Reviews tagging 'Gun violence'

Obsidio by Jay Kristoff, Amie Kaufman

47 reviews

lauramcc7's profile picture

lauramcc7's review

4.5
adventurous emotional tense fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: No

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adventurous emotional funny 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: Complicated

Super compelling, the format is unrivalled

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adventurous dark 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: Yes

Great conclusion to this series. Very cleverly done. Interesting format

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cait's profile picture

cait's review

4.75
adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious sad 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: Complicated

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adventurous 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: Yes

 Another book in the series, another new couple to get to know.

Unlike most series, the last book was my least favorite in this series and the 2nd book was my favorite. I know that I am in the minority on this opinion.

Asha and Rhys were a couple on Earth, but they got into a lot of trouble and were separated. Asha went to Kerenza IV and Rhys was sent to the BeiTech military. When they meet up again in the middle of this war sparks don't fly. Asha wants nothing to do with him and is just trying to help underground insurgency escape.

When Rhys sees Asha he is shooketh. He doesn't know how to feel and isn't sure why she's so upset. Then while on a regular patrol he witnesses one of the commanders shoot a little kid for being out after curfew trying to find food. Rhys cannot live with killing children for no reason. Then he finds out they eliminated anyone that wasn't essential, a little over 2,000 people. He begins to question everything he has been told.

At the same time we still have the ship Mao coming to assist. Kady & Ezra, Hannah & Nik, Ella, and of course AIDAN are on the way to save the day. Hannah is struggling with her grief, which was nice to see some reality added to the story. 

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adventurous dark tense fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

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adventurous emotional tense
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

A really satisfying conclusion to this trilogy; I liked the tension and action as usual and overall was just a lot of fun.

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adventurous dark hopeful 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

Holy shit I finished a book!!!! 

This was the dynamic finale I expected from this series, but it just didn't *hit* like the others. I think part of the problem is that the irreverent humour and liveliness with which the narrative parts are presented seem particularly incongruous in this section, mixed up as they were with detailed descriptions of straight up genocide so like. There was that. 

Also, I'm not usually one to complain about a HEA but I really really *really* hate bait and switch death scenes, and the ending of this had so, so many. It just feels like a cheap thing to do, you know? Kill your characters or don't, but don't try to capitalise on their death scenes and then in the very next chapter undermine all of the emotional power by bringing them back to life. 

I did like the themes of conscience, consciousness and humanity (a staple theme in scifi) but I'm a little disappointed too that we didn't get to see the larger ramifications of the Kerenza IV conviction. The whole series harps on about how complex and redeemable humanity is, so making the Big Bad just..... a woman..... and to suggest on top of that that she is somehow less redeemable than the soldiers who actually committed the heinous war crimes she ordered them to seems to be a little bit abortive. Where is the systemic analysis here?  The logical conclusion of the arguments the whole series makes seems to be that capitalism is the real evil - through this lens, slapping some corporate head honchos with a guilty verdict hardly seems to qualify as the justice owed to the Kerenzan refugees. 

Maybe that's a lot to ask of a series like this, but it just didn't sit right with me.

Despite all these complaints (and a lamentable dearth of queer characters, like wtf was with that??? Three central couples and all of them hetero????), I really loved this series. Kaufman and Kristoff really do The Most with form, and I think it's brilliantly executed. Found footage is an absolute FAVE of mine, conceptually speaking, but I often find the actual works hard to digest (lookin @ you, shaky cam footage), but the frame narrative drew everything together neatly here. AIDAN was a particular favourite of mine, because it added a really excellent element of exisistential dread all the way through the series (and because I am a SUCKER for a what-makes-us-human AI plotline). Most impressively, I my opinion, is that the threads of emotional anguish stayed taut throughout even the most clusterfucky action sequences and I think that's a really hard line to walk without becoming heavy-handed. I found this particularly incisive because of the way that aligned with the goals of the Illuminae Group - I'm thinking specifically of the choice, both by the authors and by Kady & co., to include the notes from Dr. Grant - seemingly irrelevant to the narrative itself but serving a particular persuasive purpose in the context of the court case. 

Anyway this is the longest review I've written in approximately 1 million years so I guess it deserves recognition for causing a stir in my cold, dead heart. 

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adventurous emotional hopeful tense 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: Yes

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delvie's profile picture

delvie's review

2.5
adventurous dark sad tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: No

This last book of the trilogy was such a let down. I checked out 9 out of 12 hours through, and I put my reading speed up to 1.4x to get through it. I'm not a betting woman, but I'd put money that they got a ghost writer for this one. It feels lifeless in comparison to it's predecessors. 

If Katie and Hannah were Blossom and Bubbles, Asha was Buttercup's understudy they grabbed last minute from the preschool next door. I don't even remember the love interest's full name if I'm being honest. 

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