A review by lilifane
Upgrade by Blake Crouch

adventurous dark hopeful informative reflective tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Ah, I loved the premise. Really, really liked the first half of the book. The ideas, the discussions about humanity and different approaches to prevent its extinction, about actions and consequences and about the possibilities and risks of genetic engineering were super intriguing and fresh. 
Sadly, there was more focus on action scenes in the second half of the book, and although I didn't mind all the science dumping in the beginning, it got very annoying the farther the story progressed. 
It was still a fun and fast-paced reading experience (especially with the help of the audiobook), I just kind of stopped caring along the way and yes, I see the irony in this. XD 
So I liked it for what it was, but there was so much more potential to make this an outstanding story. It lacked emotion and the surprises factor other Blake Crouch books have. It was all very predictable. The epilogue finally delivered what I wished for, just too little too late. I would have loved to see a more nuanced discussion about the topics of the epilogue in the second half of the book alongside the action. 
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