Reviews tagging 'Death of parent'

Upgrade by Blake Crouch

41 reviews

kathleencoughlin's review against another edition

medium-paced

• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

1.5

I set this book aside for a while and tbh I wish I had left it unfinished. I had a lot of issues with the book that I won't bother to go into. 

However,

I'm just absolutely baffled that Crouch thought, after everything that happened before and during the main plot of thr book, that the best ending would be more nonconsensual gene editing. I just don't even know where to begin with how problematic that is.

If you want to read something about upgraded humans, save yourself some time by skipping this and reading Ted Chiang's short story "Understand." 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Medical trauma, Confinement, and Gun violence

Moderate: Murder, Blood, and Car accident

Minor: Death of parent

mynameisrebecca's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional informative mysterious reflective 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Blood, War, and Violence

Moderate: Death of parent

littlewitch_reads's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Gun violence

Minor: Death of parent, Death, and Suicide

sfbookgirl's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense slow-paced

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

2.0

This book was so unmemorable I truly do not even remember what happened despite reading it only a few months ago. I don’t recall much about what I didn’t like about the novel except for the fact that it dragged and felt unoriginal. Crouch set a really high bar with his other two novels so I was bound to be disappointed at some point. 

 

Upgrade’s plot revolves around something involving genes and a man named Logan who discovers his genome has been hacked. And there is something to do with his mother being involved in a gene editing scheme? All and all, it felt like the plot went nowhere and I was just pushing myself to finish it. I recommend reading Dark Matter and Recursion though - those are the books I have placed into the hands of a lot of library patrons time and time again.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Violence, and Death

Moderate: Suicide

Minor: Death of parent and Child death

sneakysnam's review against another edition

adventurous challenging tense medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death of parent, Gun violence, Blood, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, and Torture

Minor: Murder

hannahollihan's review against another edition

adventurous fast-paced

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent and Gun violence

kirstym25's review against another edition

adventurous 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Violence, and Death

Moderate: Suicide and Death of parent

avidreaderandgeekgirl's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective tense 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? It's complicated

5.0

 I loved this book. The ending was perfect! You don't get a perfect ending with everything told to you. It doesn't end happily ever after, but that's what I love about Blake Crouch's books! I would have liked a bit more about his wife, Ava, Nadine, and Kara, but other than that perfect! It was a wild ride. I laughed, I cried, and I gasped in surprise. It was just a great book! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Toxic friendship, Blood, Death, Gun violence, Confinement, and Cursing

Moderate: Alcohol, Suicide, Car accident, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Drug use, Fire/Fire injury, Torture, and Terminal illness

katrinarose's review against another edition

adventurous hopeful mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

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

3.5

Dark Matter and Recursion were both better than this one, but I still enjoyed it. Fast paced, interesting sci fi concepts, balanced with some philosophizing about humanity, but just a bit lacking in character development and the truly mind bending stuff of his other books.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Confinement, Gun violence, Kidnapping, Medical content, Death of parent, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, and Murder

tanishah's review against another edition

adventurous challenging informative mysterious fast-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Gun violence, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Death, and Gore

Minor: Child death, Death of parent, and Suicide