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tigger89's review against another edition
- 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
4.0
The book's biggest strength — its varied cast of characters, painting a picture of the future through several distinct narratives — unfortunately also contributes to its biggest weakness. This is due to the way the story is told, with the narratives fragmented and presented non-linearly. While I believe my sense of the whole is complete, or near enough, I'd honestly struggle to tell you, start to finish, what precisely befell each character in the story. There's nothing quite like seeing a character pop up in a scene and having to pause, confused, and think to yourself: "I thought he was dead by now!" I'm not sure that reading it again would help. I think I'd likely have to break out the index cards and start laying the plot out down the hallway to make complete sense of it. Honestly, some kind of dates on the sections would have helped, but that would have ruined the near-future feel of the disaster so I understand why the author left them out.
I also have to mention that this book frequently calls upon Christian themes, ones that go beyond the David and Goliath reference. It's not terribly surprising, given the historical role of spiritual leaders in community organizing, but based on what blurb you read it's easy to get caught off guard. I will say that the book was never preachy, so this is certainly the better kind of Christian-inspired fiction, but if you're someone who avoids such references for whatever reason you might want to give this title a pass.
On a similar note, there's something about the gay couple in this story that gave me pause. Specifically, it's that the only gay couples are among the colonizers. All of the people who'd been left behind on Earth were depicted, as far as I could tell, pursuing exclusively cis-het relationships. I know I'm prone to paranoid reading when Christianity and queerness meet, so I've spent a fair bit of time turning this over in my mind before I sat down to write this, to try to be as fair as possible about a book that, overall, I enjoyed. Ultimately, I don't see any evidence that the author was attempting to make a point by writing it this way. I'm not mad about it. But that doesn't mean that this doesn't have the potential to be disturbing to some readers, so I wanted to mention it.
Last, but not least...do the horses die? Mild spoilers ahead!
Graphic: Death, Drug use, Racial slurs, Racism, Terminal illness, Violence, and Colonisation
Moderate: Addiction, Animal death, Cancer, Gun violence, Police brutality, Grief, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, and Alcohol
Minor: Slavery, War, and Pandemic/Epidemic
fenouil's review
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.75
Graphic: Death, Racism, and Blood
Moderate: Addiction, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Cancer, Chronic illness, Drug abuse, Drug use, Genocide, Gun violence, Racial slurs, Police brutality, Grief, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, and Classism
schnaucl's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
3.0
I can't decide if it's not for me (in the sense that I'm not the intended audience), which is obviously fine but might be why I struggled with it.
It's very disjointed. Purposely so, I think. There are a lot of characters, who nearly all have their own backstories. I often found myself really interested in a backstory about the time the backstory was wrapping up.
The book had a lot to say about race and class and gentrification and the last season in particular is very bleak.
Moderate: Cancer, Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Drug use, Racial slurs, Racism, Terminal illness, Blood, Police brutality, Murder, and Classism
jo_lzr's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- 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
4.25
Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal death, Body horror, Bullying, Cancer, Child death, Chronic illness, Confinement, Death, Drug use, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Slavery, Terminal illness, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Xenophobia, Blood, Police brutality, Islamophobia, Kidnapping, Grief, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism
Moderate: Addiction, Child abuse, and Infidelity
Minor: Rape