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aileron's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
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? Yes
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Blood, and Gore
Moderate: Bullying, Violence, and Death
Minor: Injury/Injury detail
linblythe_pub22's review
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
reflective
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
4.75
Content Warnings
Moderate: Violence and Blood
Minor: Confinement and Gun violence
skeuomorphism's review
adventurous
emotional
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? Yes
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder, Slavery, Blood, and Injury/Injury detail
enchantressreads's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Violence, and Blood
sarafinley's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
reflective
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
5.0
Very rarely do I love the second book in a series more than the first. I enjoyed Finna, but Defekt really surprised me. This managed to be simultaneously heavy and hilarious; mixing commentary on capitalism and self worth with rogue toilets who occasionally go viral for dancing on the internet. An excellent time.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Blood, and Violence
novella42's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
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? Yes
4.5
This book was bizarre and beautiful, and I genuinely don't know why I pushed myself through extreme discomfort (body horror is a trigger for my C-PTSD) to finish it. Except that I loved Derek. And Delilah and Darkness. I needed to know what happened to them, but more than that, I think I seriously needed to know how they solved the disaster of being trapped in a haunted capitalist hellscape. Mood, right?
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.
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.
Content Warnings
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!)tangleroot_eli's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
funny
hopeful
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Well-written and with an even stronger anti-corporate message than Finna. More body horror than I prefer, but that's my deal, not the book's.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror and Bullying
Moderate: Murder, Blood, and Violence
vasha'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? It's complicated
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Vomit, and Violence
Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Body horror, and Bullying
Minor: Islamophobia, Murder, and Sexual content
royalraspberry's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
tense
medium-paced
- 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
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death, Blood, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Confinement
danielles_reads's review against another edition
funny
reflective
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
3.0
I definitely liked Finna more. This book is so weird in a way that was not very enjoyable for me. Furniture coming alive, really? I like the concept of LitenVärld creating products in different universes to save money but the execution of it just seemed so silly and dumb. And it felt like a cheap ripoff of Convenience Store Woman (Derek is exactly like Keiko, but without the interesting backstory or social life).
It didn’t help that the audiobook narrator was not very good. His voices for different characters were not very consistent, and that combined with all the clones’ names starting with “D” had me confused for a large portion of the book. He also read the memos in a completely nonsensical way. In the last 10% I listened and read along at the same time and there were at least 5 instances where what he was saying didn’t match the book. And that’s just in the last 25 minutes of the audiobook… like come on, dude.
Also there was one scene that described blood/body horror in excruciating detail that had me reeling 😖
It had some funny moments, and of course the overall anti-capitalist vibe is great (lol @ Reagan). I liked the budding relationships between Derek and the clones and I liked Derek learning more about himself and coming to accept himself as he is. But overall I much preferred the multiverse adventure story of Finna, where it felt like Cipri’s imagination truly ran wild.
It didn’t help that the audiobook narrator was not very good. His voices for different characters were not very consistent, and that combined with all the clones’ names starting with “D” had me confused for a large portion of the book. He also read the memos in a completely nonsensical way. In the last 10% I listened and read along at the same time and there were at least 5 instances where what he was saying didn’t match the book. And that’s just in the last 25 minutes of the audiobook… like come on, dude.
Also there was one scene that described blood/body horror in excruciating detail that had me reeling 😖
It had some funny moments, and of course the overall anti-capitalist vibe is great (lol @ Reagan). I liked the budding relationships between Derek and the clones and I liked Derek learning more about himself and coming to accept himself as he is. But overall I much preferred the multiverse adventure story of Finna, where it felt like Cipri’s imagination truly ran wild.
“I feel like that’s the real LitenVärld ethos, right there. Anytime there’s a problem, throw the least convenient people overboard.”
Derek felt his urge to defend the company rise, sputter out, and disintegrate. That’s what happened when you were the person elected to drown.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood and Body horror