aardwyrm's review
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Climate change dystopia in which horrible things happen endlessly, but the ultimate choice is hope. The world of Blackfish City is a world that has ended and is beginning to make itself again. The book rejects all easy answers but still loops back to the possibility of a better future. Its patchwork of viewpoints and intertwined themes of family and choice are powerfully executed and throw the reader into the City Without a Map.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Gun violence, Terminal illness, Torture, Trafficking, Sexual content, Religious bigotry, Police brutality, Murder, Mental illness, Medical trauma, Medical content, Gore, Grief, Genocide, Chronic illness, Blood, and Animal death
sarah984's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
This is kind of a conflicting one for me to review because I liked the overall story but I didn't really like the book. The setting was interesting, sort of an arctic-themed cyberpunk city run by AI with a few rich human "stakeholders", where organized crime is everywhere and people are on the streets losing their minds to an illness called the breaks that no one in power will deal with because of optics. The story of a strange woman and her entourage of animals sweeping in to turn this upside down is compelling.
I just really didn't like the writing. A few of the plot twists were things that annoy me in any narrative, the language is pretentious and weird, and the author uses the word orgasmic to describe way too many things. It's not inherently a bad book, but it definitely didn't work for me.
I just really didn't like the writing. A few of the plot twists were things that annoy me in any narrative, the language is pretentious and weird, and the author uses the word orgasmic to describe way too many things. It's not inherently a bad book, but it definitely didn't work for me.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Confinement, Death, Forced institutionalization, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Police brutality, Religious bigotry, Self harm, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Torture, and Rape
Moderate: Ableism, Genocide, Homophobia, Medical content, Police brutality, Toxic relationship, and Xenophobia
Minor: Vomit
My rape tag is for a scene where a character feels pressured into sex but technically consents (and sees themselves as having consented later). The perpetrator in this scene also transmits a fatal sexually transmitted infection to the victim without prior disclosure.
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