Scan barcode
aileron's review against another edition
- 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
3.0
Graphic: Body horror, Blood, and Gore
Moderate: Bullying, Violence, and Death
Minor: Injury/Injury detail
novella42's review against another edition
- 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
4.5
I'm recovering from extreme professional burnout right now, and Derek's unwavering devotion to his job brought up some Feelings™ for me. (I literally coined some marketing phrases involving the "family" of a nonprofit where I once worked. It was toxic AF and I have realized that was one way I coped with inhuman demands, by mentally adjusting myself to survive there.)
On that leveI, and also as a neurodivergent person with a disability, I resonated strongly with Derek's aching loneliness and desperation to connect with any other humans, even those who treated him like a tool or an outsider. I deeply appreciated the way the author handles the concept of defects, being discordant, being too much, too sensitive, too different.
This book hits differently than FINNA, I think because Derek's growth starts from his desperate loyalty and love for something that hurts him. To me it reads like Steven Universe in a Stranger Things world.
Also, speaking as someone with annoyingly sensitive mirror neurons or whatever it is that makes me experience other people's physical pain when I witness it, huge props to Cipri for the way they depicted that phenomenon in the book. One related scene to that, I absolutely had to put the book down and go get a drink. Dear God. I hope for your sake, Cipri, that this was an homage to Octavia Butler's Parable of the Sower, and not something you struggle with too.
I probably won't be able to read this book again but I am glad I read it and will recommend it to anyone who can handle Stranger Things. Beautiful and weird and wonderful.
Graphic: Confinement, Gaslighting, Emotional abuse, Medical content, Vomit, Blood, Body horror, Bullying, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, and Murder
Moderate: Classism, Cursing, Grief, Ableism, and Toxic relationship
Minor: Islamophobia, Sexual content, Slavery, Transphobia, Alcohol, Animal death, Animal cruelty, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis
Some more detailed spoiler-level content warnings for anyone who needs them. These are not comprehensive, because I think I have already mentally blocked some stuff. (Yay, fun brain tricks!)royalraspberry's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Moderate: Death, Blood, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Confinement
willowmae's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
Moderate: Blood and Death
annoyedhumanoid's review against another edition
- 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
4.5
Graphic: Gun violence
Moderate: Vomit, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Violence, Cursing, Grief, Emotional abuse, and Bullying
Minor: Gore, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Murder, Animal death, Animal cruelty, Alcohol, Confinement, Classism, and Death
leahrosereads's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Enjoyment: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Plot: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Characters: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Pacing: ⭐⭐⭐⭐.5
Writing: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
What I loved
This is my favorite type of sci-fi, techy but with enough whimsy and weirdness to keep me completely intrigued even when the science might be going over my head. Just like with the first book, I absolutely loved the characters. All of them. Nino Cipri really knows how to get a reader totally invested really early on and keep us hoping for the best outcome until the very end.
Graphic: Violence, Body horror, Bullying, and Death
pastelkerstin's review
- Strong character development? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Violence, Gun violence, Murder, Death, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Body horror, Confinement, Bullying, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Vomit, and Medical content
Moderate: Transphobia
Minor: Alcohol, Islamophobia, and Sexual content
ezraaa's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Moderate: Blood, Cursing, Emotional abuse, and Death
booksthatburn's review against another edition
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Defekt follows an employee trying to keep doing his best as his world cracks and gets stranger despite his efforts to fit in and follow the manual. I love the chapter openers from the employee manual. The overly cheery corporate-speak helps to establish the tone of the book, especially when the MC is very familiar with this document (or with others like it). It’s informing the world and the characters’ inner lives at the same time, and it’s very funny on top of all that. The MC is in the perfect middle zone between technically being an unreliable narrator and also never actually lying to the reader (and not trying to either). The book is so observant and the MC is so clueless, and it was so wonderful to view this strange hyper-corporate world through the eyes of someone who loves it because it's the only thing they know. The secondary characters were great counterpoints to the MC's perspective while also feeling like full people separate from his conception of them, it's great world-building (especially for such a short story).
This is a sequel to FINNA (and contains a minor spoiler for it), but DEFEKT can completely stand alone. I'll do my normal sequel check but some of the answers might feel wonky because the author has said FINNA was intended to be stand-alone (and therefore wasn't trying to leave hanging threads for a sequel to grab on to). This doesn't wrap up anything left hanging from the previous book, but it does temporally situate the books in relation to each other very succinctly and I appreciated that touch. The whole story starts in this book and wasn't present in the first one, and it is its own story in a connected universe. I don't think it left anything in particular for additional sequels to pick up, but I would be very interested in more stories based in this location, especially given how DEFEKT ends. While I don't think anything was left open on purpose, the world is open enough to give room for more stories told here while being specific enough to be interesting. The MC is different from the first book and his voice feels distinct from the previous book's MC. Finally, this would absolutely make sense if you hadn't read the first one, but, again, it does open with a minor spoiler from FINNA so I do recommend reading FINNA first if you're planning on eventually having read both books.
Graphic: Blood
Moderate: Bullying, Violence, and Death
Minor: Transphobia
CW for bullying, transphobia, blood, violence, death.