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booklov3r5019's review against another edition
- 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
4.75
Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal death, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Homophobia, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Car accident, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Fire/Fire injury, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic
Moderate: Addiction
Minor: Cursing, Cannibalism, and Death of parent
a11yssa's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Graphic: Bullying and Child death
Moderate: Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Fatphobia, Gun violence, Homophobia, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Vomit, Death of parent, Murder, Lesbophobia, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, and Toxic friendship
thesawyerbean's review against another edition
- 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
4.25
Graphic: Ableism, Animal death, Child death, Death, Drug abuse, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Medical content, Kidnapping, Car accident, Death of parent, Alcohol, War, and Injury/Injury detail
highcrisis's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
katherine applegate: i wonder if we have anything in common? for example, I love writing novels that contain extreme body horror and disturbing settings-
michael grant: omg for 12 year olds?
katherine applegate: omg yes for 12 year olds
content warnings: body horror, dead babies, bulimia, nuclear(?) mutations, gore, animal horror(?), opioid addiction, alcoholism, amputation, mass child graves, car crash
honestly the fact that I went from reading a grimdark adult fantasy to this and the tone barely changed at ALL??
fucked harder than when I read it as a kid. this book really shows you that you don't need to dumb writing down for kids, this shit was hard, the character motivations were great (like, these 14 year olds kids were complex!!), the mystery, the fantasy mystery, the gross body horror!! jeff vandermeer was taking NOTES when he wrote annihilation!
this book is better than most YA and middle grade fiction right now to be quick fucking honest! and also reinforces my opinion that kids books in the 2000s were better because there was no weird american puritanical bullshit insisting they had to insert ~moral learnings~ into the novel every few chapters. like, michael grant wrote a charming, manipulative asshole as the villain in this novel, and it fucking lands!
4.5 rounded up (4 bc it was a bit dicey towards the end, 5 bc it fucking slaps)
anyways book 2 lets go
Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Gore, Car accident, and Alcohol