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lv_ct's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
The book starts eighteen months after the quarantine is called over the boarding school Raxter School for Girls. The CDC and Navy are researching to figure out what is causing an infection dubbed by the girls at the school as "The Tox." As they research, the girls are restricted to inside the school and start to mutate with the virus, as well as all of the animals and flora on the island, making the rest of the island extremely dangerous. This book follows the main character Hetty and her two close friends, Byatt and Reese, as they try to survive until a cure can be developed. However, when Byatt goes missing, Hetty and Reese make it their goal to find where she was sent, leading to secrets being revealed about what has actually been happening for the past year and a half.
Pros:
Pros:
- This storyline felt incredibly unique to me, as it is a different take on the "area becoming infected by a mysterious virus" trope that is common in media. And considering that this book was published in mid-2019 right before the pandemic, it felt very ironic and almost timely.
- I enjoyed the detailed descriptions of things such as the landscape and the mutations the girls went through as it helped me envision the constant terror and horrors these young girls were facing. It helps to put the reader in the shoes of the characters, rather than just telling the reader what was happening.
- Queer, and specifically sapphic, relationships in the midst of a dystopian, survivalist world.
- My favorite point in this book - all of the characters is morally gray. We want to root for them because you see how brave they are and vulnerable they can be. However, it's their flaws that are really noticeable. They are selfish out of self-preservation, only caring about themselves and their closest friends. It makes the reader want to scream "but you're the hero, you are supposed to save everyone." But ultimately, it is a real human thing to do.
Cons:
- First-person writing is truly difficult, and it is hard to do it in a manner that does not come off as amateur writing. This said I think there are some really well-done parts in the book where Power nails the POV writing, and other times where it falls flat and becomes victim to "Tumblr-Esque" writing.
- I really wish there were better explanations of the other characters OUTSIDE of Hetty, Byatt, and Reese. The reader is given glimpses of the other characters, but not as much as I would have liked there to be. At times we are only given the ages of characters, and nothing more.
- Following this, among the characters we are given descriptions to, there did not seem to be much diversity in terms of phenotypes in the characters, minus the mutations.
- There was a good amount of different personalities amongst the characters, so that good job on that aspect.
I really wish that Hetty and Reese's romantic relationship was delved into a bit deeper rather than tied in the last 100 pages. I am glad they got together because throughout the book it was an obvious question of "something is going to happen, but what?" Nevertheless, their relationship with each other is never fully fleshed out. Especially with Hetty killing Reese's dad, I wish I could have a little more background substance to their relationship before that heavy blow. - The explanation of what happened in regards to the Tox on the island truly only comes out in the last 50 pages, and still did not feel very cohesive. The reader is thrown bits and pieces of an explanation before the acknowledgments are indicating the closing of the book. It really feels like the book should have been either 1. longer or 2. had a second part to it.
Conclusion:
I personally really enjoyed this book. It is the first book I have read for fun in a long time, as I am either working or in school. I have been recommending this book to people constantly recently and I do recommend for anyone looking through these reviews to read it yourself - if you are okay with gore, blood, grief, and violence - cause it is a great read.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Suicide, Confinement, Gore, Body horror, Blood, Child death, Death, Grief, Self harm, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Animal death, Mental illness, Death of parent, and Murder
tinnuben's review against another edition
challenging
dark
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Gore, Suicide, Vomit, Forced institutionalization, Self harm, Blood, Child death, Death of parent, Animal death, Injury/Injury detail, Body horror, Violence, Grief, and Medical content
f2c's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Death of parent, Suicidal thoughts, Injury/Injury detail, Torture, Gun violence, Child death, Violence, Animal death, Body horror, Confinement, Death, Gore, Murder, and Kidnapping
rubymitchell14's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Suicide, Gore, Self harm, and Animal death
greenglass67's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
This book is crazy! I loved the characters, I loved the setting, I loved the plot. Rory Powers' writing is fantastic. It's so easy to visualize all the settings and the action of the book is intense and gripping. There are scenes that I think get a bad rep for being confusing, but it all feels like it's a necessary part of the story. It's important for those scenes to be confusing. This book was a little slow getting started, and it takes a while for your questions to be answered, but I felt that the payoff was worth it. There are some scenes that contain pretty graphic body horror and injuries, but if you can get past that, this would be a 5.0!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Terminal illness, Self harm, Injury/Injury detail, and Death
Minor: Forced institutionalization, Animal death, Gaslighting, and Abandonment
mfrisk's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
I can’t quite decide how I feel about this one but I think it’s a 3.5 for me.
I really enjoyed the atmosphere and the build up of the Tox and how that shaped Raxter and those within it. The scenes with the deer and one of the character’s parents were particularly chilling in their descriptions. The dual perspective was done fairly well though I think I was waiting for more from Byatt’s side in terms of her backstory and what drove her to lie.
Things I didn’t love were the seemingly out of nowhere nature of the romance. While there were some touching moments it was a bit confusing and didn’t feel fully realized.
And finally the ending was a huge disappointment. While you think the ending would at least give us more information about the navy and cdc involvement or about the tox or even what happens next we instead are led to an ending where we determine what happens. It felt like a chapter was missing and while I wasn’t expecting a happy ending perfect wrap up I definitely didn’t expect what we got.
I hope to read more from this author as I overall really enjoyed this book but there were definitely some aspects I just wanted to see be pushed further given the darkness of the story.
I really enjoyed the atmosphere and the build up of the Tox and how that shaped Raxter and those within it. The scenes with the deer and one of the character’s parents were particularly chilling in their descriptions. The dual perspective was done fairly well though I think I was waiting for more from Byatt’s side in terms of her backstory and what drove her to lie.
Things I didn’t love were the seemingly out of nowhere nature of the romance. While there were some touching moments it was a bit confusing and didn’t feel fully realized.
And finally the ending was a huge disappointment. While you think the ending would at least give us more information about the navy and cdc involvement or about the tox or even what happens next we instead are led to an ending where we determine what happens. It felt like a chapter was missing and while I wasn’t expecting a happy ending perfect wrap up I definitely didn’t expect what we got.
I hope to read more from this author as I overall really enjoyed this book but there were definitely some aspects I just wanted to see be pushed further given the darkness of the story.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Suicide, Terminal illness, Suicide attempt, Animal cruelty, Child death, Chronic illness, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Confinement, Gore, Kidnapping, Murder, Physical abuse, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Self harm, Violence, Blood, Body horror, Gun violence, Animal death, Death, and Suicidal thoughts
Moderate: Vomit and Toxic friendship
r0ry_'s review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
4.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Death of parent, Chronic illness, Gore, Body horror, Animal death, Blood, Death, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Kidnapping
bibliorama's review against another edition
challenging
dark
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Enjoyment - 4
Start - 3.5
Characters - 3.5
Atmosphere - 4
Plot - 3
Ending - 3.5
Style - 4
Overall - 3.5
Start - 3.5
Characters - 3.5
Atmosphere - 4
Plot - 3
Ending - 3.5
Style - 4
Overall - 3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Death of parent, Animal death, Body horror, and Death
Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Gore, and Medical content
sinaprst's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
this was ok
i picked this up because i liked the cover, so i knew basically nothing about the story whatsoever going into this
in short: the book is about a boarding school on an island were somesort of virus or diseases spread, that lead to several students and teachers dying while others grew second body parts or similar stuff. now the school and island have been on lock down for i believe 18 months, while the government tries to find a cure (alledgedly). we follow our main character Hetty and her friends Bryce (i think is her name) and Reese while they trie to survive and figure out what is going on the island.
first of all, i loved the writing style. the author used some interesting choices, especially with the second pov character later on, that might not be for everyone, but i absolutly adored them.
the beginning is very slow. the first like 60 pages felt like ages to me, because nothing really happens except for pages over pages of exposition and world building.
but after that i got hooked and couldn`t put it down
nonetheless i felt like the book lacked some depth in some parts. i couldn`t really connect to any of the characters and in end still felt like i knew nothing about them, eventhough the story is very character driven
the sapphic lovestory also felt very out of the blue and literally lasted like under 24h in book time???? . i was all in all very disappointing to read and i was hoping for more.
the ending was also very open and left me with more questions then answers honestly. i also wished that Bryce was really dead, her suddenly being still alive felt weird to me, idk why tho.
also, did Hetty and Reese really just leave the rest of the girls to die on the island, when they literally scolded the headmistress and this other girl for the exact same thing just like one page before that??? this behaviour really confused and is probably one of the reasons why the ending felt so weird to me.
all in all, i loved the cover, premise and writing style, but the characters felt shallow, the lovestory underdeveloped and the ending questionable, therefore well deserved 3/5 stars from me :)
edit: i have just found out that her name is Byatt and not Bryce
i picked this up because i liked the cover, so i knew basically nothing about the story whatsoever going into this
in short: the book is about a boarding school on an island were somesort of virus or diseases spread, that lead to several students and teachers dying while others grew second body parts or similar stuff. now the school and island have been on lock down for i believe 18 months, while the government tries to find a cure (alledgedly). we follow our main character Hetty and her friends Bryce (i think is her name) and Reese while they trie to survive and figure out what is going on the island.
first of all, i loved the writing style. the author used some interesting choices, especially with the second pov character later on, that might not be for everyone, but i absolutly adored them.
the beginning is very slow. the first like 60 pages felt like ages to me, because nothing really happens except for pages over pages of exposition and world building.
but after that i got hooked and couldn`t put it down
nonetheless i felt like the book lacked some depth in some parts. i couldn`t really connect to any of the characters and in end still felt like i knew nothing about them, eventhough the story is very character driven
the sapphic lovestory also felt very out of the blue
also, did Hetty and Reese really just leave the rest of the girls to die on the island, when they literally scolded the headmistress and this other girl for the exact same thing just like one page before that??? this behaviour really confused and is probably one of the reasons why the ending felt so weird to me.
all in all, i loved the cover, premise and writing style, but the characters felt shallow, the lovestory underdeveloped and the ending questionable, therefore well deserved 3/5 stars from me :)
edit: i have just found out that her name is Byatt and not Bryce
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Gore, Violence, Vomit, Animal death, Blood, Death of parent, Medical content, Murder, Suicide, and Suicide attempt
Moderate: Cursing and Grief
Minor: Torture
sifairi's review against another edition
challenging
dark
mysterious
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.75
I really enjoyed this book, but It felt very slow for me. About 3/4 of the way through it does pick up and then I couldn't put it down.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Chronic illness, Abandonment, Blood, Animal death, Body horror, Child death, Death, Gore, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, and Violence
Moderate: Confinement, Self harm, and Torture