Reviews tagging 'Car accident'

Upgrade by Blake Crouch

12 reviews

hybridhavoc's review against another edition

adventurous tense fast-paced

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

3.75

This was a decent read. Of Blake Crouch's works that I've read so far, this one reads the most like it was written for film. I think a film adaptation would be pretty straightforward. Probably wouldn't be an entirely bad movie.

With that said, there's not much new ground covered here really. Nothing about this is offensive I don't think.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Medical content, Gun violence, Murder, and Death of parent

Minor: Car accident, Confinement, Violence, and Grief

ababytapir's review

hopeful mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pandemic/Epidemic, Gun violence, Violence, Murder, Grief, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Abandonment, Dementia, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Police brutality, Body horror, Medical content, and Suicide

Minor: Suicidal thoughts, Car accident, War, and Terminal illness

lilifane's review against another edition

adventurous dark hopeful informative reflective tense fast-paced

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

3.0

Ah, I loved the premise. Really, really liked the first half of the book. The ideas, the discussions about humanity and different approaches to prevent its extinction, about actions and consequences and about the possibilities and risks of genetic engineering were super intriguing and fresh. 
Sadly, there was more focus on action scenes in the second half of the book, and although I didn't mind all the science dumping in the beginning, it got very annoying the farther the story progressed. 
It was still a fun and fast-paced reading experience (especially with the help of the audiobook), I just kind of stopped caring along the way and yes, I see the irony in this. XD 
So I liked it for what it was, but there was so much more potential to make this an outstanding story. It lacked emotion and the surprises factor other Blake Crouch books have. It was all very predictable. The epilogue finally delivered what I wished for, just too little too late. I would have loved to see a more nuanced discussion about the topics of the epilogue in the second half of the book alongside the action. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Pandemic/Epidemic, Confinement, Death of parent, Genocide, Grief, Torture, Violence, Car accident, and Kidnapping

cady_sass's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

4.25

So insanely interesting. Am I a sci fi bitch now? I might be. My only critique is that the ending felt rushed, not to mention super depressing but that’s the nature of dystopian fiction I suppose. I could not put this down and it will definitely be living rent free in my brain for a while 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Dementia, Death of parent, Gun violence, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Death, Murder, Violence, Abandonment, Car accident, Chronic illness, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, and Medical trauma

nick13's review against another edition

dark reflective tense medium-paced

• 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

With ease, I can say that this book is the best I've read so far this year. I really liked how deep the author went into the science behind everything and

how they really set up a good moral dilemma that made it, in the end, even feel like the main character wasn't the truest form of a hero, yet, if I were in their shoes, I can see myself doing the same thing.

That alone is worth a good review, but then there is the intriguing worldbuilding on top of it that makes this book impossible for me to not give a five-star review. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Car accident, Death of parent, Kidnapping, Toxic relationship, and Death

Moderate: Body horror

Minor: Torture

strawberrypinch's review against another edition

adventurous dark hopeful inspiring reflective sad fast-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Suicide, Violence, Confinement, Death, Death of parent, Grief, Medical content, Kidnapping, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Drug use, and Gun violence

Minor: Drug abuse, Alcohol, Dementia, Terminal illness, Blood, Cannibalism, Gore, Car accident, Torture, and Suicide

loveallthis's review

adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Grief, Body horror, Suicide, Blood, and Car accident

kathleencoughlin's review

medium-paced

• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

1.5

I set this book aside for a while and tbh I wish I had left it unfinished. I had a lot of issues with the book that I won't bother to go into. 

However,

I'm just absolutely baffled that Crouch thought, after everything that happened before and during the main plot of thr book, that the best ending would be more nonconsensual gene editing. I just don't even know where to begin with how problematic that is.

If you want to read something about upgraded humans, save yourself some time by skipping this and reading Ted Chiang's short story "Understand." 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Medical trauma, Confinement, and Gun violence

Moderate: Murder, Blood, and Car accident

Minor: Death of parent

avidreaderandgeekgirl's review

adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

• 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? It's complicated

5.0

 I loved this book. The ending was perfect! You don't get a perfect ending with everything told to you. It doesn't end happily ever after, but that's what I love about Blake Crouch's books! I would have liked a bit more about his wife, Ava, Nadine, and Kara, but other than that perfect! It was a wild ride. I laughed, I cried, and I gasped in surprise. It was just a great book! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Toxic friendship, Blood, Death, Gun violence, Confinement, and Cursing

Moderate: Alcohol, Suicide, Car accident, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Drug use, Fire/Fire injury, Torture, and Terminal illness

jkpiowa's review

adventurous dark mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Murder, and Violence

Moderate: Car accident, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Suicide