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kirayna's review against another edition
- Loveable characters? No
1.0
Graphic: Incest, Self harm, and Sexual content
bucketsjen's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
This book is cerebral and spiritual. A strong aspect of the storytelling is not only the events themselves, but the archetypes and souls of the characters. I loved it, but it definitely makes you think (and feel).
Ultimately, I think it's wonderful to imagine
Graphic: Self harm
contains multiple instances of self-harm (cutting) for spiritual purposesmattchristensen's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
Graphic: Self harm
Moderate: Sexual content and Violence
cdc95's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.0
Graphic: Child death, Death, Gore, Incest, Self harm, Sexual content, Terminal illness, Violence, Blood, Death of parent, and War
Moderate: Genocide, Xenophobia, and Colonisation
bluemonkey14's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
Some of the sexual content felt corny to me, especially contrasted with the grand arcs of the overall storyline and took away from the overall experience. I think it would have been better to gloss over it a little more and let the reader fill in the gaps with their imagination.
Contrary to other reviews I don't think Laviaja is supposed to be taken as some sort of perfect utopia, but just another version of civilisation with pros and cons, similar to how modern society is very different from the Mayan society, but in no way perfect. As we know, anything presented as a utopia is usually nothing of the sort, and I think that holds true here. Byrne cites Black Mirror as one of her influences and I think the 3012 portion of the book should be taken in that same vein - a possible futures.
The Laviaja sections were my favourite, and I would personally love to see more development of it, both before and after the events of The Actual Star. We know some history of the Age of Emergency - aspects like nomadism, mutual aid and the push back against hoarding of resources all make sense in that context. But naturally given the format, there is a huge gap between what we know of today, and where Laviaja is in 3012. And of course there's scope to see how things play out, especially given Niloux's theory about the location of further cortadas.
Graphic: Death, Incest, Self harm, Sexual content, Blood, and Murder
Moderate: Drug use
Minor: Cancer, Sexual assault, Terminal illness, and Vomit
jordynkw's review
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Death, Gore, Incest, Self harm, Blood, and Injury/Injury detail
ceilidhwilliams's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Graphic: Child death, Death, Incest, Self harm, Sexual content, Blood, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail
thebookbin's review against another edition
- 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? Yes
2.5
Graphic: Incest, Self harm, Sexual assault, and Sexual content
prijks's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
I’m going to put my remaining thoughts in two separate spoiler tags. The first is not-really spoilers but I’ll err on the side of caution and the second is real spoilers
Not-really spoilers:
This next spoiler gives away major plot points:
Leah, we are led to believe, has a terminal brain tumor. So is her experience at the end just the hallucinations of a dying brain or her true experience? The way it is written I can’t tell. I can interpret it as being either. But then how does that relate to other people’s current and former lives intertwining and leaking into each other, since the story is not a first-person narrative? Given how many people love this book I feel like I must be missing something, but that just makes it more frustrating…
Also, we are shown that the disappearances that happened with some regularity were real since there was video evidence of them. Yet Leah’s disappearance is then hinted to have just been her finding her way deeper into the cave than anyone could search for her. So what caused the other disappearances? So many plot points left unresolved…
In the end, I don’t regret having read it but I also can’t really recommend it either.
Graphic: Incest and Self harm
samrpjross's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Graphic: Self harm