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bookramblingsbyolivia 's review for:
This Mortal Coil
by Emily Suvada
I’ve just finished reading This Mortal Coil, and honestly I’m a little conflicted about this one. I found the premise really interesting, and loved the concept of this lead character struggling day to day to survive in a futuristic world where disease has taken over and people have tech installed in their bodies. This was a recommended read for me, and I was keen to get started. It really felt like a book with so much potential, and I was immediately intrigued by the concept of the virus itself. The circumstances surrounding it were extremely original and I quickly became immersed in Catarina’s world after just a few short chapters.
The story held my attention completely throughout the first half of the book, but after a while I did feel that the plot was a bit slow at some points in the second half.
I enjoyed how action-packed the story was, but it did feel slightly too heavy on romance in my opinion, and I didn’t find the ‘chemistry’ between Catarina and Cole very believable. I can’t help but think the whole story could’ve worked better without the romance element at all. In my opinion, it just didn’t feel like a particularly exciting or nuanced romantic relationship that I could get actually behind.
However, the story certainly took place in a very cool and unique world, and I did love the plot twist towards the final chapters of the book, which helped to reel me back in fast, until I had finished every page from start to finish.
Overall, I felt This Mortal Coil was a book with an excellent concept, but was in some ways ruined by a messy execution and pointless romance. I have rated it three stars overall though, because of the elements that I really enjoyed. I don’t want to be too critical, because in truth I think I have been a little biased, as I have read better works within the sci-fi fantasy genre already in the last few months. If you enjoy some clunky romance in your books you’ll probably like this a lot. I’d recommend this one to fans of the Divergent series, and the Netflix show, Orphan Black, mainly because there is A LOT of technical talk about genes and geneticists, and those bits got a bit dull. Sadly, I think much of the science went over my head after a while.
The second book in the series comes out in October, and despite some mixed feelings on this one, I think I’ll probably give it a go.
The story held my attention completely throughout the first half of the book, but after a while I did feel that the plot was a bit slow at some points in the second half.
I enjoyed how action-packed the story was, but it did feel slightly too heavy on romance in my opinion, and I didn’t find the ‘chemistry’ between Catarina and Cole very believable. I can’t help but think the whole story could’ve worked better without the romance element at all. In my opinion, it just didn’t feel like a particularly exciting or nuanced romantic relationship that I could get actually behind.
However, the story certainly took place in a very cool and unique world, and I did love the plot twist towards the final chapters of the book, which helped to reel me back in fast, until I had finished every page from start to finish.
Overall, I felt This Mortal Coil was a book with an excellent concept, but was in some ways ruined by a messy execution and pointless romance. I have rated it three stars overall though, because of the elements that I really enjoyed. I don’t want to be too critical, because in truth I think I have been a little biased, as I have read better works within the sci-fi fantasy genre already in the last few months. If you enjoy some clunky romance in your books you’ll probably like this a lot. I’d recommend this one to fans of the Divergent series, and the Netflix show, Orphan Black, mainly because there is A LOT of technical talk about genes and geneticists, and those bits got a bit dull. Sadly, I think much of the science went over my head after a while.
The second book in the series comes out in October, and despite some mixed feelings on this one, I think I’ll probably give it a go.