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flexolo's review
adventurous
challenging
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Drug use, Gore, Blood, Vomit, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic
Moderate: Genocide and War
matchamarimo's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gun violence and Violence
Moderate: Gore, Murder, and Pandemic/Epidemic
bluejayreads's review
3.0
This book was recommended to me, and I generally attempt to read books recommended to me. This wasn’t my first foray into this author’s work, either. I’d read his book Recursion a while back and found it a sci-fi kind of weird that isn’t necessarily my jam, but that was well-written and had some interesting ideas. So I figured this probably wouldn’t be bad.
And I was correct. Upgrade wasn’t bad. The protagonist may not have had very many interesting characteristics beyond being the protagonist, but the concept was interesting and Blake Crouch is a competent writer. The action moved along, the story was largely well-paced, and it kept me engaged the whole way through. Nothing spectacular, sure, but perfectly readable.
However. As you might have guessed by the tone here, I do have some criticisms. Again, Blake’s particular brand of sci-fi weird isn’t quite up my alley, so some of this could definitely be me. But some of it is I just take issue with some of the fundamental concepts of the book itself.
Upgrade is ambitious in scope and interesting in concept. In a world where genetic modification is very possible (but also very illegal), an anti-gene-modification enforcement agent finds his genes being modified against his will, making him almost superhuman. Now he has to tackle questions like “why did this happen?” and “would the world be better if it happened to everybody?” But as interesting and potentially thematic as this idea could be, the execution is a little wacky. Some parts are frighteningly realistic, others are laughably not, and the discordant combination made the whole thing feel a bit silly. It would have made a perfectly serviceable mindless action movie, but the attempt at thematic depth just emphasized how ridiculous some parts of it were.
I spent a lot of time trying to put my finger on my actual problem with this book. I had notes about how Logan Ramsey has big “r/iamverysmart” vibes, and whether or not killing the same character twice was too much, and how cruel Logan’s mother was and how I couldn’t believe that neither of her children realized how much they were like her. But then I was reminded of the word “eugenics” and realized my issue. Without giving away too many spoilers, the arguable antagonist of the first half of the book thinks climate change would be solved if people were only better in a specific way and wants to accomplish that with mass gene modification. It really feels like what a eugenics movement would look like in a world where you didn’t necessarily have to breed better traits into people because you could just modify people’s genes instead. But our protagonist seemed pretty against that whole idea, so I wasn’t too bothered. Up until the end, when (minor spoiler alert) he decided his problem wasn’t so much the eugenics-style idea, just which traits should be changed. It left a really bad taste in my mouth.
It’s very possible that at least some of my complaints are because while I find these kinds of stories fine, they’re not the type of thing I generally really love. And on the whole, Upgrade was fine. I didn’t love it, I think its themes were handled poorly, and I really didn’t love some of the vibes it gives off. But it was readable. I found it interesting enough to finish. If it were made into an action movie, I think it would work pretty well. I just don’t particularly recommend it as it is.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Violence, Blood, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Terminal illness and Pandemic/Epidemic
Minor: Suicide
corix's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
relaxing
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Gore, Violence, and Blood
strawberrypinch's review
adventurous
dark
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Content Warnings
Moderate: Confinement, Death, Drug use, Gun violence, Suicide, Violence, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Drug abuse, Gore, Suicide, Terminal illness, Torture, Blood, Dementia, Cannibalism, Car accident, and Alcohol
m_liz's review against another edition
adventurous
hopeful
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gore and Medical content
sneakysnam's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
Content Warnings
Moderate: Gore, Gun violence, Torture, Blood, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Murder
tanishah's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
informative
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death, Gore, Gun violence, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Child death, Suicide, and Death of parent
whatjasread's review against another edition
challenging
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
- def lower end of 3 stars, i think
- it wasn't bad, conceptually it was actually very interesting, but it definitely needed editing
- lots of introspection and not a lot of plot progression, plus the final 10% felt like a drag that i just wanted to get over with to the point where I skimmed it mostly
- a weird case of it needing to be shorter but also needing to be longer - cut the repetitive waffle, add more insight that isn't introspective
- thought provoking at times, but definitely one that you have to really think about, not really a book you can 'get lost in'
- confusing at times with the enhancements that worked in some scenarios but not in others
- i have only read one blake crouch (dark matter) but this doesn't come close to it, i'm afraid
TWs: vomiting, hospitalisation, explosion, violence, gunshot wounds, gun violence, death of father (past, suicide), death of mother, death of brother (past, leukemia), death of sister (murder), strained family relationships, murder, torture, needles, blood, gore, scarring, drug use, smoking, alcohol consumption, animal abuse/testing
Thank you to bookbreak and the author for providing me with an arc in exchange for an honest review. all thoughts and opinions expressed are my own.
- it wasn't bad, conceptually it was actually very interesting, but it definitely needed editing
- lots of introspection and not a lot of plot progression, plus the final 10% felt like a drag that i just wanted to get over with to the point where I skimmed it mostly
- a weird case of it needing to be shorter but also needing to be longer - cut the repetitive waffle, add more insight that isn't introspective
- thought provoking at times, but definitely one that you have to really think about, not really a book you can 'get lost in'
- confusing at times with the enhancements that worked in some scenarios but not in others
- i have only read one blake crouch (dark matter) but this doesn't come close to it, i'm afraid
TWs: vomiting, hospitalisation, explosion, violence, gunshot wounds, gun violence, death of father (past, suicide), death of mother, death of brother (past, leukemia), death of sister (murder), strained family relationships, murder, torture, needles, blood, gore, scarring, drug use, smoking, alcohol consumption, animal abuse/testing
Thank you to bookbreak and the author for providing me with an arc in exchange for an honest review. all thoughts and opinions expressed are my own.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Gun violence, Violence, Medical content, Medical trauma, Death of parent, and Murder
Moderate: Gore, Torture, and Blood
Minor: Animal cruelty, Cancer, Child death, Drug use, Suicide, Vomit, Grief, Car accident, Alcohol, and War