Reviews tagging 'Grief'

Ascension by Jacqueline Koyanagi

5 reviews

the_vegan_bookworm's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful medium-paced

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

3.75

I LOVED the premise. I loved that it was a queer, Black, polyamorous and disabled love story. The anti-capitalist critiques in the story's themes were great.

This being said, the leads had no chemistry and every character besides Alana fell flat for me. I would have loved to see more complex character development to support the romance.

I look forward to reading other books by this author, as it was a great debut.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Eating disorder, Death of parent, Ableism, Genocide, and Death

tessisreading2's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional fast-paced

• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

An interesting, gripping science fiction read with an emphasis on found family and a through-line of WLW romance... and then it all got weird. The science fiction plot ended with a deus ex machina (after getting bizarre with some weirdness that was not foreshadowed at all), and the romance was hard to root for given that

one MC was in a polyamorous relationship but initiated a romantic relationship with the other MC without telling her as much; while the other MC knew that the first might be in some sort of relationship with someone else but didn't ask questions because she was so infatuated

. That doesn't describe the start of a healthy relationship to me. 

That said, the book is so unusual in the genre/subgenre; I wish there were more like this, that paired challenging science fiction with a romantic through-line and really worked at their characterizations.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Sexual content, Chronic illness, and Eating disorder

Moderate: Death of parent and Death

Minor: Violence

switchywitchsitch's review against another edition

adventurous hopeful inspiring fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Chronic illness, Death, Eating disorder, Colonisation, Classism, Death of parent, and Grief

Moderate: Terminal illness, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Genocide, Kidnapping, and Violence

morevna's review against another edition

adventurous funny lighthearted medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Chronic illness and Death of parent

Moderate: Grief

caseythereader's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, Death of parent, Eating disorder, Genocide, Grief, Gun violence, Medical content, Medical trauma, Murder, Sexual content, Violence, and Ableism