leighwilliams'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, Blood, Self harm, Sexual content, Death, Incest, Injury/Injury detail, and Murder
aibird's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Graphic: Incest
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 content, and Sexual assault
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:
Spoiler
I feel like this book ends with ambiguity as to what actually happened. Maybe that works for some people. It bothered me. I also had a hard time suspending disbelief in the future timeline. Finally, while I was able to understand most of the passages in Kriol, it slowed me down significantly and I just found it off-putting to be asked to read pages and pages of it.This next spoiler gives away major plot points:
Spoiler
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: Self harm and Incest
tangerineflame's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Loved the world building, overlapping timelines, and character parallels
Graphic: Gore and Incest
ksorianotaylor's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
definitely saw some big “twists” coming, but i think that was intentional. and there were enough that i didn’t catch them all. the world building to me was just so-so, but the connections between the three settings were super interesting. one of the books it reminded me of that hasn’t been brought up yet is the fifth sacred thing by starhawk, so people might enjoy that.
i’m rating it a little lower i guess because while i overall enjoyed the book, a lot of it seemed unbelievable to me (which is a dumb reason for a sci-fi book i know). but like leah as a character was boring and kind of stock-y to me (also why didn’t she have a cell phone? in 2012?!) likewise ajul and ixul were the least interesting part of the 1012 era, and ket suffered from weird wise-child syndrome. the 3012 era had the most promise to me but it was super hard for me to believe that a dispersed nomadic society dedicated pluralism would ALL so dogmatically believe in the laviaja/st leah religion. also there was just sooo much unsexy sex. (that i don’t think was intentional.) like i would have expected to see more fun sex stuff happening in 3012 with endless ~future~ possibilities? but instead we got tired twincest and leah. and i think the author could have used more queer/trans input in those relationships. ahh sorry now that i said it leah was so boring!
also the kriol and spanish that people complained about is definitely intelligible/context oriented, i did not have a problem with it at all.
Graphic: Incest, Blood, and Self harm
moonm's review against another edition
Graphic: Incest, Violence, and Self harm
readingrachael7's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
Graphic: Incest and Self harm
beccaand's review
- 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? Yes
3.75
Graphic: Death, Self harm, Incest, Sexual content, and Blood
Moderate: Injury/Injury detail and Child death
Minor: Terminal illness
cleo_wylde'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? It's complicated
4.0
Graphic: Death, Gore, Murder, Self harm, Sexual content, Injury/Injury detail, and Blood
Moderate: Incest, Religious bigotry, and Injury/Injury detail