Reviews tagging 'Violence'

Upgrade by Blake Crouch

48 reviews

astridhawk's review against another edition

adventurous fast-paced

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

3.5

The plot was fast-paced and action-packed, but a lot of the science in the sci fi was cringe or exaggerated to the point it wasn’t believable. A lot of the action felt contrived - characters quickly turned to extreme violence (literally within seconds) and moved from family/long-term friends to trying to kill each other in a blink of an eye. I usually like spec sci fi, but this one was a little too stuck on the first year of Covid as its inspiration.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death of parent, Blood, Gun violence, and Violence

julianrubisch's review against another edition

adventurous tense fast-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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Gun violence and Violence

cursed_sapphire's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful informative reflective tense fast-paced

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

4.5

This book read like an action move- but a great one. The explorations of genetic science and its relationships to humanity, intelligence, and emotion were really compelling. I saw another reviewer recommend this book if you like the movie Gattaca, and I think it's a great comparison, although this book had more action scenes mixed in. 
My only real complaint is that the main character's arc fell a bit flat at the end- mild spoiler, but

he's still doing the same things he was in the beginning of the story, but on a greater scale.

I will definitely check out Blake Crouch's other books based on this one. This was the fastest I've finished a book in a while, and was a very rewarding experience. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Confinement, Blood, Violence, Death, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, and Death of parent

Minor: Child death, Torture, and Medical content

atamano's review against another edition

dark sad tense medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Ableism, Death, Forced institutionalization, Injury/Injury detail, Death of parent, Gun violence, Murder, and Violence

Minor: Dementia and Suicide

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

katyamwade's review against another edition

Boring, too many gene code references. Also violence too much

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Death, Blood, Violence, and Injury/Injury detail

rstegema's review against another edition

adventurous emotional 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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence

Moderate: Violence and Death of parent

This book was great! It was very well researched and made it scarily easy to believe the things that happened in the story could happen in reality.

mynameisrebecca's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional informative mysterious reflective 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Blood, War, and Violence

Moderate: Death of parent

littlehibou7's review against another edition

hopeful reflective tense medium-paced

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

3.5

The first "meh" reaction for a Crouch novel from me. Maybe it's the sign of the times, or I'm truly becoming jaded, but "average white male briefly becomes even more insufferable before making the right-ish choice" just doesn't have the same appeal it used to. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail and Violence

Moderate: Blood and Kidnapping

Minor: Child death

sfbookgirl's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense slow-paced

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

2.0

This book was so unmemorable I truly do not even remember what happened despite reading it only a few months ago. I don’t recall much about what I didn’t like about the novel except for the fact that it dragged and felt unoriginal. Crouch set a really high bar with his other two novels so I was bound to be disappointed at some point. 

 

Upgrade’s plot revolves around something involving genes and a man named Logan who discovers his genome has been hacked. And there is something to do with his mother being involved in a gene editing scheme? All and all, it felt like the plot went nowhere and I was just pushing myself to finish it. I recommend reading Dark Matter and Recursion though - those are the books I have placed into the hands of a lot of library patrons time and time again.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Violence, and Death

Moderate: Suicide

Minor: Death of parent and Child death