Reviews tagging 'Cancer'

The Passengers by John Marrs

17 reviews

thequiltyreader's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny hopeful tense 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

4.5

Wow. If you are looking for a book that offers twists and turns then this is the book for you. This near future thriller offers you twist after twist, keeping you on your toes and always guessing. I also found myself disgusted by some of the decision made but then I can see they are sadly reflective of what probably would happen in this day and age.

I really enjoyed the exploration of the impact of making decisions based on the information you have to hand which is perhaps not reflective of the full picture.

This was the first John Marrs book I have read and I flew through it as I just had to know what would happen next. I am now on the look out for more of his books.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Bullying, Cancer, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Hate crime, Infertility, Infidelity, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Racism, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Blood, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Car accident, Suicide attempt, Murder, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, Classism, and Deportation

poetsofsweetpea's review against another edition

mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.25

The beginning chapters were slow but the pacing was good after that.  I enjoyed the suspense of the novel and liked this take on AI.  An interesting multilayered plot with well developed characters was enhanced by a full cast audiobook.  I enjoyed it but it was dark and some of the back stories were tough.  I'd reccommend checking the content warnings.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Blood, Car accident, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Alcohol, and Classism

Moderate: Death, Domestic abuse, Gore, Infertility, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Violence, Medical content, Grief, Suicide attempt, Murder, Pregnancy, and Classism

maggieparedesauthor's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Bullying, Cancer, Child abuse, Death, Infidelity, Blood, Dementia, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, Car accident, and Alcohol

juanat77's review against another edition

adventurous challenging 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Child death, Cursing, Death, Blood, and Car accident

Moderate: Infidelity, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Pedophilia, Racial slurs, Suicide, Violence, Murder, Pregnancy, and Injury/Injury detail

sophieamreacher's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

Interesting plot and characters, as well as unexpected plot twists, but I felt it went on longer than needed. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Body horror, Cancer, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Hate crime, Infertility, Infidelity, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Xenophobia, Blood, Vomit, Islamophobia, Medical content, Dementia, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Grief, Religious bigotry, Stalking, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Alcohol, War, Injury/Injury detail, Classism, and Deportation

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, Infidelity, Violence, and Car accident

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

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

eeefann125's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Cancer, Chronic illness, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Xenophobia, Islamophobia, Grief, Car accident, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, and Gaslighting

ellaticonstellation's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring lighthearted mysterious reflective relaxing 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? It's complicated

5.0

This is an intense story. I love each passenger's stories. Libby and the rest of the jurors had unique personalities, especially Jack. I rarely read futuristic stuff and I'm glad that I picked this up because it was interesting. 

The "hacker" was so interesting. The dark themes such as pedophilia, suicide, etc. made my skin crawl. I was so mad at Sofia's husband, Patrick. He dared to threaten her about his dark side. Disgusting was an understatement. 

Oh, Sofia thinking that she joined a reality TV show was hilarious until it didn't. 

Heide blackmailing his cheating husband was awesome in a way that he had a taste of his own medicine. The squirming and mine games made it all worth it. 

The ending was interesting as well. And the triple life of Jude. Hey Jude✨

Thank you, John❤️

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Bullying, Cancer, Child abuse, Confinement, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Kidnapping, Car accident, Murder, Cultural appropriation, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, and War

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

madanxiety's review against another edition

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. 

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. 

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, Infidelity, Pedophilia, Suicide, Violence, Xenophobia, Grief, Stalking, Car accident, and Murder

Moderate: Panic attacks/disorders and Pregnancy

Minor: Cancer and Infertility