Reviews tagging 'Adult/minor relationship'

Some Desperate Glory by Emily Tesh

28 reviews

elee2013's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful sad tense medium-paced

• 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

This was fantastic and Kyr goes on the most dramatic character journey of all time 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Suicide, Sexual assault, and Child abuse

Moderate: Transphobia, Homophobia, and Adult/minor relationship

Phobia towards genderqueer/nongendered people

lottiegasp's review

adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring medium-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

4.0

In this world a sophisticated AI system called the Wisdom can see into every possible future and decide which is the best outcome to pursue. The Wisdom decided to destroy Earth, killing 14 billion humans. A couple thousand humans continue living on the ship Gaea, where they are trained and controlled to be Earth's children, ready to enact their revenge on the Wisdom and the majo alien species who created and rely on the Wisdom. Kyr is an annoying, perfectionist, evangelical Gaean who cares more about protecting humankind than any of her relationships or anything else in her life. But when she realises her future isn't to be what she always dreamed of, she decides to go rogue, sending her on a journey to save Gaeans and then the universe. It's an enjoyable romp. The first half was kind of generic and Kyr was insufferable, but it really takes off from Act 2

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Genocide, and War

srolniak's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional tense medium-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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, War, Xenophobia, Adult/minor relationship, Suicide, and Sexism

brekaboujie's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

This book was SO GOOD. Another point to add to my mental list of "why do I bother reading sci fi by men, women do it so much better". This is a great combination of flawed and interesting characters, extreme high stakes, wonderful twists and turns, great pacing, and a really clear idea from the author of what they wanted to get out of this story. The whole premise of Gaea and our introduction to a terribly biased narrator was brilliant. I had such a sinking feeling through the beginning of the book and going on that journey of discovery with the main character was GREAT, it was so tense and emotional and interesting. 

It was also super immersive - I was completely sucked into this world and every scene and section felt necessary and useful to the plot (seems a low bar but honestly such a relief after my recent reads which were not like that at all), and I loved how everything kept falling into place perfectly set up from the previous scenes and knowledge I'd been given. 

Also the end !!!!!!!!!! Heck yeah. Solid ending. Love a good ending. 

Final point - it's quite an intense book, and the version I read had content warnings at the beginning which was cool. I will say that everything was done really sensitively and well - very little explicit showing of the nasty content warnings, much more themed and just general knowledge of things Just Being Like That. It did remind me a bit of The Handmaid's Tale thematically, but imagine that's a side plot and it's not quite as bad and also they're in space and have guns. So nothing like it really. But regardless, there was a point towards the end of this bookwhere in my mind I literally went WOMEN YES WOMEN THE CONNECTION OF UNIVERSAL SUFFERING !!!!! So enjoy that moment if you read this. Great book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Xenophobia, Violence, War, and Suicide

Moderate: Homophobia, Rape, and Genocide

Minor: Child abuse, Adult/minor relationship, Pregnancy, Abortion, Racism, Emotional abuse, and Misogyny

A lot of heavy themes but all dealt with sensitively! There is one scene where somone

shoots themselves in the head in front of the main character. This is sudden, and there is a description after of the image of the death. However, they move on quite quickly in the book and (bigger spoiler here on the actual plot) that person doesn't stay dead.

The rape tag is not explicit, people just talk about how that probably was what happened to someone in the past, and it goes hand in hand with the pregnancy tag, which the author calls "forced pregnancy" in their content warnings. This again isn't explicit, it just is accepted as normal in their society and only questioned fully towards the middle and end.

stardust_heidi's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-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

5.0

This book is SO GOOD. It took me a while to read, only because I’m reading a gazillion other things at the same time. But I think reading this in smaller bites was the best way to do it. The themes in this book are so relevant to the current times and political shit show. 

Kyr isn’t necessarily the most likable character, a fact she is confronted with many times throughout the book, but I found her character arc super compelling. I think the roller coaster of an arc she experiences is very relatable to someone stepping outside of this regimented, propaganda-filled upbringing; to find that the universe is nothing like she’d been taught it is…it’s a hard pill to swallow. To see her xenophobia morph into acknowledgment of personhood; to see the injustices endured by her fellow women, to learn what it is to love and care about individuals outside her circle — honestly, I found it such a fantastic journey.

It’s not pretty. It’s painful, ugly, and dark along the way to destroying this patriarchal shitshow. But I think the author did a great job and inserting these slivers of optimism and drive in order to make the world better for others. 

I was engaged the whole book. It took me on some twists I wasn’t expecting, though I admit I’m usually easy to please lol. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gaslighting, Homophobia, Misogyny, Suicide, Xenophobia, Death, War, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, and Racism

Minor: Rape and Adult/minor relationship

bex_knighthunterbooks's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

A sci-fi adventure, potentially with good YA/Adult crossover appeal or as an entry to sci-fi, but it is quite dark (check triggers, but the assault side it is generally threats or off-screen). Set on a space station, a small group of humans have formed a militaristic dystopian society after Earth was destroyed by aliens.

The main character is completely indoctrinated, and so is pretty infuriating to follow, but this does give big scope for character development as she gets her eyes opened. The other main character (arguably - though there is only one POV) is also a douche with questionable morals, and then the other side characters are more one dimensional, which means I found it hard to get invested from a character perspective in this book.

I think the plot was quite clever, with a few twists or reveals that I really didn't see coming and I thought added an interesting element to the story. The setting does have a few interesting elements (e.g. the agoge/wisdom, the planet crysalthamus - excuse the spelling, I listened to this on audio), but the ones that intrigued me weren't very deeply explored (the impact of the wisdom on society would be huge and fascinating!), and instead most of the focus was on the space station, which felt like your standard space fascism with elements of handmaid's tale.

There are lots of themes, which I did find interesting: bodily autonomy, fascism, cycles of revenge driving war, are humans inherently dangerous, impact of propaganda and indoctrination, being queer in a heteronormative world - but I don't think these were any of them explored in much depth, and were dealt with in quite a heavy-handed way. On this aspect, I think this fits better with YA where I wouldn't expect as much nuance. I'd say this book is more focussed on the plot and action, over the world or themes, which will work well for some, but didn't especially for me.

A fun fast-paced romp, with a lot of ambitious interesting elements I'd have liked to see explored more.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Violence, Suicide, Child abuse, and Genocide

Moderate: Sexual assault, Adult/minor relationship, Homophobia, and Incest

Minor: Rape and Transphobia

milliemudd's review

adventurous emotional tense medium-paced

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Violence, Xenophobia, Gaslighting, Death, Gun violence, Suicide, War, Child abuse, and Genocide

Moderate: Rape, Sexism, Bullying, Racism, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Mental illness, Ableism, Adult/minor relationship, Murder, and Outing

Minor: Abortion and Misogyny

toopunkrockforshul's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Really loved this, it kept me on my toes the whole way through and the characters were so interesting and compelling. The audiobook was amazing too, the narrator did a great job with all of the voices. Wonderful. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Murder, Grief, Death, Xenophobia, Cursing, Violence, Sexual assault, Injury/Injury detail, Gaslighting, Kidnapping, Suicide, and War

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Genocide, Rape, and Pregnancy

Minor: Police brutality, Racism, Incest, Abortion, and Outing

lady_sharp's review

adventurous dark reflective fast-paced

• 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

This was fun as hell. Mind the trigger warnings, but this is what science fiction should be, using the premise to dig at the flaws of society.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Homophobia, Suicide, Genocide, Xenophobia, Violence, Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, War, Transphobia, and Misogyny

Moderate: Ableism, Racism, Injury/Injury detail, Acephobia/Arophobia, War, Physical abuse, Bullying, Pedophilia, and Rape

Minor: Abandonment and Body horror

Contains an on-page suicide, women being forced into the roles of breeding stock, in-depth look at cults, attempted grooming of a minor and a successful past attempt that resulted in the birth of a child, genocide, a forced kiss, and an attempted rape

imchelsi's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional tense

• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

3.0

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Content Warnings

Minor: Adult/minor relationship and Sexual assault