Scan barcode
A review by nomora
Obsidio by Jay Kristoff, Amie Kaufman
adventurous
dark
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
I like this book far better than the previous one, but not as much as the first. It wasn't a blatant copy of Illuminae like Gemina was, and we got more of the "global" happenings which is something that I'm really happy about. The action sequences were great and the terror of warfare is probably the area in which this book shines the most. The romance I didn't really care about. It is obvious the characters were introduced solely for the purpose of being our eyes into what was happening on Kerenza IV and had just the right skill set for things to turn out okay. Out of all the cast couples they were the least fleshed out. A thing that especially grated on me was the amount of offhand remarks about queer relationships when all three of the main couples were straight. I realize that this is probably due to writers who each took a portion, Amie the main girl characters and Jay the main guy characters but it was still a pain to read. It also would have helped not to have three same relationship dynamics. They could have at least gone for something drastically different in the middle book where the two mains weren't separated due to circumstances. I loved the format, and I loved the conflict, and I loved AIDAN, but the teenage posturing at the trials I could have done without.
Moderate: Child death, Genocide, Violence, Death, and Gun violence
Minor: Body horror, Grief, Torture, Medical content, and Suicide attempt
Additional content warnings:
Minor
Body Horror: a soldier lost a tip of his tongue by biting it off, told as a funny anecdote
Grief: Hannah is still dealing with the death of her father in the previous book, as is Ella
Torture: we only see the aftermath, but it is mentioned Asha is not treated nicely while BeiTech goons try to get information out of her
Medical Content: Ella is hooked up to some medical machinery, as is Kady's dad while he is still post-op
Suicide Attempt: At one point while believing there is no other way out, Kady turns to self-destruction as the only available option to take out the enemy, but is foiled
Moderate
Child death: A pre-teen is killed on page with moderate detail.
Genocide: BeiTech is attempting to kill off the whole population of Kerenza IV and there are a lot of dead.
Violence: A lot of straight out fights, with weapons and without.
Gun Violence: A lot of guns are used to kill people on page.