Reviews tagging 'Kidnapping'

Gearbreakers by Zoe Hana Mikuta

15 reviews

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

kananineko's review

adventurous dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective 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

3.5

I enjoyed this book!! However, it also made me realize that YA scifi/fantasy isn't really my thing anymore... In short, read this if you like character-driven stories focused on relationships (romantic and otherwise), and don't mind a typical YA writing style and plot. 

So, I loved the characters in this, especially the two main characters. I felt really connected to them, felt they were distinct, easily rooted for them, and loved their relationship and all of its developments. I also loved pretty much all of the side characters even though they weren't very fleshed out (I thought that was okay because this book really focused on the two MCs). The found family dynamic in this was amazing as well. 

The atmosphere of this book was really cool and I enjoyed the idea of the Windups (mechas) and Gearbreakers. But I will say that the worldbuilding was... kinda bad tbh. I didn't really understand the whole thing with the Windups being gods but also not really, and there was a lot of worldbuilding infodumping early on in the book that didn't really make logical sense... 

And this leads me to my point about this book making me realize that maybe I need to stop reading YA scifi/fantasy. The iffy worldbuilding and teenagers-overthrowing-an-evil-government plot strongly reminded me of all those YA dystopias that were really popular back in the 2010s. Don't get me wrong, not all of those were bad, and I think this is leagues better than a lot of them (especially relationship/character-wise) but I'm starting to realize that I'm finally tired of those types of books. 

And the writing style was the worst offender in terms of YA typicality. The author is definitely talented and I'm sure a lot of people will love her writing, but to me it just felt so... overdone. Overdramatic. Dare I say... "I'm 14 and this is deep"? Even when I empathized/agreed with things the characters were feeling or thinking, I couldn't stand the way the author phrased them. And there were so many one-line paragraphs! 

So. 

Many. 

Why? Just why?

And this is coming from someone who loves flowery, metaphor-heavy writing (ex. Laini Taylor). It wasn't done well here in my opinion. It wasn't unreadable, but did make the story a bit clunky at times, especially during fast-paced action scenes. I just think that the writing style and the plot and world are so deeply YA, which is totally okay! Just not something I am super into anymore. 

You're probably wondering why, after that rant, I'm giving it 4/3.5 stars, but it's because, despite my complaints, I had a lot of fun reading this! I really enjoyed the characters, their relationships, and the found family dynamic. I found it relatively easy to read and fun. I'm also hoping that the worldbuilding will get a little more solid in the sequel, which I will be reading because I want to see the characters get a happy ending (hopefully). 

However, no matter how enjoyable I found this book to be, I don't think I want to read any more fun but shallow YA dystopian/scifi/fantasy stories anymore. This very well may be my last one. Actually, that will probably be the sequel to this book, but oh, well. Point still stands. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Torture, Violence, Death, Injury/Injury detail, and Blood

Moderate: Child death, Grief, Self harm, Fire/Fire injury, Death of parent, Classism, Gore, Gun violence, Toxic relationship, War, Body horror, and Suicidal thoughts

Minor: Alcohol, Cursing, and Kidnapping

ella7211's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful sad tense medium-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

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, War, Kidnapping, Violence, Murder, Gore, Death of parent, and Death

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.

audreyreadz's review

adventurous dark funny sad 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Torture, War, Blood, Medical trauma, Murder, and Religious bigotry

Moderate: Grief, Panic attacks/disorders, and Classism

recycled_personalities's review

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective sad 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? It's complicated

4.75

HOLY SHIT! Ok it’s like a little slow at the beginning BUT I SWEAR JUST KEEP GOING IT GETS SO GOOD. I’m immediately buying the sequel.

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Medical content, Mental illness, Toxic relationship, Panic attacks/disorders, Alcohol, Abandonment, Bullying, Ableism, Addiction, Alcoholism, Confinement, Kidnapping, Mass/school shootings, and Physical abuse

_slowfastreader_'s review

adventurous dark hopeful relaxing tense medium-paced

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

4.0

I did enjoy Gearbreakers for the most part, but I like to focus on the bad and stating my opinions often comes off as roasting so here we go.
Also, I thought Milo could go die in a hole from page one.  :)

0.25 stars is being docked off for the amount of times characters were described as 'growling'. A Dark and Hollow Star got a pass in my mind because they were fae and it was stated that their throats were different and it was more of a threatening I'm-gonna-kill-you (I don't remember much actually) sound than a tone of voice or grunt of frustration, so yeah. But as far as I know, everyone's human (well, apart from the Pilots obviously, but let's ignore that). I just hate it when characters 'growl' or 'purr', we aren't cats.

Also, this book could've been way shorter. Like, I swear every paragraph was just Eris or Sona (why did Sona never use contractions, it really made everything feel choppy) complaining  about how bad Godolia was and how ✨angry✨ they were and how they'd do anything. Put that energy into developing the world and the side characters.

The crew! What a missed opportunity. Found family is by far my favourite trope, but I have standards and tend to only think of something as found family if it is truly god-tier. This was not it. I was disappointed. The only character I was interested in apart from Eris and Sona was Xander, and possibly Voxter but he wasn't really a member of the crew (Voxter has so much potential), but everything still felt so shallow and wasted.

Jenny was so annoying and I found her interactions with Sona so uncomfortable.

Juniper was an empty shell, I felt nothing whatsoever for Theo, Nova kind of felt like a cliche comic relief that wasn't even funny with nothing to her, and Milo was an insufferable and whiny straight boy (he probably would've been the love interest if the book wasn't gay and I'm so happy he wasn't).

 #JusticeForXander 

Xander was done so dirty. Justice for Xander. We didn't see his body, so I hope he's still alive. I still don't know why he didn't speak much, but way to kill off your only possibly semi-speaking or selectively mute character for shock value. And I didn't feel sad, because I didn't know much about him. I just felt frustrated at the author. But he was probably one of the least annoying characters. HE HAD SO MUCH POTENTIAL.
And the fact that he wasn't completely mute was seen as almost a relief? SOME PEOPLE CAN'T SPEAK WITH THEIR MOUTHS AND THAT'S OKAY AND YES YOU CAN BE SEMI SPEAKING BUT IT FELT LIKE THE STORY WAS SAYING 'OH, DON'T WORRY, HE'S NOT MUTE IT'S FINE' AND I'M LIKE I DON'T CARE BUT SO WHAT IF HE IS THOUGH I HAVE A FEELING HE WOULD'VE BEEN TREATED AS A PROP OTHERWISE AND I'M LIKE AAAAAAAA???? sorry. I'm annoyed. And probably overly sensitive. (Legendborn spoilers)

Also the characters' reactions reminded me of Whitty's death in Legendborn because it was supposed to be so sad but I was like 'I barely know you, you're just a name that pops up sometimes'.

I did like the prose and metaphors and poeticism and stuff but I couldn't tell the difference between Eris and Sona, but I also know it's really, really hard to differentiate first person perspectives.

The dynamic and romance between them was pretty good, imagine a kind of cyberpunk rebel dystopian thing, but Eris is Vi from Arcane and Sona is Caitlyn. 10/10.

Also this is definitely a case of the characters' lack of autism making them kind of unrelatable, how do they tell how someone is feeling and read expressions that well? Tell me your secrets please.

But the fight scenes were good, despite the fact that I still can't make my mind up on the morally grey decisions by the characters, and I kind of skim-read the last few chapters lol. I will get the next book, though, and the cover is amazing.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Medical content, Medical trauma, Gore, Gun violence, and Blood

Moderate: Slavery, Alcoholism, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Ableism and Infidelity

relin's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful medium-paced

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Medical trauma, Medical content, Gun violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Body horror, Grief, Child abuse, Gore, War, Cursing, and Bullying

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Self harm, Gaslighting, Fire/Fire injury, and Emotional abuse

Minor: Vomit

foreverinastory's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional tense fast-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

I really enjoyed this one!

Rep: Asian bisexual female MC, Asian lesbian female MC with an eye implant, Asian genius female side character, queer normative world.

CWs: Blood, body horror, child death, death, fire/fire injury, gore, grief, gun violence, injury/injury detail, kidnapping, medical content and unconsented medical experimentation, murder, torture, violence, war. Moderate: Car accident, colonisation, confinement, cursing, death of parent, emotional abuse, genocide, medical trauma, mental illness (anxiety and PTSD), police brutality, physical abuse, self-harm, toxic relationship, xenophobia. Minor: Panic attacks, vomit. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Gun violence, Grief, Child death, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, War, Blood, Body horror, Medical content, Murder, Death, Kidnapping, Torture, and Violence

Moderate: Medical trauma, Police brutality, Toxic relationship, Confinement, Car accident, Cursing, Mental illness, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Self harm, Xenophobia, Colonisation, and Genocide

Minor: Panic attacks/disorders and Vomit

cottlestonpie's review

adventurous dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

2.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, Violence, War, Xenophobia, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Torture, Suicidal thoughts, Self harm, Physical abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Gaslighting, Forced institutionalization, Emotional abuse, Dysphoria, and Gun violence

Moderate: Abandonment, Alcohol, Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Confinement, Kidnapping, Mental illness, Genocide, Gore, Death of parent, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Sexual content, Vomit, Stalking, Infidelity, and Cursing