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elee2013's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Child abuse, Misogyny, Sexual assault, and Suicide
Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Homophobia, and Transphobia
Phobia towards genderqueer/nongendered peopleemily_mh's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Genocide, Gun violence, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicide, Violence, Murder, and War
Moderate: Ableism, Animal death, Body horror, Cursing, Homophobia, Physical abuse, Racism, Sexism, Transphobia, Grief, Death of parent, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Drug use, Rape, Self harm, Sexual content, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Abortion, Suicide attempt, Fire/Fire injury, and Alcohol
Major: queer used as a slur 6 times, loss of a loved one, bioessentialism, eugenics, misgendering Minor: suicide ideationbrekaboujie's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
It was also super immersive - I was completely sucked into this world and every scene and section felt necessary and useful to the plot (seems a low bar but honestly such a relief after my recent reads which were not like that at all), and I loved how everything kept falling into place perfectly set up from the previous scenes and knowledge I'd been given.
Also the end !!!!!!!!!! Heck yeah. Solid ending. Love a good ending.
Final point - it's quite an intense book, and the version I read had content warnings at the beginning which was cool. I will say that everything was done really sensitively and well - very little explicit showing of the nasty content warnings, much more themed and just general knowledge of things Just Being Like That. It did remind me a bit of The Handmaid's Tale thematically, but imagine that's a side plot and it's not quite as bad and also they're in space and have guns. So nothing like it really. But regardless, there was a point towards the end of this bookwhere in my mind I literally went WOMEN YES WOMEN THE CONNECTION OF UNIVERSAL SUFFERING !!!!! So enjoy that moment if you read this. Great book.
Graphic: Suicide, Violence, Xenophobia, and War
Moderate: Genocide, Homophobia, and Rape
Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Racism, Abortion, and Pregnancy
A lot of heavy themes but all dealt with sensitively! There is one scene where somonehanz's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
3.0
Graphic: Ableism, Child abuse, Genocide, Homophobia, Racism, Sexism, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Transphobia, and Violence
Moderate: Pregnancy
Minor: Abortion
lelcopter's review against another edition
- 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
3.75
Graphic: Racism and Sexual assault
Moderate: Child abuse, Homophobia, Transphobia, and Sexual harassment
bex_knighthunterbooks's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
The main character is completely indoctrinated, and so is pretty infuriating to follow, but this does give big scope for character development as she gets her eyes opened. The other main character (arguably - though there is only one POV) is also a douche with questionable morals, and then the other side characters are more one dimensional, which means I found it hard to get invested from a character perspective in this book.
I think the plot was quite clever, with a few twists or reveals that I really didn't see coming and I thought added an interesting element to the story. The setting does have a few interesting elements (e.g. the agoge/wisdom, the planet crysalthamus - excuse the spelling, I listened to this on audio), but the ones that intrigued me weren't very deeply explored (the impact of the wisdom on society would be huge and fascinating!), and instead most of the focus was on the space station, which felt like your standard space fascism with elements of handmaid's tale.
There are lots of themes, which I did find interesting: bodily autonomy, fascism, cycles of revenge driving war, are humans inherently dangerous, impact of propaganda and indoctrination, being queer in a heteronormative world - but I don't think these were any of them explored in much depth, and were dealt with in quite a heavy-handed way. On this aspect, I think this fits better with YA where I wouldn't expect as much nuance. I'd say this book is more focussed on the plot and action, over the world or themes, which will work well for some, but didn't especially for me.
A fun fast-paced romp, with a lot of ambitious interesting elements I'd have liked to see explored more.
Graphic: Child abuse, Genocide, Suicide, Violence, and War
Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Homophobia, Incest, and Sexual assault
Minor: Rape and Transphobia
charleyyyyy's review against another edition
4.5
💫🌟✨️This book made me forget that I was reading✨️🌟💫
👽This book is soooo good and sooo enjoyable!! I never wanted to put it down and was always excited to pick it back up.
The plot is fast, twisty and action packed. I was on the edge of my seat the entire time. At some points I was even yelling at the book because of all the emotions it made me feel.
🚀The themes were written and explored so well!! Especially those of radicalisation, reproductive rights, colonialism, and queerness. And how the society you are apart of can effect your view on all of the above, and your own place in the world.
🗡And the charicters were incredibly well developed and written!! I love Kyr, she's so flawed and unlikeable and well writen. She is such a great and interesting main charicter. Yiso and Clio are my other favourite charicters, of course. Yiso's friendship with Kyr was so sweet!
🌍The worldbuilding was interesting, I'm new to sci-fi but I didn't struggle at all with it. This world is the perfect setting to explore these themes in.
🪐The writing sometimes got on my nerves, some times there was too much telling instead of showing, such as :"'with the old one gone, that technology is-' he closed his fist, like crushing something out of existence." Or: "'wow, how deep.' Avi said with heavy sarcasm." The telling is unnecessary in these sentences, we can figure it out on our own.
Or sentences like this: "Ursa would have told her to be less judgmental, but Ursa's opinion had stopped mattering when Ursa left." How many times do you need to say Ursa?????
🌌I would definitely recommend this book if you like action packed sci-fi with a focus on important, heavy themes, and flawed main charicters.
🩷💛💜🩵🩷💛💜🩵
Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Gun violence, Homophobia, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Racism, Sexual assault, Suicide, Transphobia, Xenophobia, Grief, Colonisation, and War
exaal's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Graphic: Xenophobia and War
Moderate: Child death, Gun violence, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Suicide, Grief, Death of parent, and Sexual harassment
Minor: Child abuse, Genocide, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Murder, and Pregnancy
milliemudd's review against another edition
3.25
Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Genocide, Gun violence, Sexual assault, Suicide, Violence, Xenophobia, Gaslighting, and War
Moderate: Ableism, Adult/minor relationship, Bullying, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Mental illness, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Murder, and Outing
Minor: Misogyny and Abortion
lyndann's review against another edition
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
Graphic: Homophobia, Violence, and War
Moderate: Child abuse and Sexual violence