Reviews tagging 'Vomit'

Gearbreakers by Zoe Hana Mikuta

20 reviews

thewillowwood's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional 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

4.0

This book was pretty good! It was charming, and the love story and world were interesting. I do think it suffered a bit from dialogue/speeches that erred on the side of being overdramatic and cheesy, but for the first published book of a writer it’s really nothing aggregate. Good fast paced sci fi action read; it’s “gay pacific rim” as my roommate described it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Murder, Blood, Death, Death of parent, Grief, War, Torture, and Violence

Moderate: Gore, Gun violence, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, and Panic attacks/disorders

Minor: Child death, Vomit, and Physical abuse

spaghettii's review

adventurous dark emotional 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

5.0

Cyberpunk lesbians, need I say more?

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child death, Confinement, Torture, Toxic relationship, Vomit, Blood, Bullying, Grief, Suicidal thoughts, Fire/Fire injury, Violence, Body horror, Body shaming, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, War, Death, Death of parent, and Genocide

emerentina's review

adventurous dark inspiring sad tense medium-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Torture, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, War, Blood, Death, Physical abuse, Murder, and Grief

Moderate: Gun violence, Vomit, Alcohol, Genocide, Medical trauma, Kidnapping, Child death, Body horror, Colonisation, Confinement, Death of parent, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Sexual content and Misogyny

talonsontypewriters's review against another edition

adventurous tense medium-paced

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

1.5

I was really looking forward to this since I'm a huge mecha fan and have heard great things, but perhaps my expectations were too high. The worldbuilding is... virtually nonexistent; the side characters are all forgettable and interchangeable, and Eris and Sona aren't much better; their relationship is poorly developed and unconvincing; the pacing is very disjointed, rushing through the opening only to screech to a complete halt for the majority of the book and then seem to remember there's a main driving plot only in the last like 5 chapters; the writing is simultaneously painfully purple and dry as hell, managing to say in two paragraphs what could be achieved in a sentence while also frequently not really saying anything at all. The heavy helping of classic YA dystopia melodrama also made me roll my eyes so hard and so often I thought I was going to give myself a headache.

The ideas behind Gearbreakers aren't bad at all, but their execution left a lot to be desired for me -- I kind of wish I had just rewatched Evangelion or a Gundam series instead. I'll hesitantly keep an eye on Mikuta's future releases, though, as the flaws may even themselves out with age and experience.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Body horror, Child abuse, Classism, Colonisation, Death, Child death, Confinement, Kidnapping, Murder, Gore, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, and Torture

Moderate: Genocide, Medical content, Xenophobia, Bullying, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Medical trauma, Panic attacks/disorders, and Grief

Minor: Alcohol, Sexual content, and Vomit

Eye trauma/gore.

emily_mh's review against another edition

adventurous dark 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

4.5

Man was this novel fast-paced! It truly left the ground running and took the story in a direction I wasn’t entirely expecting. I was so hooked very time I picked the book up. I thought the mecha fight scenes were written really well (they were incredible to imagine), although I will say the fight-rest-repeat pattern of the latter part became a touch repetitive. I thought Mikuta could have teased out campus politics to provide some variety. But I really enjoyed the plot overall. 

The characters were definitely the strength of this book. The two POV characters, Eris and Sona, were distinct from the off which was a great sign. It only got better when the narrative drew out their complexities. Both are filled with anger and the purpose of toppling Godolia. Eris has been trained to be a leader and feels so much responsibility and love for her crew. Her emotions feel like a vulnerability for her and so she grows thorns even though she just wants to be soft. I felt particularly compelled by Sona, though, being a person straddling the lines between human and bot and desperately trying to land as the former. She is terrified of herself and what she’s done, so her deepest wish is to be loved regardless. I found the scenes where she grapples with herself so heartfelt. I just got so attached to both MCs in a way that doesn’t often happen to me. I think the raw writing style really showcased the emotional state of the characters, giving the reader something real to resonate with.

Because Eris and Sona were such dynamic characters, the romance they shared was utterly believable. While there is instant attraction (at least on Sona’s part), it wasn’t instalove. Instead, Mikuta makes sure to include a range of scenes where the MCs explore and deepen their connection. The tension she crafted was spot-on. In my opinion, this was a good execution of the enemies-to-lovers trope. 

In terms of world-building, I understood why the mechas were created and how they shaped the world as it was in this book. However, there was bigger-picture context missing in terms of how far in the future we were and what the global situation was. I also wanted more description of how religious colonisation impacted culture in Godolia and beyond. I was interested to know if religious and political conformity meant cultural conformity as well, as there was some evidence to the contrary in this book. I wanted to know what clothes, food, languages, etc. existed and why. So in this way the world-building was not fully realised and ended up being a bit plain.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Colonisation, Physical abuse, Death, and Violence

Moderate: Cursing, Torture, Confinement, Vomit, Injury/Injury detail, Child death, Gun violence, War, Fire/Fire injury, Death of parent, Grief, and Blood

Minor: Self harm, Sexual content, Medical content, Child abuse, Physical abuse, Ableism, Animal death, and Alcohol

Moderate: loss of a loved one Minor: gambling

thecourtofreading's review

adventurous dark emotional tense medium-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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Violence, Death, Blood, and Torture

Moderate: Body horror

Minor: Vomit

megj23's review

adventurous fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood

Moderate: War and Death

Minor: Vomit

jessi21's review

adventurous dark emotional funny 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Child death, and War

Moderate: Vomit and Grief

Minor: Death of parent

shaipanda's review

adventurous dark emotional tense 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

5.0

I absolutely fucking loved this book - I wasn’t sure if it was quite going to be a 5 star read for me but given how much I crieddd at the end I have to give it 5 stars 
Since this book is almost exactly 400 pages it was perfect for me to read 100 pages at a time - I originally read the first 100 back in November over thanksgiving break and then just didn’t get back to it for a bit cause of business and fantasy slump etc 
But I’m so so so glad I finally did and I desperately need the next/final book in the duology now 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Death, Blood, and War

Moderate: Torture, Body horror, and Death of parent

Minor: Vomit

mandkips's review

adventurous emotional tense slow-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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Violence, and Death

Moderate: Torture

Minor: Death of parent and Vomit