Reviews

Elysium: Or, the World After by Jennifer Marie Brissett

cunningba's review against another edition

3.0

Kind of disappointing. The gimmick is obvious from the computer error messages and the first green dot. Kind of hard to get invested in the characters when they’re all just placeholders.

wolfbridge's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix

4.0

A fascinating, imaginative novel that experiments with form. It’s also a quick read given it’s short length relative to many SF novels. 

jigsaw's review against another edition

adventurous challenging reflective medium-paced

4.0

geekwayne's review against another edition

3.0

'Elysium' by Jennifer Marie Brissett was the August pick for my online book club.

It's hard to describe the book without delving in to spoiler territory. It's also hard to describe the book because it's got an odd concept that keeps shifting the protagonist. This book is rightfully compared with Philip K. Dick and the movie The Matrix.

Initially, I didn't like the book. Early on there are intimate things happening between characters that we've barely been introduced to, so it was hard to get a foothold. The story did level out for me and I did end up enjoying it. The author has a nice style of descriptive prose, which considering the length of this book shows some discipline in concise writing. If you read it, hang in there. It gets better.

a_o's review against another edition

adventurous dark reflective medium-paced

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

3.5

sarabz's review against another edition

4.0

Beautifully written and engaging story. The threads connecting the story across jumps are drawn well enough to maintain a whole story, but each iteration of the central characters also feels whole. The story that slowly emerges is an interesting take on the end of the world, who gets to tell the stories, and the challenges of remembering and remembrance.

jlwilson's review against another edition

dark sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

canttouchthis's review against another edition

challenging emotional mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.5

xamon's review against another edition

5.0

My entire soul hurts. Bruh,,, she ain’t have to kill me like this. This book ‬is fucking beautiful, and heartbreaking and fuuuuuuuck, I’m in tears. I love it. Highly recommend. Just be braced. Fuck.

hank's review against another edition

4.0

This is going to be a spoiler filled review, I can't think of any other way to describe it. I liked it, weird while reading, less weird at the ending.

Spoiler

Sad, dying A.I. whose damaged AI friend is also dead or dying. This is one of those books where I wish I had read the blurb on the back first, the book would have made much more sense and added to my enjoyment. The computer language interludes were mostly useless and could have been used better but this is a first novel.

Take home message was that I enjoyed it and would read more from the author