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stormwhisper's review against another edition
3.0
I was provided an ARC by NetGalley and Gallery Books in exchange for an honest review.
Firebreak is set in a dystopian 22nd century society, where corporations fill the role of an ineffectual government and dehydration is a constant companion. The main character, Mal, is just trying to keep herself afloat by working multiple jobs and scraping together enough subscribers by streaming a video game to keep her water account full enough to stave off kidney failure. When a chance encounter in her virtual reality side hustle leads to attention from an unexpected source, Mal is thrust into the middle of a vast conspiracy, forced to question everything she thought she knew about the world she inhabits and to wonder just how far she'll go to restore justice to a broken world.
Firebreak started out strong, with a well-realized dystopic world, a compelling main character, and a well fleshed-out supporting cast. The initial revelations were well-crafted and kept the story moving, and helped to create emotional interest in the story.
Unfortunately, the book faltered in its third act. Most of the reveals seemed to be used up by that point, and the story unfolded predictably without major fireworks or surprises. While the characters were placed in danger, the conclusion seemed foregone and ultimately the the ending was without anything more than the illusion of high stakes.
I also would have loved to have heard more about 22 and 06's backstories. The book hints early on that they may become more fleshed-out characters, and indeed much of the plot revolves around the treatment of real human beings as two-dimensional avatars, but ultimately fails to deliver anything more than surface-level personalities for these two characters. Given the main thrust of the plot, this felt like a particularly severe missed opportunity.
Firebreak is set in a dystopian 22nd century society, where corporations fill the role of an ineffectual government and dehydration is a constant companion. The main character, Mal, is just trying to keep herself afloat by working multiple jobs and scraping together enough subscribers by streaming a video game to keep her water account full enough to stave off kidney failure. When a chance encounter in her virtual reality side hustle leads to attention from an unexpected source, Mal is thrust into the middle of a vast conspiracy, forced to question everything she thought she knew about the world she inhabits and to wonder just how far she'll go to restore justice to a broken world.
Firebreak started out strong, with a well-realized dystopic world, a compelling main character, and a well fleshed-out supporting cast. The initial revelations were well-crafted and kept the story moving, and helped to create emotional interest in the story.
Unfortunately, the book faltered in its third act. Most of the reveals seemed to be used up by that point, and the story unfolded predictably without major fireworks or surprises. While the characters were placed in danger, the conclusion seemed foregone and ultimately the the ending was without anything more than the illusion of high stakes.
I also would have loved to have heard more about 22 and 06's backstories. The book hints early on that they may become more fleshed-out characters, and indeed much of the plot revolves around the treatment of real human beings as two-dimensional avatars, but ultimately fails to deliver anything more than surface-level personalities for these two characters. Given the main thrust of the plot, this felt like a particularly severe missed opportunity.
wavesturneddown's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
hopeful
inspiring
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
4.5
rikerandom's review against another edition
5.0
Originally published on RikeRandom - find the full review and others there.
Content notes for Firebreak by Nicole Kornher-Stace: violence & gore, death, kidnapping, violation of bodily autonomy, abuse
Detailed content notes:
Spoiler
The city of New Liberty is wrecked by corporate civil war – there are numerous descriptions of violence, various bioweapons and their effects, lots of shots being fired, explosions exploding and overall quite a bit of blood and deathThe corporations also care little about the rights of their “free customer-citizens”, their main marketing strategy is keeping everyone dehydrated, and the above violence also includes brutal push backs against peaceful demonstrators
Kidnapping is a central aspect of the story, as is child abuse and there is on and off page torture
Representation: This book is all about the friendships! The prota is aro/ace, there’s no romance in sight but amazing platonic relationships, including a great friend-crush (that evolves into so much more); also, there are several non-binary side-characters
In a future where the US is owned by two rival companies, the government’s main interest is how many sales they can get.
What does it take to be a hero? Mal knows that she isn’t a hero. She’s just one of of the people who lost their home and family in the corporate civil war, lucky enough to be staying in a hotel room with eight other people instead of the camps. She’s holding down four jobs and just trying to get by. Her dream? Becoming one of the few gamers who can live off streaming their adventures in Best Life – a multiplayer virtual reality game based on New Liberty and its civil war. But with three other jobs and power curfew, it’s basically impossible to even make the scoreboards, let alone climb to the top.
What does it take to start a revolution? When Mal, who, despite all her struggles, is still very much an upstanding citizen, conforming to the rules of corporate government, witnesses something she can’t ignore and unearths a stunning secret, she realizes that she has to do something, anything really, to try and make things right. What follows is not just a fun and action-filled adventure but more than that a critical look at current trends and developments and what they could turn into.
[…]
Overall, Firebreak by Nicole Kornher-Stace was a great book, exactly to my taste and I thoroughly enjoyed reading it. The gaming aspects of the story felt super realistic (unlike a lot of other sci-fi video games), I liked the characters and I especially liked the harrowing near-future setting and its excellent world-building. Also, having an officially aro-ace main character and tons of awesome friendships and platonic crushes instead of weird insta-love romances is definitely a big plus in book!
ameserole's review against another edition
3.0
I have received this ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Firebreak was an interesting book to dive into. I was definitely getting Ready Player One vibes from it but also something a bit different at the same time. Now while this had some interesting and mysterious parts to it, I'll admit that I was bored for most of this book. It just felt like not a lot was happening and I was missing information during certain situations and stuff. I also really wanted more background information about certain characters too.
In it, you will meet Mallory... who was okay. To me at least. In the beginning, I was honestly really excited to get to know her. She was an orphan and lives with eight others in a hotel room. They all work numerous jobs to save enough money to keep their room and other stuff to survive. One of her jobs was streaming a popular virtual reality war game.
This game along kept this a page turner for most of this book. It just happened to get boring to read about in certain parts. I feel like I kept getting bored because I wasn't connecting to the main character, Mal, at all. I did like some of the characters but I wasn't fully invested in them at the same time. Which disappoints me because I was really excited to dive into this book.
In the end, it was a quick book to devour but things started to become a bit predictable towards the end.
Firebreak was an interesting book to dive into. I was definitely getting Ready Player One vibes from it but also something a bit different at the same time. Now while this had some interesting and mysterious parts to it, I'll admit that I was bored for most of this book. It just felt like not a lot was happening and I was missing information during certain situations and stuff. I also really wanted more background information about certain characters too.
In it, you will meet Mallory... who was okay. To me at least. In the beginning, I was honestly really excited to get to know her. She was an orphan and lives with eight others in a hotel room. They all work numerous jobs to save enough money to keep their room and other stuff to survive. One of her jobs was streaming a popular virtual reality war game.
This game along kept this a page turner for most of this book. It just happened to get boring to read about in certain parts. I feel like I kept getting bored because I wasn't connecting to the main character, Mal, at all. I did like some of the characters but I wasn't fully invested in them at the same time. Which disappoints me because I was really excited to dive into this book.
In the end, it was a quick book to devour but things started to become a bit predictable towards the end.
nicoleme1212's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
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? No
5.0
eklipse219's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
emotional
mysterious
sad
slow-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
jep6454's review against another edition
3.0
Found this one randomly on libby, was not disappointed.
If you like video games and anticapatlist war stories this is for you
If you like video games and anticapatlist war stories this is for you