Reviews tagging 'Confinement'

Illuminae by Jay Kristoff, Amie Kaufman

31 reviews

short_circuit's review

adventurous dark emotional funny reflective 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? It's complicated

5.0

"the universe owes you nothing, kady. it has already given you everything, after all. [...] the only way it will remember you is if you do something worthy of remembrance."

god knows i love a morally grey AI with a fucked up code of ethics and a thing for the most badass human girl in outer space

"gaslight gatekeep girlboss" AIDAN
just plain girlboss kady
ezra honey i love u but your girlfriend is so so much cooler

(please heed the content warnings on this one, folks. whole lotta violence and death and shooting and whatnot. there's no tag for "illness", but the main part of the story involves people being infected with a virus that makes them go insane, so i tagged it with "terminal illness" to be safe.)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Gun violence, Child death, Death, Death of parent, Suicide, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Murder, Mass/school shootings, Grief, Genocide, Gore, Confinement, Body horror, Blood, and Terminal illness

mengzhenreads's review

adventurous tense fast-paced

• 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

5.0

This is easily one of the most unique books I've ever read. The formatting and writing style makes this book consistently entertaining and mysterious and despite the slightly untraditional formatting, the plot and characters still feel wonderfully fleshed out. The romance was very cheesy, but it was a nice change from the rest of the book which was quite dark and heavy for the most part. Although none of the plot twists really blew my mind, it was still incredibly entertaining and this book is just absolutely thrilling in terms of action, explosions, and zombies. Overall this is just a thrilling, heart-wrenching space opera that I would recommend to anyone who likes seeing things explode in space.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Violence, Gore, Blood, Grief, and Suicide

Moderate: Death of parent, Child death, Gun violence, Genocide, and Confinement

jessywithawhy's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Child death, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Murder, and Genocide

Moderate: Cursing, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Violence, Suicide, Self harm, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

annuich's review

adventurous dark emotional hopeful inspiring tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Blood, Child death, Chronic illness, Confinement, Death, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Grief, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Terminal illness, Torture, Violence, and War

katsbooks's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional tense fast-paced

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

4.0

"Until the last star in the galaxy dies, you have me."

"...like roses in his hands, death blooms."

"She is catalyst. She is chaos."

"Am I not merciful?"

"Perhaps bravery is simply the face humanity wraps around its collective madness."

This book was so freaking intense. If you like thrillers that'll keep you guessing, this is probably up your alley. The twists and turns kept me engaged and I was surprised by how much narrative shown through given the formatting. The story is told completely through reports and IMs. Essentially the book is a "dossier" on the events so the only passages that even resemble prose are the "transcriptions" of video files. The visual element of the book itself is incredibly compelling. My only negative, I'd say, was that I would have liked more description of the characters. I had a hard time picturing some of them. I think it was a major drawback to the unique formatting to the book. But I can also understand how not having specific descriptions of the characters leaves what they look like open to more interpretation. I can see the appeal of that, too. I think I just really wanted more ways to fully connect with the characters since I couldn't be in their heads. Overall, I had a blast reading this and am looking forward to picking up the rest of the series. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Cursing, Death, Gaslighting, Genocide, Grief, Kidnapping, Murder, and Violence

Moderate: Death of parent

Minor: Fatphobia

lucilaroife's review

adventurous challenging funny tense fast-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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Confinement, Death, Death of parent, Gore, Grief, Medical content, Mental illness, Murder, and Violence

Minor: Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, and Colonisation

caoimhe9876's review

adventurous dark reflective fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Murder, Mental illness, Gore, and Blood

Moderate: Cannibalism, Child death, Confinement, Death of parent, Excrement, Grief, Gun violence, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Torture, and Violence

athousandlives's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny fast-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? It's complicated

4.5

I wolfed this one down in three days. I had a bit of trouble getting into the story at first, but then the pace quickened (and the death toll grew bigger) and I couldn't stop reading. 

The format was very original and funny to read. The dialogues in the chats were sometimes hilarious, sometimes touching, and were my favourite to read. 

I really enjoyed the plot-twists as well, especially the Ezra-is-dead one, and I was a bit disappointed when a/Kady miraculously recovered from the Alexander destruction and b/we found out that Ezra was alive as well. I mean, I love those guys and I'm glad I can read about them too in Gemina, but I think I would have liked it even more if they had their tragic, star-crossed lovers end, both as heroes.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Child death, Confinement, Death, Death of parent, Dementia, Genocide, Gore, Grief, Gun violence, Mass/school shootings, Medical content, and Mental illness

vendela's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Child death, Confinement, Death, Genocide, Gore, Grief, Suicide, and Violence

Moderate: Genocide, Gore, Grief, and Gun violence

Minor: Medical content and Medical trauma

scarlettskyes's review

adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

5.0

As one of the most unique book styles I have ever read, I was at first hesitant to read this book. But as soon as I got used to the different file types presented, ranging from diary entries, to camera feeds, to messages between characters and even the perspective of a faulty AI unit, I absolutely loved this book. The characters are engaging and fun, even in high stress situations, and the plot twists are shocking without being unbelievable. The art and formatting used is incredible, and it just goes to show how much work went into developing it. While there are dark pages, the text tends to be contrasted enough to read easily, though some entries are harder to read than others. The amount of plot shown in such strange ways is incredible and surprising, and I found myself on the edge of my seat the whole time. I was particually amused that in the very first page, it mentions that while all the brutal details of the incident are described, swear words have been censored as it is inappropriate, giving an in universe reason for the blacked out cursing.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Child death, Confinement, Death, Violence, Suicide, Gore, and Grief

Moderate: Cursing