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julieyael's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.75
Lots of things are subject to interpretation and I found the style a bit complicated.
Also it’s a bit of a dystopian world, which I am not a fan of, and the global tone was pretty sad in my opinion.
The themes are interesting and there is some reflection to have, but I was not convinced by the point of the whole story.
I found the plot pretty weak too.
Not a bad book, but I would’t read it again nor recommend it.
Graphic: Grief
Moderate: Bullying, Child death, Death, and Classism
Minor: Mental illness
amsswim's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.75
Moderate: Bullying, Child death, Chronic illness, Death, and Grief
Minor: Cursing and Terminal illness
martasshelf's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
I think I liked it overall but found it boring and weird for the first two thirds of the book.
Almost at the end of the book I looked up some reviews and realized this was just the author's style. Some descriptions given by our narrator - Klara - had felt weird for me and I even wondered if my english, not being my first language, was failing me... No, I was just reading a robot's kind of mind.
If one enjoys slow paced books this will be a great choice. And the themes are pretty universal.
Moderate: Terminal illness
Minor: Child death and Grief
ank3's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
Moderate: Ableism, Child death, Terminal illness, and Grief
_mininbooks_'s review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
Graphic: Child death, Chronic illness, and Terminal illness
Moderate: Grief
kaitoro_walker13's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
Graphic: Child death, Chronic illness, and Terminal illness
Moderate: Grief
prettiestwhistles's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.25
Graphic: Ableism, Chronic illness, and Grief
Moderate: Bullying, Child death, Death, Terminal illness, Abandonment, and Classism
Minor: Pedophilia
heather_harrison's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
* Nailed the linguistics of a robot
* Complex relationships with family
* Exploration of idea of being replaced by machines (this happens to Klara herself)
* Ambiguous ending - was Josie healed by the sun from Klara’s sacrifice or did she die only to be seamlessly replaced by the portrait?
Frustrations
* Slow plot
* POV gives extremely limited view of the world, leaves plenty of unanswered questions about the world and Josie
* introduced Sal but no explanation of her death
* Klara is painfully optimistic, unable to empathise with her
Like a duller, lonelier, non-homicidal version of M3GAN.
Graphic: Death
Moderate: Child death, Grief, and Abandonment
andrewhatesham's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
I put off reading this for a long time because I thought it was gonna be heavier on the sci-fi (I hadn't read much sci-fi at all until recently), but it ended up being the opposite of that. If you're a sci-fi newbie, you don't need to feel daunted by this, because things are put into simple terms and there aren't that many sci-fi elements anyway, most of it feels like a real life setting. Conversely, if you're a literary newbie, this may not be for you.
It's also a bit less emotional than I expected. But I'm sure some people would view it as much more emotional than I did, it's subjective. It just didn't hit a nerve that way for me.
In terms of this as the audiobook version, I think listening to it was a good choice since it's slow paced. I could just increase the speed when it felt a little too slow (I typically read faster paced books, just my preference). I liked the narrator for the most part. The only thing that was slightly grating, were the parts with the British accented characters because the accents did not sound realistic.
Minor: Bullying, Child death, Cursing, Sexual content, Terminal illness, and Grief
veerau's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
Klara is lovely, always attentive and with a never ending amount of hope in her. I can't say much about other characters honestly, Josie is 14 and acts like it, Rick is too but he doesn't, both mothers need a therapist and that's pretty much all about them.
Overall, loved the atmosphere and the robotic POV more than expected, but was not a fan of how some things get casually mentioned once and that's it
That ending got me teary eyed, probably because it wasn't fully how I thought it was gonna end but still, first book in a while to do that so 4 stars are warranted 👍
Graphic: Chronic illness and Grief
Minor: Child death