Reviews tagging 'Mass/school shootings'

Recursion by Blake Crouch

59 reviews

rnbhargava's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring mysterious reflective sad 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

5.0

This novel is a trip. It puts you through an emotional gamut while reading. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Body horror, Bullying, Child death, Chronic illness, Confinement, Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Mental illness, Misogyny, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual content, Suicide, Terminal illness, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Xenophobia, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Dementia, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Grief, Mass/school shootings, Medical trauma, Stalking, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

The world gets destabilized at points in this book. There’s the question of what types of unpleasant events should be intervened on if that’s a possibility. There’s a prominent element to the plot of this book which involves self harm. Personal tragedies are also quite focused on in this plot. The things that happen across life like declining health of yourself and family members is prominent as well. The question of what would you do for your loved ones is intermingled throughout the twisty plot. I loved this book throughout. It’s one of my favorite things read in 2024.

relliepi's review against another edition

challenging dark sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Suicide, Violence, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Child death, Gore, Gun violence, Terminal illness, Violence, Blood, Dementia, Kidnapping, Grief, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, Dysphoria, and War

Minor: Rape, Vomit, Mass/school shootings, and Car accident

_pauline's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No

3.5

I‘m glad I‘m not the only one who struggled to understand everything (judging by the other reviews)

I didn’t dislike it but I had higher hopes for it & it was just a lot of disaster & suffering (

esp towards the end, happening over & over again, getting worse each time

) + confusing at times

also

if everyone remembers everything - including US retaliation -, wouldn’t they stop dropping atomic bombs after a few times? or am I being too optimistic here

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Suicide, Fire/Fire injury, and War

Moderate: Terminal illness, Medical content, Dementia, Kidnapping, Car accident, Death of parent, and Murder

Minor: Cancer, Sexual content, and Mass/school shootings

pulp's review against another edition

dark hopeful tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Death, Gun violence, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Dementia, Grief, Mass/school shootings, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, Abandonment, War, and Injury/Injury detail

issymaae's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, and Suicide

Moderate: Gun violence, Dementia, and Death of parent

Minor: Mass/school shootings, Car accident, and Suicide attempt

colossuscrunch's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful mysterious relaxing sad fast-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child death, Death, Suicide, Violence, Mass/school shootings, and Death of parent

megancortez's review against another edition

dark emotional inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense fast-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

Balling my eyes out. It's like Christopher Nolan wrote a novel but it's a better story than any of his movies. Imaginative. Clever. Riveting. Enthralling. It is a mystery that goes everywhere you want a mystery to go - and then some.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Blood, Mass/school shootings, Car accident, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Drug abuse, Dementia, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, and Alcohol

Minor: Child death and Sexual assault

bookwormdanii's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? N/A
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Self harm, Suicide, Suicide attempt, and Murder

Moderate: Addiction, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Genocide, Gore, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Blood, Dementia, Mass/school shootings, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, and War

liz_not_bennet's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful reflective sad tense

4.5

Who would've thought that Recursion is a beautiful love story set in a horrendous loop of global catastrophy?
I usually shy away from anything to do with physics but Blake Crouch explores the topic of memories mostly in a philosophical way that I didn't mind the physical aspects even though they made my head hurt.
So many people are part of each others lives in a crucial way, them sharing the same memories and therefore being affected when one of those memories is altered. Weird how such a terrible thought experiment makes you feel closer to your fellow human beings.
Whether or not it was intended this book is also the story of a woman who has her intellect, her work, her dream and her freedom stolen again and again by men and is therefore a story of oppression. This was clear to me without it being on-the-nose.
Exceptional was also the weaving of parallels throughout the book, I found many connections between plot lines and characters only reinforcing this theme of togetherness.

SPOILER  SPOILER  SPOILER

My only question is:
Why didn't Slade remember the world ending in previous timelines and needed to be convinced of it??

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Drug use, Gun violence, Blood, and Grief

Moderate: Child death, Suicide, Dementia, Car accident, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Child abuse, Drug abuse, Mass/school shootings, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, and Murder

alienguy's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional medium-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Suicide, Dementia, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Gun violence, Mass/school shootings, and War

Minor: Mental illness