Reviews tagging 'Blood'

The Outside by Ada Hoffmann

7 reviews

colorwired's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense medium-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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture and Religious bigotry

Moderate: Confinement, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Grief, Murder, and Gaslighting

Minor: Self harm

scifi_rat's review

adventurous mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Kidnapping

Moderate: Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Self harm, Torture, Violence, Vomit, Medical content, Religious bigotry, Toxic friendship, War, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Minor: Ableism, Animal cruelty, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Grief, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

readingelli's review against another edition

challenging tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• 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: Violence and Blood

Moderate: Body horror, Death, Kidnapping, and Injury/Injury detail

Cybernetics, body augmentation, use of ‘madness’, presumed death, mass murder, religion

serena_hien's review

adventurous emotional mysterious slow-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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Self harm, Torture, Blood, Kidnapping, and Murder

Moderate: Misogyny

Minor: Gun violence

evilscientist's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious medium-paced

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

5.0

-i listened to this as an audiobook so i don’t know how to spell any of the characters’ names
-yasira was an interesting main character, i liked her. i almost never see books with autistic protagonists. AND to see her interact with an autistic mentor as well was good
-acavi was also a very interesting antagonist. he was clearly not a good person but the narrative managed to make him somewhat sympathetic. also i loved the genderfluid coding
-it was a slow start but the rest of the book hooked me enough that i kept wanting to come back to it, so i finished it very quickly lol
-i didn’t like some parts of the eldritch horror stuff. it’s a thing that’s very difficult to write well and it didn’t hit the mark for me
-also i felt like tiv’s character was kind of flat which annoyed me because i wanted to like her
-finally as a trans person it stuck out to me that the author tried to use trans-inclusive language in some parts but didn’t really consider trans people ever. the only trans character i remember is a non-human nonbinary minor antagonist. didn’t love that
-overall i really enjoyed this book. mind the content warnings though
-also i looked on tumblr and didn’t see ANY fanart for the book. this is a crime
-also i’m still thinking about the worldbuilding. just the idea of having these incredible AIs and choosing to call them gods and their cyborg servants are called angels. love it

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture and Kidnapping

Moderate: Ableism, Body horror, Genocide, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Blood, and Injury/Injury detail

sarah984's review against another edition

dark mysterious medium-paced

• 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? It's complicated

4.0

I really enjoyed this book. The characters live in a world of AI gods and their agents, cybernetically enhanced human "angels". The main character is a physicist who is thrown into a world of plots, counterplots and Lovecraftian horrors after an energy source she creates destroys a space station. Rather than being immediately executed as a heretic, she is pressed into service to locate her mentor, the source of the equations that led to the disaster.

I wouldn't call most of the characters "likable" per se, but they were interesting and dynamic. (Though unfortunately I found the love interest kind of bland) The horrors that Yasira comes into contact with are described in an engaging way and it’s interesting to see her thought process changing over time.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement and Kidnapping

Moderate: Ableism, Child abuse, Death, Gun violence, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Religious bigotry, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Minor: Animal death, Body horror, Genocide, and Stalking

notthatlibrarian's review against another edition

adventurous challenging mysterious medium-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? It's complicated

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Panic attacks/disorders, and Self harm

Moderate: Ableism, Confinement, Torture, Blood, and Kidnapping

Minor: Child abuse

Cosmic horror