Reviews

Stronger, Faster, and More Beautiful by Arwen Elys Dayton

renila's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

thewrittenadventure's review against another edition

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4.0

An interesting look in this sci fi novel. There are a few different stories throughout the novel which are all connected through the idea of body modifications.
I really enjoyed the uniqueness of this novel and how throughout time, body modifications might look differently.

jennyfromtheburbs's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny informative reflective slow-paced

3.5

zabcia's review against another edition

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4.0

84%

6 stories progressively moving further into the future of human genetic modification; fascinating and appalling and clearly written with a lot of consideration. I could see things playing out the way it was written in this book, and god I hope it doesn't. Haunting, yet hopeful.

miaaa_lenaaa's review against another edition

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adventurous dark informative mysterious reflective medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Actually way more interesting and unique and gorey than i was expecting, i just wish the narratives had just woven together more

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thebookberrie's review against another edition

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1.0

My reaction to this book as a whole is what it was after every single one of these story stories: uhhhh okay. I knew going into this that it was a bunch of stories connecting with the same theme but I did not expect this book to be this bad. I'm sorry but I just didn't like anything.

Most of these stories were just... pointless. After each one I was wondering what even the point was when it just cut off instead of having a complete story in itself. This is not like Black Mirror (would have been good) because then it would have been full stories instead of just snippets. A couple of stories in the beginning were okay, the first one didn't do anything but the one with the robot girl wasn't bad but the stories just kept getting more and more weird, insane, and it lost me so hard. They really wanted to top each other on how weird and nonsense they could really be.

Cool idea, everything else is a yikes from me.

my_life_full_of_stories's review against another edition

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DNF
Wasn't my style at all.

willowshelter's review against another edition

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challenging dark reflective fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.25

katykelly's review against another edition

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4.0

Powerful, relevant and riveting series of interconnected genetic engineering narratives.

4.5 stars.
I was intrigued from the first. Set in our own near future but spanning decades and beyond, the stories explore related issues and in fact related stories, regarding genetic engineering of the human body.

Some are very brief, a brother and sister organ donation plot, a girl whose body has been wrecked but rebuilt after an accident and how this affects how other students see her. Others are longer and more detailed - what happens when you select for certain traits and the effects are not what you expect, the planetary implications of creating human-like beings, or of altering large amounts of the body.

We have different narrators, young people who tell us about their world, their body, their attitudes to nature and alteration. I can't imagine anyone will read/listen to this and not question their own instincts and reactions to the idea of modifying the human body or of creating human-like beings.

Just loved the collection, and how they interconnected as well. The society the stories built is one that seems not too far away, and the technology and its implications this showcases only makes it clear that there are both huge benefits and some tremendous downsides to having this power and control.

I would recommend the audio version of this. Some of the narrators speak directly to the reader/listener, making this an absorbing Audible listen. A range of voices portray the characters effortlessly, there are clear breaks from tale to tale.

I do enjoy a book that makes me ponder my opinions, and makes me think 'what if'. Fans of dystopic fiction but also anyone interested in science/technology and its future will find this a stimulating read.

With thanks to Nudge Books for providing a sample Audible copy.

brianne_k's review against another edition

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1.0

*1.5/5*

This was not the book for me. The concept sounded so unique, but I didn't enough for the stories and how they were thinly interconnected. I enjoyed stories 1, 2, and 4. But not enough to make me like this book. Especially because the lengths of the stories weren't proportional to each other. I would have liked story 1 to be longer, and for 5 & 6 to be shorter.