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venti's review
challenging
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
confusing
i had really high hopes for this and the first chapter was banger, but i really struggled to tell what the fuck was going on at some points lol. there were little gotcha moments that felt like they were supposed to be important to the progression of the plot that fell flat because i had no context for the relevance/impact of the moment — because i had no idea what was going on lmao!!
some of my favourite media is intentionally confusing/surrealist (children of the sea, evangelion,) but this fell flat in the sense that it didn’t have a decent basis for the surrealism to occur. evangelion (which is actually one of the flagship comparisons for this book in marketing i’ve seen along nier automata) works because we have the first twenty odd episodes, all with at least some coherency. sure, there are surrealist moments — but at the end of the day the characters are still human and the narrative exists in a realm we can understand, and with the codifying trope that is the mecha genre. you would think the archive undying follows suit in this case — considering there are mechs — but honestly i couldn’t tell you what a single mech or ENGINE looked like after reading this book. maybe i’m just stupid, but this just didn’t work for me! it’s really a shame too, because i can tell that candon really felt passionate for this world and it’s just such a shame i couldn’t get it 😭😭😭
i had really high hopes for this and the first chapter was banger, but i really struggled to tell what the fuck was going on at some points lol. there were little gotcha moments that felt like they were supposed to be important to the progression of the plot that fell flat because i had no context for the relevance/impact of the moment — because i had no idea what was going on lmao!!
some of my favourite media is intentionally confusing/surrealist (children of the sea, evangelion,) but this fell flat in the sense that it didn’t have a decent basis for the surrealism to occur. evangelion (which is actually one of the flagship comparisons for this book in marketing i’ve seen along nier automata) works because we have the first twenty odd episodes, all with at least some coherency. sure, there are surrealist moments — but at the end of the day the characters are still human and the narrative exists in a realm we can understand, and with the codifying trope that is the mecha genre. you would think the archive undying follows suit in this case — considering there are mechs — but honestly i couldn’t tell you what a single mech or ENGINE looked like after reading this book. maybe i’m just stupid, but this just didn’t work for me! it’s really a shame too, because i can tell that candon really felt passionate for this world and it’s just such a shame i couldn’t get it 😭😭😭
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, and Genocide
Moderate: Gun violence and Toxic friendship
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