Reviews tagging 'Violence'

Recursion by Blake Crouch

61 reviews

schnaucl's review against another edition

adventurous dark inspiring reflective 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

I enjoyed it. 

It has an interesting twist on time travel and the love story is lovely, even if it's also tragic.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Car accident, Violence, War, Death, Dementia, Alcohol, Child death, Fire/Fire injury, Gun violence, Murder, Grief, Alcoholism, and Medical content

kathywoo10's review against another edition

adventurous dark sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Car accident, Child death, Dementia, Death, Gun violence, and Death of parent

Moderate: Violence, Pandemic/Epidemic, Murder, Suicide attempt, Drug abuse, Suicide, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, and Confinement

dunecello's review against another edition

challenging emotional fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

Thrilling and thought-provoking exploration into the philosophies surrounding what memory is, what time is, and who we are if not for our memory.
I did my dissertation in neuroscience on the cellular basis of learning, and was impressed by Crouch's convincing job of describing experiments that would be on the cutting edge of this field. As for the rest of the science in this novel, suspending disbelief is required, but is certainly worth it. Keeping track of what was going on was a good brain exercise and it paid off in spades as the story became more and more complex and the stakes became incredibly high. When things got crazy, I found myself flying through the pages in excitement.
This novel reads like an action movie, and I'd love to see it on the big screen. Anyone who enjoyed PKD's We Can Remember It for You Wholesale (Total Recall) and/or Ted Chiang's Story of Your Life (Arrival) should surely check this one out.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Death, Death of parent, and Child death

Moderate: Gun violence, Dementia, Violence, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Drug abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, and Suicide attempt

kristinj1's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective relaxing sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

I feel like this book just chased the idea even further than upgrade did, by the same author. They had a idea, and they kept impacting it and impacting it and impacting it. They went through truly every possible thing that could happen as a result of this new information. And it was terrifying. I feel like I was pretty connected to the main character, barry. Especially because he was a parent and had experienced the death of his child. And a divorce. The book was terrifying and fascinating. And also maybe totally expected, given that I feel like this technology would absolutely be used by governments to get ahead.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Grief, Cursing, Suicide, Gun violence, Violence, Child death, Dementia, War, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Blood, and Car accident

Minor: Dementia

chloebaboey's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Self harm, War, Gun violence, Murder, Car accident, Blood, Suicide, Violence, Child death, Grief, Fire/Fire injury, and Death

Minor: Drug use

norcalchris's review against another edition

dark reflective tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.5

Really classic sci-fi. I hate sci-fi. 

Tried to expand my reading horizons since it was my book club’s pick of the month. 

Some interesting meditations on memory and humanity especially at the beginning. 

Absurdly lengthy and depressing ending. I need to go watch a comedy after finishing this. 

I’m sure Tom Cruise will star in the film version. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Death, Suicide, and Violence

isacarvalho91's review against another edition

fast-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Mass/school shootings, Gun violence, Death, War, Dementia, Suicide, Pandemic/Epidemic, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide attempt

gondorgirl's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Confinement, Gore, Grief, Violence, Genocide, Blood, Chronic illness, Injury/Injury detail, Alcoholism, Body horror, Child death, Gun violence, War, Death, Mass/school shootings, Murder, Alcohol, Dementia, Fire/Fire injury, and Death of parent

sambolin's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

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

4.75

Recursion is such an interesting premise- when armed with technology that challenges and changes the very fabric of society, how do we as humans react and how far are we willing to go to prevent the mistakes we’ve made. While this technology might never be a reality, it’s a great allegory of our current landscape and how we need to balance advancement and prevention. The characters are engaging and keep you turning pages. It is heavy book- with both themes and the writing. Some passages took a couple rereads to take in the full effect. Overall a super interesting book that challenges the reader. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death

Moderate: Violence, War, Grief, Terminal illness, Injury/Injury detail, Dementia, Car accident, Child death, Suicide, Pandemic/Epidemic, Murder, and Gun violence

jj_tj's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Violence, Death, Death of parent, and Child death

Minor: Fire/Fire injury, War, and Car accident