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michireading's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.75
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Gun violence, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexual content, Xenophobia, and Murder
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Homophobia, Sexism, Blood, and Sexual harassment
augie_'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? No
2.5
Graphic: Animal death, Death, Drug use, Gore, Gun violence, Racial slurs, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail
bellbirdie's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship and Violence
Moderate: Confinement, Drug abuse, Gun violence, Racism, and Blood
Minor: Addiction, Racial slurs, and Sexual violence
janalg's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.25
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Death, Drug use, Gun violence, Violence, and Blood
Moderate: Racial slurs, Racism, Xenophobia, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Addiction, Drug abuse, Gore, Alcohol, and Classism
flexagoon's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
As others said, the ending is a bit lackluster and Deus Ex Machina, but it still didn't leave me disappointed after finishing the book.
The plot itself is confusing at times, but generally really interesting. People who like fast-paced action stories will probably love it. The book also has good worldbuilding.
I didn't really get the "metavirus" stuff but it was still interesting.
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Gun violence, Racial slurs, and Violence
Moderate: Death, Racial slurs, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Drug use, Blood, and War
strawberrypinch's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
Graphic: Body horror, Gore, Gun violence, Racial slurs, Racism, Violence, Blood, and Murder
Moderate: Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Xenophobia, Police brutality, Colonisation, War, and Classism
Minor: Addiction, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Genocide, Homophobia, Misogyny, Rape, Sexism, Medical content, Kidnapping, Religious bigotry, Car accident, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail
booksthatburn's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
It's using and remixing available stereotypes to their limit to create cartoonishly distilled essences that allow for quick action in the partitioned but not wholly divided setting. There are stark boundary lines all over the place, governing laws, behavior, and life-or-death stakes for everyone within these borders, lit by each Franchise's signage and governed by their franchisee manuals. Where the grooves of life are so well worn around most denizens that they barely notice a disturbance to their routines, unless they’re the protagonist, Hiro Protagonist or perhaps the Kourier Y.T. There's a franchise for most things, and some of those things are racism. There's some fatphobia and scattered ableist language which seem to be regular levels of bigotry instead of forming the kind of pointed social commentary which underpins and incorporates the other -isms.
Hiro’s biracial identity (Black/Japanese) matters to the story and exists for more than the surface-level excuse to name the main character “hero protagonist” with alternate spelling. There are several moments where he figures out things based on how someone reacts (or doesn’t) to his appearance and background.
Y.T. isn't as introspective as Hiro, but she gets a decent amount of focus and her perspective is integral to the story, both as an active agent and as an observer with a very different point of view from Hiro, a non-hacker one.
As a cultural artifact, this feels more prescient than it perhaps has a right to be because a lot of people have tried to make things more like the world imagined here, and that's not always a good thing. Reading it now is strange because even something like the word "avatar" as a representation of one's physical self in a digital context was popularized by this book and so it doesn't feel new, though it was at the time.
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexual content, Violence, and Blood
Moderate: Ableism, Animal death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Fatphobia, Homophobia, Misogyny, Sexism, and Xenophobia
Minor: Excrement and Pregnancy
rubybastille'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? No
4.0
2024 reread: actually I still mostly agree with my original review. It’s nice to read cyberpunk that has a sense of humor and that makes an attempt (in a now-dated-feeling-but-at-least-it-tried 90s way) to include and even center characters from marginalized groups. The infodumps get old, though, especially Hiro’s lecture near the end.
Graphic: Sexual content, Blood, Sexual harassment, and War
Moderate: Homophobia and Racial slurs
confusedmuse's review against another edition
- 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
4.5
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Cursing, Drug use, Gun violence, Homophobia, Racial slurs, Racism, Self harm, Sexual content, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, Kidnapping, Religious bigotry, and Car accident