tangleroot_eli's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Graphic: Body horror and Bullying
Moderate: Murder, Blood, and Violence
vasha's review
- 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
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Vomit, and Violence
Moderate: Injury/injury detail, Body horror, and Bullying
Minor: Islamophobia, Murder, and Sexual content
royalraspberry's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Moderate: Death, Blood, and Injury/injury detail
Minor: Confinement
daniorlo'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? No
3.0
Spoiler
Furniture coming alive, really? I like the concept of LitenVärld creating products in different universes to save money but the execution of it just seemed so silly and dumb.It didn’t help that the audiobook narrator was not very good. His voices for different characters were not very consistent, and that combined with all the clones’ names starting with “D” had me confused for a large portion of the book. He also read the memos in a completely nonsensical way. In the last 10% I listened and read along at the same time and there were at least 5 instances where what he was saying didn’t match the book. And that’s just in the last 25 minutes of the audiobook… like come on, dude.
Also there was one scene that described blood/body horror in excruciating detail that had me reeling 😖
It had some funny moments, and of course the overall anti-capitalist vibe is great (lol @ Reagan). I liked the budding relationships between Derek and the clones and I liked Derek learning more about himself and coming to accept himself as he is. But overall I much preferred the multiverse adventure story of Finna, where it felt like Cipri’s imagination truly ran wild.
“I feel like that’s the real LitenVärld ethos, right there. Anytime there’s a problem, throw the least convenient people overboard.”
Derek felt his urge to defend the company rise, sputter out, and disintegrate. That’s what happened when you were the person elected to drown.
Graphic: Blood and Body horror
willowmae's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
Moderate: Blood and Death
annoyedhumanoid's review
- 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
4.5
Graphic: Gun violence
Moderate: Vomit, Injury/injury detail, Blood, Violence, Cursing, Grief, Emotional abuse, and Bullying
Minor: Gore, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Murder, Animal death, Animal cruelty, Alcohol, Confinement, Classism, and Death
gavgaddis's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Derek works at LitenVärld. He's socially-awkward but limitlessly sincere and great at being a LitenVärld employee. He also lives in a shipping container in the parking lot. Derek's going through some issues with his body and now he's confronted with the extra headache of four near-identical copies of him, all a glimpse into different people Derek could have been, or could be.
It's queerness. Cipri's built a phenomenal novella around queerness, neurodivergency, or both. One enables enough self-introspection to discover the other, leading to murky waters so intermixed it's no wonder Defekt functions as a story about coming to terms with one (or both). It also directly shines a light on the guilt and self-loathing necessary to sit by and watch others crushed under the boot of power-hungry corporate drones and the courage needed to step up and do something. Defekt has little sympathy for people who were "just taking orders."
Finna and Defekt are both like old-school Star Trek in that way, the papier mache covering of sci-fi intentionally left as minimal as possible so as to not allow even the least-attentive of readers the argument "well that's just how things are in that character's world." Cipri grabs the reader by the collar and forces them to look at characters being complicit in empowering corporations and/or the megalomaniacal white cis men with superiority complexes they foster. I love it dearly.
Graphic: Homophobia and Transphobia
Moderate: Body horror and Blood
pastelkerstin's review against another edition
- Strong character development? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Violence, Gun violence, Murder, Death, Blood, Injury/injury detail, Body horror, Confinement, Bullying, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Vomit, and Medical content
Moderate: Transphobia
Minor: Alcohol, Islamophobia, and Sexual content
laurenw's review
- Strong character development? Yes
4.25
Graphic: Blood, Body horror, and Injury/injury detail
Moderate: Gun violence
aardwyrm's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Violence, and Bullying
Moderate: Confinement