Reviews tagging 'Gore'

Firebreak by Nicole Kornher-Stace

7 reviews

theintrovertsbooks's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Gore, Domestic abuse, Murder, Alcohol, Terminal illness, Slavery, Police brutality, Death of parent, Cursing, Child abuse, Blood, Abandonment, Vomit, Torture, Kidnapping, War, Violence, Suicide, Physical abuse, Medical trauma, Mass/school shootings, Child death, Body horror, Gun violence, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Fire/Fire injury, Death, and Confinement

Minor: Car accident

embee3's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny informative tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Medical trauma, Medical content, Grief, Fire/Fire injury, Cursing, Child death, Child abuse, Blood, Gore, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, War, Violence, Torture, Police brutality, Death, Death of parent, and Body horror

starccato's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Fire/Fire injury, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Body horror, Child abuse, Murder, Death, Gore, Grief, Police brutality, Violence, War, Gaslighting, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Medical content, Physical abuse, and Torture

Moderate: Death of parent, Suicidal thoughts, Alcohol, and Medical trauma

frantic_vampire's review

adventurous dark funny mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

This book was brutal. It just kept hitting with everything that it had. There was hardly anytime to catch your breath. I had to put it down for a while because it just got way to intense and a little to real after watching the news coverage of Russia invading Ukraine.

I really liked Mal as a main character. She’s a kind of antisocial gamer/streamer who cusses a lot and I love that about her. Mal was just so real, I loved her ability to simultaneously be flipping out about everything that’s happening and not giving a single fuck about fucking shit up as much as possible for the corporation. 

As brutal as this book was, it doesn’t even begin to compare to the ending. I understand why it had to happen that way, but damn if I didn’t want things to go another way. And as much as I wanted that ending to be different, it was still really satisfying and open ended enough that I could almost see what would happen next if this was a series. All in all this was a fantastic read and I’m giving this a four out of five stars.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Gore, Gun violence, Medical trauma, Panic attacks/disorders, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Mass/school shootings, Murder, Police brutality, Violence, War, Blood, Body horror, Classism, Gaslighting, and Torture

Moderate: Child death, Confinement, and Terminal illness

cuppa_curiositea's review

adventurous challenging tense medium-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? No

4.5

I enjoyed this book so much! I kept wanting to know what happened next, the pacing was solid, and the characters were interesting and witty. I specifically became interested in it bc the author is very outspoken about ace-rep, and as an ace person, I realized that I couldn't think of any books that I'd read that had 0 romance or sexual tension. I didn't realize how important reading this would be for me... and it especially made me happy that the ace/aro-ness was just... part of the character. Not a big discussion about how valid those identities are, but they were simply allowed to exist without making a big deal out of it in this world... and that was incredibly special and validating to me. 

As mentioned above, there are lots of personal reasons that I enjoyed this book, but I also think it was objectively compelling and rich--both the setting and characters! This is not a happy-go-lucky story by any means, but it handles a lot of really sobering and timely topics in a way that gave me hope rather than made me feel depressed. Overall, a very impressive read! I will be keeping an eye on this author!

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child death, Classism, Gore, Medical content, War, Child abuse, Suicide attempt, Blood, Kidnapping, and Mental illness

eegah's review against another edition

adventurous dark sad 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? Yes

4.5

This is the book I wish Ready Player One was. If you like the whole concept of VR in a dystopia, this is a much meatier look at hypercapitalism and exploitation. None of that wink-nudge nerd reference stuff here. Just world-building and plot at a breakneck pace. A much more digestible speculative fiction read in the vein of Cory Doctorow's "For the Win" I'd say.

Admittedly this isn't the perfect read. It's not a hard sci-fi book so details on tech and science are quite spotty. The prose also sometimes got in the way of my experience

(I really can't unsee "fuckedest", and how that was actually in this book)

. But it was extremely enjoyable, so much so that I couldn't put it down and read it in a day. Would recommend. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Death of parent, Gore, Gun violence, Torture, and Violence

obscurepages's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful reflective 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? No

5.0

 Okay, this is hands down one of my top reads this 2021!

CW: violence, kidnapping, torture, capitalism, police brutality

Wow wow wow! I was excited to dive into this book, primarily because of two reasons: 1) the synopsis sounds so good! and 2) there is aro/ace rep. I didn't know what else to expect here in Firebreak. But now that I've finished it, I am just so in awe of it.

The world-building is spot on and immersive, the writing style is so good, the characters (especially Mal) are compelling, the plot is thrilling (hell, several plot twists knocked me off guard), even Mal's platonic crush is such a refreshing element, and overall, it's just such an irresistibly good book!

Think Hunger Games, but with a VR war game, social media, and capitalist megacorporations that need to be dismantled. Queer SFF lovers, you need to add this to your TBRs!

If I could rate this more than 5 stars, I would do so in a heartbeat. (Also, I can't help but think this would make such a good movie?!) Full review on my blog soon!

A big thanks to Saga SFF/Gallery Books for sending an ARC my way! This, of course, did not affect my overall opinion of the book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence and Gore

Moderate: Kidnapping, Torture, and Police brutality