Reviews tagging 'Blood'

The Ferryman by Justin Cronin

8 reviews

lizzie24601's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

Another stellar novel from Justin Cronin. His rich, illustrative prose is much stronger when he writes in third person - so the long-winded chapters from Proctor's perspective are a bit boring at first, but the narrative picks up once the plot speeds up.

As always, Cronin constructs interesting and nuanced characters and builds a complex and mysterious world that you can get lost in. I didn't see the plot twist coming, but once it did, I couldn't believe I hadn't seen it earlier. I wish we had gotten a bit more from Elise's perspective, and more about Proctor's

real world backstory prior to the Oranios launch

, but I'm happy with the pacing and where the book ends up. Strong recommendation for anyone who enjoyed The Passage trilogy or fans of light, realistic sci fi.

My one remaining question:

If only the Prosperans went to the Nursery, were the colonists in the Annex just... reincarnated? Because presumably they were living more than one lifetime as well. How did that work?

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Death of parent, Grief, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual content, and Suicide attempt

Minor: Pregnancy, Blood, Car accident, Alcohol, Fire/Fire injury, and Gun violence

rsouders's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, War, Car accident, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: War, Death of parent, Blood, Death, and Police brutality

Minor: Murder, Pregnancy, Infidelity, Confinement, Fire/Fire injury, Vomit, and Gun violence

Cerebral without trying to hard. Fantastic details tying together throughout the entire book.

lisamariek's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional medium-paced

3.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Blood and Child death

analenegrace's review against another edition

adventurous challenging hopeful slow-paced

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

3.25

This was my first Justin Cronin, but I am interested in reading his others after reading this. This felt very mid-tier to me and most definitely written by a man, the portrayal of women in this book was probably its biggest disappointment. 

Otherwise, this was a passable dystopian sci-fi with an interesting twist and ending that I wasn't expecting. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Mental illness, Blood, Violence, and Child death

amhud1030's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional mysterious sad tense 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? It's complicated

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical content, Police brutality, Self harm, Blood, Child death, Cursing, Gun violence, Sexual content, Violence, Death of parent, Grief, Suicide, Death, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Car accident, Dementia, Alcohol, Confinement, Classism, and Infidelity

aileron's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious reflective medium-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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, Gore, Child death, Classism, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, and Suicide

Moderate: Death of parent and Infidelity

Minor: Fire/Fire injury, Gun violence, Suicidal thoughts, and Car accident

goldenbeebookshop's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

4.0

This is my first Cronin book, and having not read his popular Passage series, I wasn't sure what to expect.
What I liked:
The dystopian setting had enough unique aspects and mystery around it to stay engaged with the world and I was eager to tease out what exactly was going on.
There are good resolutions and payoffs for a lot of the plot choices that made me look back at some of the book in a new, better, light. Cronin captures the intense emotions of being a parent in a way that hit deep, often with the mostly delightfully simple turns of phrase.
What was neutral:
There are a fair amount of action sequences- primarily car chases and riots. This is content that I tend to skip over in books no matter the genre. This is a me thing and not a book thing, so zero judgment there.
There is a very formal tone to the writing. At first I thought it was intended to conjure a kind of "bygone era" style that one might associate with the 60s in this dystopian world, but I think it might be more about the author's voice. Hard to say, it was neither good nor bad, just a noticeably different style from the more contemporary/colloquial tone of other novels.
I'm wary of dreams as tools in storytelling because generally it's a piece of non reality that while potentially informing us of the character's state of mind, usually doesn't add anything to the story. In this case the dreams are important to the plot so I'm trying to make my peace with all the dream content.
A lot of boat content. I have never wanted to know what anything on a sailboat is called and I have retained none of the names or details of the various boats in this novel. If you love sailing, you may be thrilled by all the nautical details.
What didn't work for me:
The book feels a little long in some places. Admittedly, I like a sharp and lean book, so this is veering into personal preference territory, but I do think that paring down the story just a little bit more might have helped with pacing. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism, Slavery, Gaslighting, Death, and Mental illness

Moderate: Car accident, Child death, Gaslighting, Gun violence, Police brutality, Blood, Death of parent, and Self harm

booksthatburn's review against another edition

From the first page, THE FERRYMAN felt like mint chocolate cotton candy: a novel flavor combination which initially is a heady experience but eventually feels bland in its sameness. It’s startling at first, because it’s a flavor which does not normally belong in cotton candy and seems at first like a cool idea, but ultimately contributes little to the conversation of what makes a tasty dessert. I do not, generally speaking, want the book equivalent of cotton candy, but the writing is gripping and the world was interesting at first. 

Ultimately I stopped reading when the bland misogyny became too frustrating. In a world where every marriage is a contract with a time limit (the parties can renew), it makes no sense for the main character to have a level of jealousy and possessiveness that in the real world is cultivated through an assumption of monogamy as a default. I read an ARC and so will refrain from using quotes in case the final version changes substantially, but this was a setup I've read before executed in a way that was frustrating to read.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism

Moderate: Cursing, Toxic relationship, Blood, Violence, Medical content, Medical trauma, Self harm, Suicide, Death, Death of parent, and Grief

Minor: Sexual content, Dementia, Alcohol, Drug use, Excrement, Infidelity, and Infertility