Reviews with content warning for Violence - Upgrade

Reviews tagging 'Violence'

Upgrade by Blake Crouch

50 reviews

antidietleah's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
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

3.5

Blake Crouch always makes me think. This is the scariest kind of book to read - one that is so close to our reality that it feels plausible in the near future.

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rochelleisreading's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging informative fast-paced

4.0

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matchamarimo's review against another edition

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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

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krissysbooked's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional informative tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

I consider myself a bit of a fantasy/sci-fi fan and read Crouch’s Wayward Pines trilogy after becoming obsessed with the TV show when it came out in 2015.

Upgrade is a little different and feels like an eerily possible scenario, in a world where peoples genes can be edited and the outcomes aren’t always amazing or safe.

Don’t be put off by the sci-fi tag if this isn’t normally your thing, because Crouch has an uncanny way of making the science accessible and explaining it alongside the story so that no one gets left behind.

Great action, great future speculation of the dangers of gene editing, and another great story from Blake Crouch. Excuse me whilst I go and work my way through his back catalogue…

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beckyyreadss's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-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? Yes

4.0

This was book’s club pick of the month for April. I was excited to read this book, and this was the first book I read of Blake Crouch, and I will be reading more of Blake’s work in the future.

This book is based on Logan Ramsey and is concentration is better, he can multitask quicker, read faster, memorize more and sleep deeper. He is beginning to see the world around him even those he loves the most in whole new ways. He knows that it’s not natural, that his genes have been hacked. He has been targeted for an upgrade. Logan’s family legacy is one he has been trying to escape for decade and it has left him vulnerable to attach. But with a terrifying plan in place to replicate his upgrade throughout the world’s population, he may be the only person capable of stopping what has already been set in motion. To win this war against humanity Logan will now have to become something other than himself.

I love Logan Ramsey, I was rooting for him the whole time throughout this book and give him a hug. I liked the plot and how it was split into three parts. The first part was talking about the background of the story, the characters and the plot was building. The second part was all about the DNA and biology which is where I lost it a bit and got slightly confused. The third part was all the action and had me on the edge of my seat. This book is fast-paced, action-packed that is filled with drama and twists and science. I love the message within the story about humanity and to have compassion. The epilogue was beautifully written, and it perfectly wrapped the book up.

The biology and the science behind sometimes confused me and made me feel dumb, like I barely passed science in high school. So, I found myself skimming over the biology bit which was most of part two. I would have liked more action and what happened to Logan Ramsey after the epilogue.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book, and I cannot wait to read more of Blake Crouch’s work.

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oddpilot97's review against another edition

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mysterious reflective 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? Yes

4.5

If you have ADHD, you might have thought "man, what if I could just focus all this mental energy into something awesome?" This book definitely taps into that daydream.

I gotta say, the whole concept had me hooked from the start. The first half of the book was seriously captivating. The whole concept of human enhancement is fascinating, and Crouch does a great job of building suspense as Logan figures out what's happening to him. It's like a high-octane thriller with a healthy dose of "what if?" that really resonated with me.

However, here's the thing. Maybe it's because the mystery gets solved a little too early, but the middle of the book fizzled for me. It felt like the real meat of the story was over halfway through, and I struggled to keep the momentum going.

Also, can we talk about the whole build-up about the mother maybe being out there, then BAM! She killed herself. Seriously? That was such a gut punch. It felt like a huge letdown, especially because the mother seemed like a fascinating character. We barely got to scratch the surface of her story, and all the questions surrounding her just went unanswered.

Honestly, it felt like a missed opportunity. There was so much potential there to explore her perspective, her role in the whole situation. It's a shame they just shut the door on that entirely.

Overall, if you're looking for a mind-bending sci-fi adventure that'll tickle your ADHD curiosity, this is a good pick. Just be prepared for the possibility of needing a double-shot espresso to power through the second half.

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bluejayreads's review

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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.

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hybridhavoc's review against another edition

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adventurous tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.75

This was a decent read. Of Blake Crouch's works that I've read so far, this one reads the most like it was written for film. I think a film adaptation would be pretty straightforward. Probably wouldn't be an entirely bad movie.

With that said, there's not much new ground covered here really. Nothing about this is offensive I don't think.

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ababytapir's review against another edition

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hopeful mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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ashtonjamesdean's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional reflective

4.0

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