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kailiyahknight'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: Body horror, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Police brutality, Mass/school shootings, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, and Suicide attempt
Minor: Child death, Torture, and Death of parent
cute_emo_bookboy'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? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Police brutality
Moderate: Gore, Gun violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Violence, Blood, and Religious bigotry
cwgonzales'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: Bullying, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, and Murder
Moderate: Classism
a_cera_t0ps's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
The book looked at the inherent fault in the concept of a utopia: to be flawed is to be human. To live is to one day die. To love is to risk losing.
In a perfect world, humanity ends up desensitized and stagnant. There are no big emotions, no real wants, and no true progress. Life is boring. The only thing that's still human, ironically, is found in the most horrific, inhumane act someone could commit. Humanity barely lives, and the rest just live to die. To kill. To "glean," as a shiny, perfect, desensitized world would prefer to call it.
The book has a refreshing take on the future. It believes that, if we were to cure death before fighting our way into space, we would never leave. We would grow comfortable in safety, and seek vanquish any attempts to jeopardize it. It was interesting, and I felt it was realistic.
Neal Shusterman shows just how bad humanity is. True humanity leads to the worst of the worst worming their way into power every time. True humanity values themselves over morality. True humanity is ignorant and judgemental. True humanity, simply put, is dangerous. Yet, I we strip mankind of its sin, we are left with nothing worthwhile.
The plot is well connected. It wraps enough of the story up to have a clear, clean plot while still establishing conflict to be dealt with in the following books.
The characters well fleshed out nicely. The ones that were meant to be likeable were wonderful. The antagonists were scary. If not in a thriller/horror way, in a philosophical way. You didn't want them to win, but the threat of their success was just too real. Each response to the conflicts were clever. Nothing was too predictable to be enjoyable or too convoluted to be good storytelling.
The Shustermans are amazing, as always <3
Graphic: Death, Emotional abuse, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Murder, and Fire/Fire injury
Moderate: Bullying, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Physical abuse, Police brutality, Grief, Mass/school shootings, Religious bigotry, and Injury/Injury detail
cadybooks'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
5.0
Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Death, Fatphobia, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Blood, Police brutality, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Mass/school shootings, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail
rightwhrleftme'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
5.0
Graphic: Death, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Self harm, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, Grief, Mass/school shootings, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail
phoebelilly's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
Graphic: Child death, Death, Genocide, Gun violence, Self harm, Suicide, Violence, Police brutality, and Murder
adrienanthony's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Body shaming, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Gore, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Grief, Mass/school shootings, Suicide attempt, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism
Moderate: Police brutality and Medical content
Minor: Genocide and Torture
monniebiloney's review against another edition
- 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
5.0
The story has 2 main characters, and the story switched POV after every chapter between them.
The main boy character has my favorite main character personality type, and the story handled him well.
while the female character actually has one of my least favorite character personalities, she is well written for her arcitype which made her grow on me. She is a classic 'spunky female lead who always wants to be #1 and has lots of pride,' but she meshes well with the world and with the other characters.
this book ends in a way that I didn't know that there were more books in the series, which makes me extremely excited for the next book, as only the ebst of writers can have the confidence to not end their books on cliff hangers and knows that if they wrote a good book, people will want to read more.
Moderate: Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, Grief, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail
recycled_personalities's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Physical abuse, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Mass/school shootings, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism