Reviews tagging 'Pandemic/Epidemic'

Cress by Marissa Meyer

11 reviews

lawbooks600's review against another edition

adventurous medium-paced

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

4.0

Representation: Asian character
Score: Seven out of ten.

Well. It looks like I finally read Cress. After picking up (and surprisingly enjoying) Cinder and Scarlet by Marissa Meyer, I wanted to give her another shot to see if the The Lunar Chronicles continued to impress me. I glanced at the blurb, making it seem intriguing and a book that would suit my tastes. When I closed the final page, it was enjoyable.

It starts with the titular character, Cress, living in a satellite orbiting Earth in the opening pages. She lives there for a while before eventually she has to visit Earth to meet characters from the previous two instalments, Cinder and Scarlet. The opening pages and the middle are slow as usual, but it's typical from the author to do this, and I expected a slow-burn start anyways based on other books I've read from her. The action builds toward the last 200 pages as Cress is told to stop Cinder and Scarlet from forcing Queen Levana to abdicate, but fortunately, the plan does not go as intended. I like most aspects about Cress, but I can't believe I have to wait one more book until the characters put the plan into action. At least the characters were likable. The conclusion finishes Cress on a cliffhanger, with some bonus reading material added afterward, including a sneak peak of Winter.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pandemic/Epidemic, War, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, and Death

Full trigger warnings: Pandemic, military violence and war themes, mass death in the past, physical assault and injury, blood depiction

eeyores_flowers's review against another edition

adventurous dark fast-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent

Moderate: Medical trauma and Abandonment

Minor: Police brutality, Pandemic/Epidemic, War, and Kidnapping

tania_mybookishsecret's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional 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? Yes

4.75

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Torture, Emotional abuse, Pandemic/Epidemic, Kidnapping, and Confinement

Minor: War, Grief, and Murder

momloves2read's review

adventurous dark tense fast-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? No

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Torture, and Blood

Moderate: Confinement and Pandemic/Epidemic

Minor: Trafficking

taque's review against another edition

fast-paced

3.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Terminal illness

Minor: Death of parent, Torture, Suicide, Pandemic/Epidemic, Kidnapping, Hate crime, Medical content, Slavery, Racism, Mental illness, Genocide, Xenophobia, Child death, Death, War, Abandonment, Mass/school shootings, and Blood

novelnerd_11's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, War, Death of parent, Pandemic/Epidemic, and Death

Minor: Suicide

msradiosilence's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny hopeful mysterious sad tense 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

3.5

TLDR; 3.5 rating, age gaps, and once again no setting descirptions.
Content warnings at the bottom. :)

Well, I can’t always have nice things. Once again, Meyer seems allergic to describing her settings in any detail, and once again it’s set in a culture that she, as a white woman, has no claim on. As such, and additionally with my other gripe, this is the beginning of the Lunar Chronicles downhill plummet.

Much like in Laini Taylor’s Strange the Dreamer and Muse of Nightmares, I hate age gaps like the one in Cress. Cress is 16. She’s a child. And Thorne is a grown ass man. It’s especially icky because he pushes her away not because she’s a child but because he doesn’t think he’s good enough for her. So, gross. Hate it. Also, their miscommunication drives me nuts. I hate miscommunication plots.

I also don’t like that

Dr. Erland is reveled as Cress’ dad in this book and it’s literally mentioned ONCE in the next one.

I feel like that’s information that is relevant, not only to Cress but to her emotional stability in the next installment? But nope.

There’s no mourning, she’s fine after finding her dad and then watching him die.

Rating: 3.5
Would I recommend? Kind of, especially if you enjoy age gaps, found family and literally found family, and sci-fi fairytale retellings.

Content warnings: Death, Mental illness, Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Blood, Genocide, Gun violence, Kidnapping, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, Pandemic/Epidemic, Ableism, Car accident, Child abuse, Child death, Fire/Fire injury, Murder, Dementia, Gore, Grief, Medical trauma, Violence, War, Medical content, and Torture

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Genocide, Gore, Murder, Pandemic/Epidemic, War, Grief, Death of parent, Dementia, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Mental illness, Torture, Violence, Child death, Ableism, Child abuse, Death, Medical content, Medical trauma, Alcohol, Car accident, Adult/minor relationship, and Blood

kenna13's review

adventurous emotional funny inspiring lighthearted tense medium-paced

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

5.0

My favorite so far! I love love love Cinder and Kai in this book, not to mention Cress and Thorne.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Kidnapping, Murder, Terminal illness, Confinement, Pandemic/Epidemic, Abandonment, Bullying, Injury/Injury detail, and Death of parent

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury and War

Minor: Grief

strawberrytheauthor's review against another edition

adventurous funny hopeful fast-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? No

5.0

This series gets better the more I read. I really enjoy the skeleton of fairytales but each book is really very different. I think this has been my favorite book so far and I’m excited to see what Winter will be. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Mass/school shootings, Torture, Violence, Animal cruelty, Blood, Genocide, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Pandemic/Epidemic, Suicide, War, Grief, Body horror, Bullying, Death, and Confinement

Minor: Deportation

colorwriter's review

adventurous hopeful tense 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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death and Kidnapping

Minor: Medical content and Pandemic/Epidemic