Reviews tagging 'Death'

The Abyss Surrounds Us by Emily Skrutskie

8 reviews

blacksphinx's review against another edition

adventurous tense slow-paced

• 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

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Death, Blood, Kidnapping, Violence, Animal death, and Grief

Moderate: Confinement, Injury/Injury detail, and Gun violence

Minor: Suicide, Suicide attempt, Suicidal thoughts, and Gore

aleshamiller's review

adventurous dark tense

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Violence, Bullying, Gun violence, Blood, Murder, Kidnapping, War, Confinement, and Death

solarel's review

adventurous lighthearted fast-paced

• 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? No

3.25

This book had me surprisingly enthralled for 90% of it. I found the writing engaging and approachable, something a lot of YA books have, but it wasn’t so juvenile that it was just drivel. Something a lot of YA does struggle with. 

The ending however felt like a letdown.

Spoiler

Our main character didn’t even dare to dream of the best case ending for her story… merely went with the shitty option.

And the love story was great till the ending as well.

Spoiler

what a shallow ending… finding out a betrayal from her love interest, which was the only thing keeping her going till now, I’m the last five pages.

Decent read but the ending sucked all my joy out. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Murder, Physical abuse, Animal cruelty, Confinement, Violence, Death, Gun violence, Suicidal thoughts, and Kidnapping

Minor: Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Slavery, and Injury/Injury detail

_jazzy_'s review

adventurous challenging mysterious medium-paced

• 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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death

Minor: Suicidal thoughts

carleesi's review

adventurous medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No

3.75

I read this book super quickly, I agree with other reviews that it would have benefited more from being longer, but I still really enjoyed it.

I especially loved the reckoners, the lore around them was entrancing and the monster/family relationship the humans have with them was a really interesting element of the story.

I liked the love story but felt there was too much time spent on that rather than on Cas coming to terms with her abduction and subsequent identity crisis.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Gore, Death, and Kidnapping

nyxiee's review against another edition

adventurous emotional tense medium-paced

• 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

ok this book is literally the chefs kiss of pirate stories ever ,, WITH A LESBIAN ROMANCE !! (which is hard to discuss without giving it away, but all you need to know is that its a very complicated enemies to lovers thatll have you yearning for years to come). it really couldnt get anymore better than this,, but the rollercoaster of emotions i went through reading this ehsgvshshs$;$: I CRIED. I SCREAMED. I FELL APART TO PIECES. just ....... please do yourself a favour and read it, i pinky promise this book will just bless your life <3

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Gun violence, Murder, and Death

Moderate: Kidnapping, Confinement, Grief, Cursing, Animal death, and Gore

Minor: Suicide attempt, Suicidal thoughts, and Slavery

mia_books's review against another edition

adventurous tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Kidnapping, and Violence

Minor: Confinement, Cursing, Death, and Kidnapping

hatterell's review against another edition

adventurous medium-paced

• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

The Abyss Surrounds Us introduces a really unique concept and portrayal of the future, particularly how society and politics interact with an ocean setting. Overall I liked Strutskie's ideas - both training the Reckoners and having trainee pirates compete to be the next captain was a lot of fun.

However, this book lacked in a lot of areas. The writing was decent but I didn't connect with any of the characters or relationships, and Cas's logic was consistently disjointed and confusing. A main issue for me was that I struggled to visualise what the Reckoners looked like, so I felt like there was a huge hole in scenes as I was reading. Even though there's lots of death in this book, it never made the story feel high stakes.

I'm glad I read this but, other than the concept, the best word I can think of to describe it is average. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Death, and Grief

Minor: Slavery