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kellypower_17's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Blood, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Kidnapping, Torture, Violence, and War
Moderate: Animal death, Drug use, Fire/Fire injury, Murder, and Vomit
Minor: Child abuse and Panic attacks/disorders
nicoleoc1901's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Blood, Death, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, and Violence
meaghanward's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
This is not a genre I’m familiar with, which may be part of the reason for my confusion. Still … Is this story dystopian? Sci-fi thriller? Both. Kind of. Either way, it’s not for the faint of heart, featuring extreme graphic violence that left me a little disgusted and horrified. Coupled with the violence is a predictable, almost tedious, plot of constant running and extreme danger and villains who are evil for the sake of being evil (and who also happen to be indestructible and more than a little crazy).
It took a little while for me to adapt to the writing style, which reminded me a lot of Tom Sawyer with its misspelled words and slang, but at the same time I really appreciated the authenticity it gave to the character’s voice, and I feel it was a strong point of the story.
Overall, the message of the story is clear but not always well executed. The lessons to not always believe what you hear and that people can be brainwashed into hating came across (at least to me) as jarring and brushed off as no big deal. Also, Todd is supposed to be innocent — he’s counting down the days until he officially becomes a man, after all — but really he’s a character with conflicted thoughts about himself and his worldview, which sometimes leads him to do horrible things.
Still, I liked the world, the premise, and the possibility this story has to offer. Enough to read the next book? I still have not decided.
Graphic: Gore and Violence
Moderate: Death
Frequent, sometimes strong language used.asthxte'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? Yes
4.5
Graphic: Animal death, Murder, and Violence
Moderate: Animal cruelty and Death
Minor: Death of parent
witchchickl28's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.25
Moderate: Animal death, Animal cruelty, Death, Death of parent, and Violence
reasalic'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? No
4.25
Moderate: Violence, Death, and Death of parent
chaptersonapage's review against another edition
- 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
Things work differently in Todd’s world. After there was something called the noise germ that was released on the population, two big things happened. One, everyone began to hear the thoughts of everyone else. Two, the female population was wiped out. This is the life Todd Hewitt knows and has grown up with since he was a baby. That’s going to be turned upside down though when he discovers something that shouldn’t be possible. He finds a girl, and she has no noise.
The premise of this story is interesting. It’s different with the way everyone can read everyone else’s mind, but it seems like they can still figure out ways to hide things from each other if they train themselves enough. It was also cool to see the animal’s thoughts in the world too. Initially I wasn’t sure if I liked this or not, but the way it was written worked out well. The more intelligent animals had more to say than others, and every type of animal seemed to have its own unique way of speaking. Manchee especially wormed his way into my heart.
The writing itself took some time for me to get used to, and while I understand it’s use, I don’t think I ever really warmed up to it at all. Even though a lot of the things were written with phonetic spellings, it was hard for me to read the words when they popped up. Small things like ‘yer’ for ‘your’ were negligible and I could read on fine, but the bigger words always stopped me and pulled me out of the moment as my brain caught up with what the book was saying. I think it was a good stylistic choice though and it wasn’t overdone. There was just enough to represent the world without it being too much.
All the characters were interesting to read about as well. My favorite was Manchee, Todd’s dog. I am a fierce animal lover, and he’s such a good pup. He’s loyal to Todd and, even though Todd didn’t want a dog at first, they become closer as the book goes on. You can feel their connection and I found myself wanting to pet and hug Manchee! Since I obviously can’t with a fictional dog, I forced my own into big hugs!!
Todd is interesting too, though his perspective would annoy me from time to time. He’s pretty naive in the beginning, and it takes a lot of the book for him to open up to things. This was made especially frustrating when he would be told something and we would be pulled into his head rather than hearing the conversation play out. We would hear his thoughts of doubt and disbelief over it, but we wouldn’t hear what he was doubting or disbelieving. We’re left with his denial and have to keep reading and reading to see him finally start to accept the truth. Still, he had a lot of good qualities. He was strong willed and determined. He goes through a lot and his perseverance was really admirable.
Viola is the last of the main three characters, and she was an interesting one. She’s silent. No thoughts are floating about in the noise from her, and she both confuses and intrigues Todd. Her story is a mystery, but it slowly unfolds throughout the story and we learn more about her as she opens up to Todd. I was really interested in her background, and I also felt myself feeling the frustration Todd felt at not knowing her thoughts. I think reading from her perspective would have been really neat since it would give insight on what it’s like for her living in the noise.
The best part of the novel was the way they grew together over the span of the book and how they go from distrusting to relying on one another. It’s definitely a book about survival, and it’s a long and hard fought one. It leaves off on a cliffhanger that I was pretty unhappy with, but thankfully the rest of the books are already out!
I’m glad I finally got around to reading this book. There were a few things that had me choose to rate this as a 4 instead of a 5, but it was a toss up for a while. I’m really interested to see how the movie version of the story plays out. I really hope with all the time they put into it, it does the story justice!
Graphic: Animal death, Blood, Death, Murder, and Violence
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Death of parent, Grief, and Xenophobia
Minor: Sexism
ggmariereads's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Moderate: Blood, Death, Death of parent, Gore, Gun violence, Murder, Violence, and Vomit
Minor: Abandonment, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Forced institutionalization, Gun violence, Grief, and Medical content
leileikarma1'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? No
4.5
Moderate: Animal death, Blood, Colonisation, Cursing, Death of parent, Death, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Kidnapping, and Murder
Minor: Alcoholism, Excrement, Fire/Fire injury, Misogyny, and Vomit
entanglednovels'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
3.75
Graphic: Blood, Violence, Vomit, Murder, Gun violence, and Gore
Moderate: Animal death, Misogyny, Death of parent, Death, and Cursing