Reviews tagging 'Blood'

Ascension by Nicholas Binge

11 reviews

torismazarine's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious reflective medium-paced

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

3.25

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Drug use, Suicide, Gore, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Violence, Drug abuse, Gaslighting, Panic attacks/disorders, Body horror, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Medical trauma, Alcohol, Blood, Cursing, Dementia, Mental illness, Religious bigotry, Animal death, Self harm, Ableism, Murder, and Death

Minor: War

There's a lot of talk about religion and faith, the characters argue a lot about it (I'm paraphrasing here, but at some point a charachter says religious people are stupid, others have very strong faith, and for some of them it's fluctuating throughout).

There's also monsters and aliens, that are described extensively. At different points in the story people drown, get frostbite and altitude sickness, which are ways to die not in the content warnings, although reading a book about climbing a mountain the latter two could be guessed.

mandolin77's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional sad fast-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

3.25

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Death, Child death, Blood, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Gun violence, Medical trauma, Violence, and Mental illness

kaiyakaiyo's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

3.0

I’m never reading a book with a mountain on the cover again. EVER

this is the second time a mountain mystery sci fi premise has led me instead to the most boring drag of a read. so much climbing detail and internal to an unbearable degree. 

worst Halloween read yet methinks. the world building was cool I guess, woulda been cooler if it didn’t come 70% through the book…

I wanted more on Neil, more on the caves, more on Naoko than being an Asian Pixie Dream Doctor there only to absorb and reflect the white main chars suffering… don’t even get me started on the adopted refugee child that lived only to be a traumatic experience for a white man. booooo tomatoes 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Child death, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Suicide, and Violence

pkc's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective medium-paced

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

3.5

I r njoyed the plot here. So much going on, all of it resolved to some extent which I loved. Questions about humanity are explored using this metaphor and while there can never be answers, it was intriguing to ponder them within the setting. If you’re looking for a book with likeable protagonists, personally, I’d swerve this one. You may like Harold but I found him reasonably ineffectual and awful. That being said, I thought the plot was super inventive, adventurous and wild. The mountain as a character was intriguing and made for some epic set pieces 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Blood, Child death, Suicide, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Suicide attempt, Body horror, Mental illness, Physical abuse, and Vomit

cc_shelflove's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

I enjoyed this book. Strange things quickly began to happen as Harold climbed to the top of a mountain that appeared out of nowhere. Its ending was twisty, reminiscent of the Netflix series 1899. It’s hard to write a review without giving away spoilers… Read it if you like weird stuff, I guess. 😂

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Suicide, Gun violence, and Blood

Minor: War

alireads's review

adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.25

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Blood, Child death, Gun violence, Body horror, Violence, Death, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Confinement, Grief, Bullying, Mental illness, Fire/Fire injury, Medical content, Kidnapping, Suicide, and Religious bigotry

zosiablue's review against another edition

adventurous 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? It's complicated

4.25

Oh I liked this so much. A little A Wrinkle in Time, a little Contact, a little Christopher Pike. One of the coolest "why are we alive?" metaphors I've read in a while. Well done. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Grief, Child death, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Blood, Dementia, Suicide, and Forced institutionalization

teatunesandtales's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Violence, Blood, Child death, and Death

Minor: Suicide and Forced institutionalization

honeywine's review against another edition

adventurous 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

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Child death, Gun violence, Gore, Death, Murder, Grief, Body horror, and Forced institutionalization

azrah786's review against another edition

3.5

 **I was provided with an ARC through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review**

CW: violence, gun violence, injury, blood, murder, death, child death, fire/injury, suicide, body horror, grief
--

It has taken me some time to get my head around wording my thoughts for this book because though it was an engaging read it fell a little flat by the end.

A quick read and a good mashup of genres Binge has written a mind-bending story. Told through the letters of a lost scientist - Harold Tunmore – addressed to his niece, we follow the journey he and a group of fellow scientists took when they were sent to explore a bizarre mountain that had randomly appeared in the middle of the Pacific. The writing successfully conveys all the tension of a real life mountain hike as well as the “what the fuck” feel of everything that goes on during the expedition.

The epistolary format and this being represented in the book as a published collection was really clever however, I feel it was also a hinderance the further you read. The lengthy monology descriptions and anecdotes that the narrator was penning for the reader just felt a bit overkill and slowed the story down for me. Particularly with how fast the primary and more intense mountain plot was.

From about midway on towards the end, the narration started to feel a little monotonous and I found I was able to predict some of what was going to happen which lessened my enjoyment of the big twists and reveals.

Though I will say Binge’s writing does well to bring a range of emotions to the page in those segments of personal reflection when he is unpacking the mysterious past of the protagonist. There was also some interesting and thought provoking discussions on the themes of faith vs science, humanity and autonomy.

And so despite being a bit of a miss for me overall I think this story would make a brilliant mini-series.
Final Rating - 3.5/5 Stars 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Death, Suicide, Violence, Grief, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury, Body horror, Murder, Child death, and Blood