Reviews with content warning for Child abuse - Prophet

Reviews tagging 'Child abuse'

Prophet by Sin Blaché, Helen Macdonald

8 reviews

teenytabris's review

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challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

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letopotato's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.75

This is a spy-thriller, a sci-fi novel and a love story at the same time. It's incredibly odd, often a little all over the place, yet very entertaining. The dynamic between the chaotic Rao and the seemingly stoic Adam is typical and nothing new, but still kept me interested. The combination of the urge to get to know those two characters and their relationship better and wanting to find out what the hell is going on with those objects being created out of nowhere was absolutely perfect. There was enough time for the characters to breathe, but also enough urgency for the plot to continue. This is the first novel in a while where I didn't dislike the main characters – which is very refreshing. "Prophet" is definitely a recommendation from me!
My only point of criticism is that there are many unanswered questions at the end as to how Prophet actually worked or where it came from. It got a little too confusing, even considering the sci-fi aspect of this novel.

In the end, it seemed to me like Prophet could do whatever was 'useful' or interesting in certain points of the story, and that this was more or less decided on a whim. The way Rao was handled at the end of the novel seemed a little disconnected from the abilities of Prophet before.

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horchata's review against another edition

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adventurous funny mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.25

By about 30% into the audiobook, I found myself looking forward to my commute because I wanted to know what was going to happen next to Adam and Rao; Adam’s childhood was morbidly intriguing to me, and I was eager to discover what was behind Rao’s self-destructive behavioral patterns. I ended up peeking at the beginning of a review to confirm the slow-burn vibes I was picking up on were actually there, and they were! But lordy, I wanted more from the book. I think for me the meat was missing right about the time when things needed to start mattering in the middle. We got to see a bunch of horrorterror manifestations of people getting caught in brain-melting, body-melding nostalgia loops, but the why of it all didn’t ever hit home for me the way I wished. I found myself wanting the authors to commit to the underbelly of whatever they were building; showing more of that chilling, ruthless intelligence and their plans to discard our characters like used tissues, or sinking into the idea of Prophet as some kind of mindless airborne nostalgia prion disease. Because it was kind of a dip of the fingers along the surface rather than a full plunge, I was checked out in the last quarter, and the ending felt (to me) rushed, for what it was.

I almost wished we’d had a longer period of doubt, or a more sinister interpretation of Rao’s return, or a longer dwelling on Adam’s grief and how it was his undoing. The untouchable, unflappable stoicism from Rao’s getting completely subsumed by Prophet was a bit of a let down! I was really hoping to see Adam get cracked open by the tragedy a little. I think if you’re going to tease at a romance that apparently remakes reality, you might as well have both people in the relationship visibly go all-in. Also seeing a review here that this was just Arthur/Eames with the serial numbers filed off actually lessens my enjoyment of the book, lmao. It did read a little like it was written by someone who’d graduated from the fanfic mines, but in a sophisticated way rather than an “oh that explains it” way (although it does explain some of it a little I think).

Anyway, I did finish it, and I could roll easily along with the premise, and the narrators of the audiobook enhanced my experience quite a bit. I wouldn’t ever re-read the book but I would request it at Yuletide.

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maregred's review against another edition

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dark funny mysterious tense slow-paced

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

4.0

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scifi_rat's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix

3.75

Plot: 3★
Prose: 4★
Pace: 4★
Concept/Execution: 5★/3.75★
Characters: 4.75★
Worldbuilding: 3.5★
Ending: 3.5★

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mfsquared's review against another edition

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

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

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rinku's review against another edition

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adventurous funny mysterious slow-paced

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

3.0

The most enjoyable thing about Prophet was its romance, and that’s probably not a good sign for a sci-fi book. The sci-fi elements introduced here were interesting, but the execution was just not that great.

The problem with the plot is that it was just a bit too confusing and that the pacing was off. The story centres around objects appearing out of nothing which is caused by a remedy called Prophet. It’s somehow connected to nostalgia and the main characters – Adam, a soldier, and Rao, an ordinary guy that can see the truth and is somehow connected to Prophet – have to figure what it is about and who’s behind it.

The beginning of the story was weird and intriguing what I enjoyed first but soon I was just confused because not everything is explained properly or even makes sense. The investigation sounded interesting, but they barely investigate anything, and I was not sure what the goal of their mission was. Additionally, the middle section was so slow because barely anything happens, and the characters only stay at one place. All in all, I think that the story had more potential that was sadly not utilized enough.

What I liked though was that the atmosphere throughout the novel is constantly kinda creepy. The body horror elements were interesting as well that especially played a role towards the ending. The final section of the book was quite unsettling, and it would’ve been great if the horror elements were more in the focus in the rest of the story as well. What I found a bit unnecessary about the ending though was

Rao’s fake death

Like I’ve said, what I enjoyed the most about Prophet was the dynamic between the two main characters Rao and Adam. I liked them both and for once, I was not annoyed by the banter but actually found it funny from time to time. We sadly have not many interesting characters besides them. Especially the female characters felt a bit flat, and it was annoying how one of them was always called a psycho. Rao and Adam sometimes felt a bit cliché too with one of them having a dark secret and the other one fulfilling the cliché of the promiscuous bisexual person.

I’m not sure if I would recommend Prophet or not. The book was just a bit too long with too many things that weren’t explained enough. I probably wouldn’t have finished it if it wasn’t for Adam and Rao. Maybe a book series about shorter sci-fi cases that they have to solve would be more fitting for them.

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friemesis's review

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adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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