Reviews tagging 'Death'

Prophet by Sin Blaché, Helen Macdonald

8 reviews

schnaucl's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious 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

4.5

I really enjoyed this book.   I really liked the dynamic between Rao and Adam and their dynamic with Hunter.  

The idea of something that manifests your nostalgia is an intriguing one, as is the idea of someone who immediately knows if something is true.  I can certainly see why intelligence agencies would want to control a person with such an ability.  Frankly, I'm surprised they'd ever let him in the field given what a valuable resource he would be.  

I did not see it's all a big Libertarian plot to weaponize nostalgia coming as the explanation, although the politics of it, and the reckless disregard for testing it on an unsuspecting populace, certainly tracks.

I feel a little ambivalent about the ending.  I suppose given the government connections, they could officially undo Rao's death, although explaining it to his family would be more of a challenge.    I also wonder if Rao being a recreation, even a perfect one, will start to cause problems down the line.  I would think it would be difficult to not have imposter syndrome.

I think this is a standalone book but I'd definitely read more if they wanted to make it a series.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction, Death, Body horror, Drug abuse, and Violence

Minor: Alcoholism, Gun violence, Vomit, Animal death, War, Fire/Fire injury, Medical content, Domestic abuse, Suicide attempt, Torture, Physical abuse, Police brutality, Sexual content, and Racism

samanyana's review against another edition

dark emotional sad 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? Yes

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Mental illness, Addiction, Drug use, Gore, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Animal death, and Death

letopotato's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide attempt, Violence, and Suicidal thoughts

Moderate: Alcohol, Cursing, Medical content, Child abuse, Blood, Murder, Death, and Gun violence

Minor: Sexual content, Torture, and Racism

maregred's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror and Death

Moderate: Alcohol, Addiction, Alcoholism, Child abuse, and Torture

Minor: Homophobia, Car accident, and War

scifi_rat's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Death, Medical content, and Violence

Moderate: Physical abuse, Racism, Cursing, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Emotional abuse, Grief, Murder, Self harm, Suicide attempt, Addiction, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Animal death, Child abuse, Colonisation, Gun violence, Homophobia, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, and Mental illness

Minor: Gaslighting, Antisemitism, and Panic attacks/disorders

mfsquared's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Violence

Moderate: Drug abuse, Addiction, and Child abuse

Minor: Suicide attempt, War, Racism, and Xenophobia

rinku's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Alcohol, Body horror, Death, and Gun violence

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Fire/Fire injury, Racism, War, Animal death, Violence, and Addiction

Minor: Drug use, Sexual content, Suicide attempt, Confinement, and Homophobia

joannalouise's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring mysterious sad tense fast-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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Drug use, Gore, Medical trauma, and Blood

Moderate: Self harm, War, Suicide attempt, Torture, and Suicidal thoughts