated when characters are constantly given choices to make and without fail choose the worst one every time. It’s just not realistic. Even someone who is completely devoid of rational thinking would accidentally make a good choice at some point. Seske and Adalla are both written as smart, clearly rational thinking, capable women, so it just did not track for me that they made so many poor choices constantly. 

 

I was still hanging in there, again because of the world building and characters, but the ending. THE ENDING. If I hadn’t been listening to an audiobook, I would have genuinely thrown this book across the room. IT TOOK A TURN. And no, you absolutely could not have predicted that turn because WHAT?! 

 

Needless to say, I won’t be reading the second book. If you’re in to bizarre science fiction with a heavy dose of body horror and looking for a diverse cast of interesting characters in a well developed political/social world, then this one might be for you. But if you don’t like weird or body horror... do yourself a favor and pass. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, and Child death

catsy2022's review

challenging emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

Rating: B+

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Genocide

Moderate: Sexism, Drug use, Child abuse, Child death, Vomit, and Violence

Minor: Sexual assault and Miscarriage