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mordshunger's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
While it felt like it wanted to say things about religious trauma and trust and betrayal, I fail to see how it did say anything meaningful about them. It feels dangerous to read for people who struggle with upholding boundaries to people who have abused them. I don't even have the right words for a proper CW so I'll just say the lack of consent is disgusting and the immediate forgiveness of the same sickening. It really tampered my enjoyment of the story. The apologetics of an ever understanding, self-neglecting and self-hating POV is just too much.
In general, there is a very inflationary use of love in this book. I understand what this is going for and that is why I think it is dangerous. People who love deeply will see themselves in this and it's not great. This is bad. If love is just a verb for one person and a weapon and exploit for everyone else, it becomes meaningless to even call it such. Fuck that forever.
Chronological impressions:
Welcome to the religious trauma struggle bus. The vibes are chef's kiss but also vague and referential at all times, it feels like I got oil in one eye forever.
This book y'all, it's really just a pile of the worst people you know. My number one pick for most trustworthy guy in this is the not-so-informed-consent AI splinter and I'm sure they will try to kill everyone.
Sinai, Jin und Veyadi consistently bring the energy of an EMT driver/student in exam crunch after three consecutive shifts.
I hate All of Them, but I hate Imaru most. If this bitch doesn't die I'm not reading the next book. Can't believe there is immediate forgiveness, understanding and love after the ultimate betrayal.
I've read some reviews of some very confused people who get lost in who betrayed who first and which plots overlap and let me just say it doesn't matter who betrays who when they all do. They all do! They're the worst!!! And they keep asking more of him. Veyadi, et Tu?
Graphic: Physical abuse, Torture, Murder, Grief, Death, Violence, Toxic relationship, Gore, War, Toxic friendship, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Body horror, Confinement, Abandonment, and Blood
Do not read this if consent is important to you to be able to enjoy a book. Just skip it.rei_reads's review
- 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
On the other hand, I was often confused and I’m not sure I could summarize exactly what happened, even by the end of the book. Between pretty complex world building and all the AI stuff, shifting narrative voices, and characters who constantly don’t want to admit things to themselves or say things out loud, plus an element of mystery or at least the unknown, it’s sometimes hard to grasp exactly what’s going on. I think it’s a credit to the author that I enjoyed it as much as I did in spite of being confused. I wish it was all clearer though.
Graphic: Death, Violence, Suicidal thoughts, and Body horror
Moderate: Alcohol, Gore, War, and Toxic friendship
Minor: Sexual content
booksthatburn's review against another edition
- 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? It's complicated
5.0
I love stories with worldbuilding that is immersive, not waiting for the reader to catch up, but just letting the story unfold; only explaining things that someone in the world would need stated, more explicitly. THE ARCHIVE UNDYING provides explanations late, intertwined with regret.
As I’ve said before and will doubtless say again, I specifically love books which include mental transformations of nominally the same character, such that they understand some thing very differently than they did before, or have an entirely new state of mind. My particular favorite is when they are so different as to be a discrete person by the time the changes are done. THE ARCHIVE UNDYING is full of this, first with a narrator whose identity takes a long time to be known, and then with of variety of technologically assisted mental connections and transformative clashes of mind, such that even if everyone nominally remains afterward as entities, they are changed by those meetings.
Reading this is an audiobook definitely helped to let the story roll over me, enjoying the flow of the words even if I didn’t always understand why something was happening. A few pretty significant changes happen towards the end which reframe and contextualize the actions of some secondary characters. It’s the kind of book where I know I will reread it, if only to experience the shift in perspective that comes with knowing characters, backstories, and ulterior motives from the start.
Moderate: Cursing, Body horror, Gore, Cannibalism, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Panic attacks/disorders, Blood, Torture, Murder, and Death
Minor: Sexual content and Vomit
venti's review
- 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
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 😭😭😭
Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, and Genocide
Moderate: Gun violence and Toxic friendship
devynreadsnovels's review
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
Moderate: Murder, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Blood, Body horror, Cursing, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Death, and Gore
Minor: Cannibalism, Torture, Kidnapping, War, Drug use, Alcohol, Self harm, Gore, and Toxic friendship