Reviews tagging 'Death'

The Passengers by John Marrs

33 reviews

brittknee52's review

challenging dark mysterious 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Car accident

Moderate: Racism, Sexism, Xenophobia, and Pedophilia

vj_thompson's review against another edition

challenging emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.25

What a wild ride. This book was like a Black Mirror episode.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Car accident, Violence, and Infidelity

Moderate: Torture, Child death, Cursing, Pregnancy, Pedophilia, Racism, Suicide, Murder, Grief, and Panic attacks/disorders

Minor: Vomit, Deportation, Trafficking, Miscarriage, Cancer, and War

reesie_omnibus's review against another edition

adventurous challenging mysterious medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Car accident and Death

chireadsandchill's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Child abuse, Gaslighting, Car accident, Grief, Blood, Death, Death of parent, Dementia, Panic attacks/disorders, Domestic abuse, Pedophilia, Infidelity, Pregnancy, Suicide attempt, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Suicide, Mental illness, Self harm, and Stalking

madanxiety's review

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

5.0

I've been reading so many romance novels over the last few years that I forgot what it was like to read a truly thrilling book. The pacing of this book is masterful. It starts off quite slow, then it speeds up toward the end, but not so fast that we're left with a rushed and incomplete ending, which I guess I've come to expect, unfortunately. When a big climactic moment happened, I was surprised to see there were still about two hours left in the audiobook! I really appreciated that closure.

Aside from pace, I am also always a huge fan of ensembles, which is part of what initially sustained my attention. I was like damn, how many hostages are there? Lol. 

More to the content of the novel, I liked how each character was flawed in a very human way, and yet the protagonist (who, despite all the other characters, I'd say is Libby) was still always someone you could route for. This was a skillful balance to maintain. 

I also have a soft spot for anti-establishment narratives lol. As one of the characters states at some point, the real villains turn out to be people, not AI. 

Spoiler

Going back to Alex, while I'm under the spoilers cut, I do feel somewhat vindicated for never trusting "Jude" after hearing from his perspective early in the book. I'm impressed with that subtle characterization. There was something stalkerish and frenzied about his way of speaking. I mean, the biggest red flag was def him getting a semi in the middle of a hostage situation lol. I took that as revealing something stunted or disturbed about him, anyway. Still, as the book went on, I started to think I'd been reading too much into it, given that Libby stayed willing to save Jude over the others. Such a hopeless romantic move for an otherwise fairly logical character.

My only critique of the book is how characters of color are treated. I will say more under the cut, but ofc it will include major spoilers. 

Spoiler

There was one minor detail toward the end that rubbed me the wrong way. When Alex revealed that his company's work had been given to "the Indians," I thought that was a bit... stereotypical? Why could this Indian company not have been given a name? Why must the entire (enormous) population of India be to blame and not just the company that chose to use stolen work and ultimately spark a global privacy & transportation crisis? Again, I recognize that this was an incredible small detail, coming from the antagonist no less, but at the same time, we are meant to sympathize with Alex somewhat, right? Like, we're meant to agree that that initial situation that led to the rise of level 5 vehicles was fucked and unethical. I just take these tiny details as significant considering popular sentiments regarding immigrants in the UK, to say nothing of their unique historical relationship with India. 

I might've written this off as simply revealing Alex's own biases and flaws, but POC in this book are pretty much all murdered or painted as villains. It seems like the narrative of the book leans sympathetic toward POC, with only unlikeable characters being outright racist, the POC still die unjust deaths. It's like, I get that the novel is meant to be representative of the ugly parts of reality, including the disproportionate victimization of POC, but idk if that's enough justification for using characters of color as mere plot devices or backstory, not when that's the plight of ALL of them.

Anyway, I think the book is an interesting exploration of how AI could be weaponized by both powerful people and vigilantes. It's a cautionary tale about being too trusting of technology with regard to the collection and sharing of private data. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death, Pedophilia, Car accident, Grief, Murder, Stalking, Suicide, Violence, Xenophobia, and Infidelity

Moderate: Panic attacks/disorders and Pregnancy

Minor: Cancer and Infertility

littlelibraryonsunset's review against another edition

dark emotional tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Fire/Fire injury, Islamophobia, Self harm, Suicide attempt, Xenophobia, Racial slurs, Car accident, Kidnapping, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Classism, Suicide, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Panic attacks/disorders, Gore, Hate crime, Murder, Pregnancy, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Trafficking, and Violence

mel_s_bookshelf's review against another edition

dark tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Murder, Violence, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Suicide and Racism

malloryhill10's review against another edition

dark tense medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Car accident, Death, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Pedophilia and Panic attacks/disorders

katiehelen1995's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense 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? Yes

4.0

Another interesting read by Marrs! I found this quite triggering due to recent events in my own life, however, I didn't put it down once I'd opened it! Without giving too much away, this book contains constant twists that you won't see coming. The idea of driverless cars is one that isn't too far-fetched but, in fact, completely realistic and incredibly daunting! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Infertility, Pedophilia, Pregnancy, Death, Death of parent, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Car accident, Child death, and Mental illness

alliyyamo's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective tense fast-paced

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

4.25

The future is terrifying... Nearly every passenger was a full person to me that I felt like I could've known somehow, making it better and worst every time. I could literally see the tv series. 

Spoiler

I wish I could've learned more about the aftermath of the families of the deceased passengers to see that impact. My heart still breaks for Shabana. It felt particularly pointed that all the POC passengers were eliminated first but didn't feel surprising given the current political climate .

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Car accident, Classism, Death, and Murder

Minor: Suicide and Pedophilia