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gandalfsleftshoe's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Medical content, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Grief, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic
Moderate: Confinement, Gore, Mental illness, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic
thebetterstory's review against another edition
dark
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.75
I wish this lived up to its premise. "Boarding school girls go full Lord of the Flies, with bonus body horror" has tons of potential as a concept, and for the first half of the book or so while it's setting up its mysteries I was hopeful it would deliver.
Unfortunately, the book didn't seem to have any real themes to tie its plot together. The Tox seems perfectly designed to be a meaningful metaphor: it's only survivable by cis girls (or presumably AFAB folks in general, which is addressed), it only hits during or after puberty, and in at least some of its forms it causes the victims to develop bestial features, animalistic rage and merge with sentient plant life. At times the book seems to suggest it frees the girls from the confines of their social and gender roles, but most of the time it's just played straightforwardly as an uncomplicated horror-flavoured problem with no greater meaning. It works that way because it works that way.
Without particularly strong prose or ideas to fall back on, the plot meanders around and becomes just a series of things happening. Often bad things happening, often directly as the result of poor decisions made by the main trio of girls. I frequently had the urge to reach through the book and shake them.Why deliver the obvious can of euthanasia gas to the Headmistress you know you can't trust? Why lie to a boy to get him to kiss you when you have Deadly Body Horror Plague if you're going to feel bad when he inevitably contracts it, especially if that's then going to be played for angst as though you couldn't have known? Logic is thin on the ground, both with the girls and with the actual plot itself, and when the answers to the latter's mysteries are revealed they're both poorly explained and incredibly dull. Parasite worms as the results of melting polar ice? Really? This would perhaps work if the book had been going hard on ecological themes, but it really doesn't.
So with all that said, do the characters and their relationships manage to carry the book? Nope. The characterization is wildly inconsistent. We're introduced to Byatt as someone caring and good at holding herself together for other people's sake, and the way the book rips that away isn't so much interesting as baffling because there was little to no foreshadowing. Reese is established as a cold, harsh determinator with a temper who wants to survive and win no matter what, but she spends most of the second half of the book being the opposite of pragmatic, while Hetty steps in to take that role. Meanwhile, a ton of emphasis is placed on Hetty's guilt and feelings of camaraderie towards the other girls,only for her to abandon them all to die at the end without a second thought. Shortly after criticizing the Headmistress and Taylor for wanting to do the same thing. Make it make sense!!!
The weak, half-hearted ending is just the final straw. If you want a first-person book about a clever group of women in isolated circumstances dealing with mystery and excellent eco-horror, I'd recommend you bypass this entirely and go for Annihilation instead.
Unfortunately, the book didn't seem to have any real themes to tie its plot together. The Tox seems perfectly designed to be a meaningful metaphor: it's only survivable by cis girls (or presumably AFAB folks in general, which is addressed), it only hits during or after puberty, and in at least some of its forms it causes the victims to develop bestial features, animalistic rage and merge with sentient plant life. At times the book seems to suggest it frees the girls from the confines of their social and gender roles, but most of the time it's just played straightforwardly as an uncomplicated horror-flavoured problem with no greater meaning. It works that way because it works that way.
Without particularly strong prose or ideas to fall back on, the plot meanders around and becomes just a series of things happening. Often bad things happening, often directly as the result of poor decisions made by the main trio of girls. I frequently had the urge to reach through the book and shake them.
So with all that said, do the characters and their relationships manage to carry the book? Nope. The characterization is wildly inconsistent. We're introduced to Byatt as someone caring and good at holding herself together for other people's sake, and the way the book rips that away isn't so much interesting as baffling because there was little to no foreshadowing. Reese is established as a cold, harsh determinator with a temper who wants to survive and win no matter what, but she spends most of the second half of the book being the opposite of pragmatic, while Hetty steps in to take that role. Meanwhile, a ton of emphasis is placed on Hetty's guilt and feelings of camaraderie towards the other girls,
The weak, half-hearted ending is just the final straw. If you want a first-person book about a clever group of women in isolated circumstances dealing with mystery and excellent eco-horror, I'd recommend you bypass this entirely and go for Annihilation instead.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child death, Death, Forced institutionalization, and Murder
Moderate: Gun violence, Suicide, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Self harm and Vomit
zmeiat's review against another edition
challenging
dark
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.25
Very interesting and engaging story. It could however have fleshed out the Tox and its properties more since It felt like it was doing a lot of things at once.
Nevertheless it was a good read.
Nevertheless it was a good read.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Death, Gore, Self harm, Suicide, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Medical content, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Vomit
beeboy03's review against another edition
dark
emotional
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
2.0
i think the concept of this book is really intriguing and had the potential to be great but the story was strongly lacking. the characters relationships are so confusing and i feel like we never got to see them properly interact. hetty and reese have zero chemistry and reese seems to only exist to support hetty, having no character traits of her own. byatt’s intentions are also so confusing, why the heck did she kiss that man?! i have no idea. and them finding her initials in the tree as proof of her being alive makes no sense since we never see byatt do this. i guess we can assume she was there when taken to be tested but it’s too disconnected when not seeing it from hyatt’s perspective. another inconsistency is hetty saying she’s never seen byatt off the island, “when i see her on the mainland, will she still be my byatt?” but we’ve been told that they have gone to the mainland together before! also hetty and reese seem to care about everyone but at the same time they don’t? and they just leave them all to die? and why the HECK is the only explanation for the tox climate change? it definitely needed more explaining than just that. overall this book was wildly inconsistent with little explanation, and the characters were not fleshed out enough.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Self harm, Suicide, and Vomit
annoyedbabe's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
That was honestly a lot more brutal and frightening than I thought I was signing myself up for. Some of those scenes were described in such detail it really made my skin crawl (book TW: self-harm, suicide, death). I enjoyed the story a lot, but the ending left me kind of confused of their plan for their next step.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Self harm, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail
_corrin's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
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
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic
Moderate: Animal death, Suicide, Blood, Vomit, and Grief
Minor: Mental illness, Self harm, Medical content, and Gaslighting
sufferingsapph0's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Child death, Cursing, Death, Gore, Mental illness, Self harm, Terminal illness, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Gaslighting, Abandonment, and Pandemic/Epidemic
agnela's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
Reese was a great character, it was amazing how they handled her dad's death, but Hetty wasn't that great of a character, I was surprised because this book contains really well thought out twists and characters.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Self harm, Suicide, Terminal illness, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Medical trauma, Death of parent, and Pandemic/Epidemic
milesbian's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-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
4.0
We 👏 support 👏 women's 👏 wrongs 👏
Jokes aside, this was an... interesting book. I just finished, so maybe I should let it settle a bit more better writing this, but eh.
First off, the obvious: the ending. The ending was... it just was. It definitely leaves you with questions, way too many questions, but I don't know. I didn't think it was absolutely horrible like other people claim. Seriously, based on what I'd heard, I was expecting the most dogshit writing I've ever seen lol. But I think maybe, for some people at least (and this is why I'm being vague and not marking this as spoilers, so that anybody that wants to read the book but is wary because of all the reviews lambasting the ending can see), you just need to go into it knowing you aren't going to get all the answers to all your questions. In fact, you won't be getting the answers to most of your questions. So just keep that in mind. And a bit more in regards to my own thoughts: there is so much we don't get to learn, and I know it feels more like the end to a chapter rather than the whole book, but personally, I think there's almost something admirable in that. It doesn't tell you what happens next, and I think that's what'll help this story stay with me: the questions, and the wondering.
Honestly, people complain so much about the ending, but I had way more of an issue with the beginning of the book. The book has a very rough start imo, the writing coming across somewhat juvenile and just a tad bit too edgy for my liking. I would go into more detail if I wasn't typing all of this up on my phone, but basically, I just really feel like the first few chapters could've used more editing than I think they actually got. Like, when I first started this book, I described it to my dad as a YA version of Annihilation (and yes, though I don't usually approve of the way some people use "YA" as shorthand for "bad," I did mean that in a disparaging way). I even considered DNFing it. But I'm glad I kept reading. It's not a perfect book, and the ending seems to be divisive, but overall, it was a decent read with an interesting premise. Whether it sticks the landing, honestly, is up to you; but for me, I do think this is a book I'll be thinking about for a while.
Jokes aside, this was an... interesting book. I just finished, so maybe I should let it settle a bit more better writing this, but eh.
First off, the obvious: the ending. The ending was... it just was. It definitely leaves you with questions, way too many questions, but I don't know. I didn't think it was absolutely horrible like other people claim. Seriously, based on what I'd heard, I was expecting the most dogshit writing I've ever seen lol. But I think maybe, for some people at least (and this is why I'm being vague and not marking this as spoilers, so that anybody that wants to read the book but is wary because of all the reviews lambasting the ending can see), you just need to go into it knowing you aren't going to get all the answers to all your questions. In fact, you won't be getting the answers to most of your questions. So just keep that in mind. And a bit more in regards to my own thoughts: there is so much we don't get to learn, and I know it feels more like the end to a chapter rather than the whole book, but personally, I think there's almost something admirable in that. It doesn't tell you what happens next, and I think that's what'll help this story stay with me: the questions, and the wondering.
Honestly, people complain so much about the ending, but I had way more of an issue with the beginning of the book. The book has a very rough start imo, the writing coming across somewhat juvenile and just a tad bit too edgy for my liking. I would go into more detail if I wasn't typing all of this up on my phone, but basically, I just really feel like the first few chapters could've used more editing than I think they actually got. Like, when I first started this book, I described it to my dad as a YA version of Annihilation (and yes, though I don't usually approve of the way some people use "YA" as shorthand for "bad," I did mean that in a disparaging way). I even considered DNFing it. But I'm glad I kept reading. It's not a perfect book, and the ending seems to be divisive, but overall, it was a decent read with an interesting premise. Whether it sticks the landing, honestly, is up to you; but for me, I do think this is a book I'll be thinking about for a while.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Self harm, Suicide, and Violence
laughingrecord's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Gore, Self harm, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic