Reviews with content warning for Violence - Proxy

I'm not sure what all to say about this book, and feel a little stuck on what to even rate it - overall, it was alright, an interesting and very dystopian, very YA type of story. Lots of cool tech and world details, interesting premise, cool characters with some cool dynamics between them. (A++ on the main character being a person of color and gay, without either of things being his Only interesting or entirely defining qualities nor the story being 100% centered on these facts; they're just part of him as a person. Bonus points for no overdone teen love triangles, too.)

But the overall writing style was honestly so jarring - with the point of view flipping from paragraph to paragraph or maybe trying to be omniscient instead any particular voice, it made it really difficult to feel at all invested in the story or the characters. It ended up feeling so distant instead of engaging (I've never been a fan of omniscient-style books for this reason), and despite it being fairly fast-paced in terms of action, it actually made it feel like a slow read somehow. And the characters themselves didn't have much depth, though that again feels like a result of the very jarring/omniscient-ish style making it hard to delve into them or have any connection to them during all the Action. I ended up trying to speed read the last quarter just to see how it ended but I was not remotely invested in anything - it all ultimately felt flat and hollow when it had more potential not to be.

I wanted to like this more than I did because it did have some great little moments and some cool scifi/dystopian ideas, but it ended up just being very empty in the end when I feel it shouldn't have been. But I guess if you don't mind omniscient style and you're craving some 2010's era scifi dystopian YA, this maybe isn't a bad choice. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

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ceilisbookshelf's review against another edition

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medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

1.0

Queerbait and implications that bisexuality is just a phase are only outweighed in their absurd offensiveness by an offhand line confirming that to save the world our ‘heroes’ also have to destroy the healthcare infrastructure keeping the sick and disabled alive, but it’s worth it for the Greater Good because No One Can Live Forever. I would rather my queer literature did not include eugenics, thanks.

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