Reviews tagging 'Medical trauma'

Gearbreakers by Zoe Hana Mikuta

15 reviews

building_a_bookdom's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny 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: Death of parent, Death, Torture, War, Violence, Grief, Fire/Fire injury, and Blood

Moderate: Child death, Body horror, Murder, Alcohol, Confinement, Self harm, Panic attacks/disorders, Grief, Medical trauma, Injury/Injury detail, Gore, Genocide, and Fire/Fire injury

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.

kaylamoran's review against another edition

adventurous dark 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

3.75

Was it well written?  No.  Was the world building so full of holes there were times I genuinely didn't know what was happening?  Yes.  Did I eat up all the sapphic yearning and immediately want to read book 2?  Yes

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood and Torture

Moderate: Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Body horror, Grief, and Medical trauma

Minor: Genocide and Confinement

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

salemander's review

5.0

this shit was so STRESSFUL oh my god. please i just want them to have their happy little found family why is everybody having a bad time !!!!!!!
to be serious for a moment this book has some incredible dialogue around war and how children play such a huge role in it and goddamn is it fucking devastating. just heartbreaking and all too real. 
now please give them the chance to be fucking happy in the next book PLEASE

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Child death, Death, Genocide, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, Torture, Body horror, Grief, Violence, and War

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

booksthatburn's review against another edition

Can tell it’s not for me, stopping now.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Cursing, Body horror, Medical trauma, Death, and Blood

Minor: Sexual content and Self harm

_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