Reviews tagging 'Grief'

The Relentless Moon by Mary Robinette Kowal

19 reviews

fantasycat's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful informative inspiring sad 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Pandemic/Epidemic, Death, Sexism, Racism, Eating disorder, and Grief

Moderate: Excrement and Miscarriage

maryellen's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful informative mysterious 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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Gaslighting, Infertility, Injury/Injury detail, Death, Eating disorder, Chronic illness, Dysphoria, Grief, Medical content, Miscarriage, and Confinement

Moderate: Gun violence

Minor: Cursing

oceanwriter's review against another edition

adventurous emotional tense medium-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? Yes

3.5

As much as I love this series and its setting and characters, I just didn't click with this one as much as I did with books one and two. The change of POV surprised me because I stop reading the summaries at this point in any series. I was pumped to see what was next for Elma, but I suppose given the epilogue in The Fated Sky, this one's on me.

While Elma is on her way to Mars, her friend and fellow astronaut Nicole Wargin is back on the moon as the colony continues to be established. With her husband a politician on Earth, they make the difficult decision to live apart as they do the work they were meant to do. Despite their distance, they come to share a common enemy: The Earth First movement.

Characters aside (although there are some name drops and familiar faces scattered throughout the story), the book has an overall different tone from the first two. The actual space travel is less of a focus. Instead, it's more of a story about sabotage and a pandemic. Yet, the themes remain similar in other ways. Where Elma was known for her anxiety issues, Nicole, too, struggles with her own disorders, which in this case is an eating disorder. And much like Elma, she doesn't let this get in the way of her job and passion for space travel. I didn't connect with Nicole as much as I did with Elma, but I appreciate the strength of her character.

I'm not sure if more books are in the works for this series. If so, I'm curious if the next one will also follow Nicole or if we'll circle back to Elma. Maybe we'll get to know one of the other Lady Astronauts? Even though I didn't enjoy this one as much as the previous two, I admire Mary Robinette Kowal's dedication to the research, especially when it comes to science and how it might have looked even in the alternate take on the 1960s.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Grief, and Eating disorder

Moderate: Racism, Sexism, Infertility, and Murder

Minor: Miscarriage

iono's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious slow-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? Yes

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Eating disorder, Grief, Chronic illness, and Death

Moderate: Infertility, Miscarriage, Racism, and Sexism

Minor: Excrement

thebowandthebook's review against another edition

adventurous emotional inspiring mysterious sad 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

5.0

Really phenomenal read. A bit more innuendo than I prefer but other than that the writing was stellar and I entirely enjoyed it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Eating disorder

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Violence, Racism, Misogyny, Grief, and Infertility

Minor: Sexual content

cynthiareads's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious 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

4.0

My favourite of the Lady Astronaut series.  Loved reading more about Nicole, Eugene, Myrtle, and Helen. This locked room mystery set on the moon kept me wondering what would happen next. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Eating disorder

Moderate: Vomit and Grief

kalayk's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Eating disorder

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Grief, Hate crime, Infertility, Injury/Injury detail, Miscarriage, Sexism, and Xenophobia

penguininabluebox's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective tense fast-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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Eating disorder, Grief, and Medical content

Moderate: Violence, Sexism, Racism, Mental illness, Injury/Injury detail, Miscarriage, and Cursing

Minor: Murder

brittshaw_p's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional informative reflective sad 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

4.5

4.5/5⭐️ | 0.25/5🌶 | 1/3⚠️ |14 +

Genre: historical AU sci fi

Diversity: anorexic MC, steminist, feminist, B/A + API SCs 

Moods: tense, relentless/non-stop, geo-political, steminist, anti-racist

Pace: medium

Device(s): 

Trope(s): 

Notes: told from Nicole’s perspective on the moon takes place at the same time as The Fated Sky - we see the fraught political landscape that we only saw glimpses and hints and consequences of during The Fated Sky. Earth Firsters are actively sabotaging the IAC and moon colony. Stick with Nicole as she ferrets out the saboteur(s) with Myrtle, Eugene, Hamid, and Helen. Relentless perfectly describes this books - one after another problems pop up - but at the same time it doesn’t feel overdone. An absolute rollercoaster emotions while set perfectly in the sexist and racist times of 1960s, expertly crafted AU. Excellent continuation of the Lady Astronaut novels!!

# of pages: 

AB length: 

Took me ~ to read: 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Eating disorder, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Death, and Vomit

Moderate: Infertility, Racism, Misogyny, Sexism, and Sexual content

charlottejones952's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Eating disorder, Misogyny, Grief, Mental illness, and Sexism

Moderate: Hate crime

Minor: Miscarriage and Suicidal thoughts