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tomatocultivator's review
adventurous
dark
emotional
tense
medium-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
hannahhbic's review
4.0
This book is a lot of things. A character study, a monster story, an alternate universe hopping road trip novel. It's basically Mad Max + "Crack the Skye" by Mastodon + Need for Speed + [b:The Magician's Nephew|65605|The Magician's Nephew (Chronicles of Narnia, #6)|C.S. Lewis|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1308814770l/65605._SY75_.jpg|1031537]. If that sounds like a lot, it is! But, it's expertly melded together. I immediately fell in love with every character except for one and I think that y'all will too. The characters are the glue that holds this genre varied novel together. I also really enjoyed the prose. You'd think a SFF novel wouldn't be consistently gorgeous with lines that made me stop and think for a while. You'd be wrong! I will say that it is dense and I can see how that would turn people away. It's worth it.
Thank you to NetGalley for a preview copy of the ebook and eaudiobook in exchange for an honest review.
Thank you to NetGalley for a preview copy of the ebook and eaudiobook in exchange for an honest review.
ohclaire's review
5.0
As a gen z this book is so real, I also love the college flashbacks <3
note the trigger warnings but also more people should read this!!
note the trigger warnings but also more people should read this!!
stellarian's review
5.0
Same feeling as when I first read American Gods, but this is current, with current issues.
krystaldelusion's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
inspiring
mysterious
tense
- 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? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction
Moderate: Lesbophobia, War, Police brutality, Toxic relationship, and Homophobia
Minor: Religious bigotry, Mass/school shootings, Pandemic/Epidemic, Self harm, and Colonisation
joshaf's review
1.0
Dear Deity, what a whiny repetitive essay of self-loathing coming-of-middle-age melodrama (with fantasy sprinkles). Twice as long as it needed to be due to all the sophomoric introspective diatribes. I rarely DNF a book but I succumbed to this one’s fiction-friction at 50% after a week of toil. A week to finish a 400 page book would be an embarrassed “I was distracted”. This one was 100% “I was goddamned BORED!”
magneticcrow's review against another edition
I’m also a millennial, about a year off from Gladstone’s age, so I get that this is a very personal and heartfelt outpouring of his feelings about Black Lives Matter, flowing from having been through the Occupy protests and electing Obama and feeling like maybe we’d done things right but then nothing was fixed and things stayed dark. I get that.
But I also wish a brave editor had been willing to cut like…30% off the long internal monologues of each of the characters. There’s a lot that’s good in this book, and a lot of wonderful ideas and images, but… it’s so bogged down and repetitive that it’s hard to enjoy the ride.
But I also wish a brave editor had been willing to cut like…30% off the long internal monologues of each of the characters. There’s a lot that’s good in this book, and a lot of wonderful ideas and images, but… it’s so bogged down and repetitive that it’s hard to enjoy the ride.