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moonspren's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
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? Yes
4.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Eating disorder, Gun violence, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Racial slurs, Self harm, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Police brutality, Antisemitism, Islamophobia, Grief, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Addiction and Alcoholism
bklassen's review against another edition
dark
emotional
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
GOOOOOD LORD I have never wanted to finish up a book so quickly, but for the wrong reasons. Forgive me if there are any spoilers in this review, but there are some SERIOUS trigger warnings needed for the book and so much of why I disliked reading this book is tied up in plot points. Proceed at your own risk.
I hate Cora. Cora is a bad protagonist who stumbles around, acts on impulse constantly, and then spends most of this book either having panic attacks or being numb. I got MAJOR New Moon (or whatever the Twilight sequel was) vibes in which the main character “gets broken up with” (here, Ampersand sort of distances himself and then kinda goes into a coma) and then spends the rest of the book emotionally distraught, does extremely reckless things, and becomes an emotional wreck. It’s not that Cora is a flawed young adult (who, let’s be real, still very much acts like a teenager) that makes her a bad character, although I don’t read YA fiction for the very same reason, it’s that she doesn’t seem to be governed by any rhyme or reason. Her main qualities in this book are helpless, depressed, self-harming, and meek. She doesn’t really seem to experience any growth. It’s horribly depressing to read about someone experiences mental health problems and is not actively working to resolve or cope with them. At a certain point, it went past the feeling of “the author wants to put us in the shoes of this character” and blew straight into torture porn. Or like, grief tourism.
The biggest reason is that this book is so damn repetitive. The book follows this pattern: Anxiety-provoking event -> panic attack -> beg Ampersand to rescue her -> anxiety-provoking event -> panic attack -> beg Ampersand to rescue her… ad infinitum ad nauseum. And so much of the book describes her feelings (both physical and emotional) in tedious detail. I get that when she’s spiraling, it becomes hard to breathe and your body feels either extremely hot or extremely cold and thoughts race and your heart races and you start to panic. But good God, do we have to get a slight variation of this process every time she spirals, which is often? It felt so overly fraught and melodramatic that I had to double check I wasn’t reading angsty teen fic.
The worst of it is that what made me enjoy the first book (which had some similar issues about Cora as a protagonist) is almost entirely removed here. In the first book, we had the First Contact, the mysteries over the Fremda memo leak, the growing relationship and understanding between Cora and Ampersand, and him slowly learning more about emotions or human behavior. Now, Ampersand is either just as moody and depressed as Cora is (which feed into each other because they have a fusion bond) or he’s shut down and emotionally removed. And instead, we’re dealing with the fallout between the 2 of them for the entire book, and let me tell you, it is NOT fun to read.
Now, instead of First Contact, we have entirely new themes, like the political maelstrom, the debate on human rights, the concept of humanity, and plenty of examples of why our country is so politically divided and how people in power exploit that to gain more power. I saw a review asking if the book was set in 2007 or 2021, and it just goes to show you how things have never really changed; we still have alt right terrorists being portrayed as “hurt or depressed young men” instead of what they are (white nationalists, terrorists, murderers), antisemitism, and fear mongering.
However, we do have the introduction of a new main character: Kaveh Mazandarani. Kaveh is a fantastic addition, and I can’t tell if he actually is or if I was so relieved to have a character that actually does something and has a personality. But I think he is.
Besides having an actual personality (to offset Cora’s lack of one in this book), and actually doing things, I liked that he was kind, empathetic, vain, a bit pretentious, and quite cocky while still being somewhat self-deprecating. I liked his excitement about the aliens, his caring nature and support of Cora, his sense of humor, his Persian heritage, and he still made mistakes. Through his eyes we see the Islamophobia, bigotry, irrational hatred, xenophobia, and antisemitism that plagued (and still plagues) American society. Unfortunately, I can still see a lot of these same statements and mentalities occurring today.
I still thought their relationship was weird and creepy - 21-year-old Cora is vulnerable, suffers from PTSD, depression, anxiety, panic attacks, and who knows what else, and is totally broke, but is dating a 35-year-old wealthy and emotionally stable man who essentially becomes her sugar daddy and caretaker but is inexplicably attracted to her. Thank the gods he is kind, respectful, and patient with her, because the off kilter power dynamics could be horribly abused by the wrong person. Still, Cora has a codependent and hot-and-cold relationship with Ampersand, then an emotionally fulfilling but ultimately unbalanced relationship with Kaveh despite being in a high risk and high intensity situation (both in her own brain and the current political climate).
I understand and am sympathetic toward people who have PTSD (speaking as someone with complex PTSD), experience depression, have panic attacks (as someone who has had several anxiety attacks and 1 very real panic attack), are anxious, have self-harming tendencies, or have any other such emotional or mental disorders. However, I also know that you can’t get anyone to change. If someone is experiencing mental health problems, all you can do is show support and be there for them, but they have to want to change. It’s hard to read about characters who are breaking down or blowing up their lives and either refuse to acknowledge or address any issues. I guess it’s
I don’t know if anyone else recognized (or took umbrage with) this, but I found it weird that Cora was described as unattractive and rather frumpy in the first book (overweight, poorly dyed blue hair that is growing out, has to wear this weird 70s dress out of necessity, cheap and poorly fitting clothing) but then receives a depression glow up (I’m sideyeing the sexy emotional breakdown from Queen’s Gambit) by losing a bunch of weight and Kaveh constantly alludes to her as sexy, cute, slim, etc.
There’s some good philosophical and social commentary (although it doesn’t seem to go beyond fascists are bad, the media will portray white people who commit crimes in the best possible light, but black, brown, or Asian people will be portrayed as traitors, thugs, violent, etc) and ideas at the heart of The Truth of the Divine, especially when it came to the concept of starting a new society with current DNA and how to bridge a relationship between humans and literal aliens, but it’s bogged down in relationship drama, overwritten and overused emotional trauma that is never resolved and feels exploitative, underdeveloped character growth or relationships, and a repetitive plot.
I am interested enough in the concept to read a summary of what happens in the third book, but I will be excusing myself from actually reading it.
I hate Cora. Cora is a bad protagonist who stumbles around, acts on impulse constantly, and then spends most of this book either having panic attacks or being numb. I got MAJOR New Moon (or whatever the Twilight sequel was) vibes in which the main character “gets broken up with” (here, Ampersand sort of distances himself and then kinda goes into a coma) and then spends the rest of the book emotionally distraught, does extremely reckless things, and becomes an emotional wreck. It’s not that Cora is a flawed young adult (who, let’s be real, still very much acts like a teenager) that makes her a bad character, although I don’t read YA fiction for the very same reason, it’s that she doesn’t seem to be governed by any rhyme or reason. Her main qualities in this book are helpless, depressed, self-harming, and meek. She doesn’t really seem to experience any growth. It’s horribly depressing to read about someone experiences mental health problems and is not actively working to resolve or cope with them. At a certain point, it went past the feeling of “the author wants to put us in the shoes of this character” and blew straight into torture porn. Or like, grief tourism.
The biggest reason is that this book is so damn repetitive. The book follows this pattern: Anxiety-provoking event -> panic attack -> beg Ampersand to rescue her -> anxiety-provoking event -> panic attack -> beg Ampersand to rescue her… ad infinitum ad nauseum. And so much of the book describes her feelings (both physical and emotional) in tedious detail. I get that when she’s spiraling, it becomes hard to breathe and your body feels either extremely hot or extremely cold and thoughts race and your heart races and you start to panic. But good God, do we have to get a slight variation of this process every time she spirals, which is often? It felt so overly fraught and melodramatic that I had to double check I wasn’t reading angsty teen fic.
The worst of it is that what made me enjoy the first book (which had some similar issues about Cora as a protagonist) is almost entirely removed here. In the first book, we had the First Contact, the mysteries over the Fremda memo leak, the growing relationship and understanding between Cora and Ampersand, and him slowly learning more about emotions or human behavior. Now, Ampersand is either just as moody and depressed as Cora is (which feed into each other because they have a fusion bond) or he’s shut down and emotionally removed. And instead, we’re dealing with the fallout between the 2 of them for the entire book, and let me tell you, it is NOT fun to read.
Now, instead of First Contact, we have entirely new themes, like the political maelstrom, the debate on human rights, the concept of humanity, and plenty of examples of why our country is so politically divided and how people in power exploit that to gain more power. I saw a review asking if the book was set in 2007 or 2021, and it just goes to show you how things have never really changed; we still have alt right terrorists being portrayed as “hurt or depressed young men” instead of what they are (white nationalists, terrorists, murderers), antisemitism, and fear mongering.
However, we do have the introduction of a new main character: Kaveh Mazandarani. Kaveh is a fantastic addition, and I can’t tell if he actually is or if I was so relieved to have a character that actually does something and has a personality. But I think he is.
Besides having an actual personality (to offset Cora’s lack of one in this book), and actually doing things, I liked that he was kind, empathetic, vain, a bit pretentious, and quite cocky while still being somewhat self-deprecating. I liked his excitement about the aliens, his caring nature and support of Cora, his sense of humor, his Persian heritage, and he still made mistakes. Through his eyes we see the Islamophobia, bigotry, irrational hatred, xenophobia, and antisemitism that plagued (and still plagues) American society. Unfortunately, I can still see a lot of these same statements and mentalities occurring today.
I still thought their relationship was weird and creepy - 21-year-old Cora is vulnerable, suffers from PTSD, depression, anxiety, panic attacks, and who knows what else, and is totally broke, but is dating a 35-year-old wealthy and emotionally stable man who essentially becomes her sugar daddy and caretaker but is inexplicably attracted to her. Thank the gods he is kind, respectful, and patient with her, because the off kilter power dynamics could be horribly abused by the wrong person. Still, Cora has a codependent and hot-and-cold relationship with Ampersand, then an emotionally fulfilling but ultimately unbalanced relationship with Kaveh despite being in a high risk and high intensity situation (both in her own brain and the current political climate).
I understand and am sympathetic toward people who have PTSD (speaking as someone with complex PTSD), experience depression, have panic attacks (as someone who has had several anxiety attacks and 1 very real panic attack), are anxious, have self-harming tendencies, or have any other such emotional or mental disorders. However, I also know that you can’t get anyone to change. If someone is experiencing mental health problems, all you can do is show support and be there for them, but they have to want to change. It’s hard to read about characters who are breaking down or blowing up their lives and either refuse to acknowledge or address any issues. I guess it’s
I don’t know if anyone else recognized (or took umbrage with) this, but I found it weird that Cora was described as unattractive and rather frumpy in the first book (overweight, poorly dyed blue hair that is growing out, has to wear this weird 70s dress out of necessity, cheap and poorly fitting clothing) but then receives a depression glow up (I’m sideyeing the sexy emotional breakdown from Queen’s Gambit) by losing a bunch of weight and Kaveh constantly alludes to her as sexy, cute, slim, etc.
There’s some good philosophical and social commentary (although it doesn’t seem to go beyond fascists are bad, the media will portray white people who commit crimes in the best possible light, but black, brown, or Asian people will be portrayed as traitors, thugs, violent, etc) and ideas at the heart of The Truth of the Divine, especially when it came to the concept of starting a new society with current DNA and how to bridge a relationship between humans and literal aliens, but it’s bogged down in relationship drama, overwritten and overused emotional trauma that is never resolved and feels exploitative, underdeveloped character growth or relationships, and a repetitive plot.
I am interested enough in the concept to read a summary of what happens in the third book, but I will be excusing myself from actually reading it.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Panic attacks/disorders and Suicide attempt
Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Xenophobia, Islamophobia, and Religious bigotry
Minor: Antisemitism
jjreads331's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
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
4.0
Of all the places I thought this series would go, this was not it, if I'm being honest. And I am so happy to have been surprised. I'm excited to see what comes next, even if I'm still reeling a bit from this entry into the series.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Confinement, Eating disorder, Gun violence, Hate crime, Racial slurs, Police brutality, Antisemitism, Medical content, Religious bigotry, Abandonment, and Colonisation
banrions's review against another edition
dark
emotional
reflective
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? Yes
3.0
I wavered back and forth for like the last three min if I was gonna put this as a 4 star book or a 3 star one. Honestly, it’s a 3.5 for me either way, but ultimately, I think I rounded down because, though once I sat through and read it, I absolutely was powering through and not wanting to stop for long periods of time, I was also often frustrated with what I was reading.
This book took a slightly different turn partway through and added a secondary POV that at first, I was annoyed by, and then INFURIATED BY because I just wanted to get into cora’s head again, and then, I ended up really thinking it was a smart narrative decision, and THEN the final passage of the book nailed me flat and I think that I will be thinking about it for a while.
(This is not going to be a very coherent review, as if mine ever really are lol. That’s not what I do here, I just vent some emotions about the book into a void).
I think I’ll be thinking about a LOT of this book for a while.
This book took a slightly different turn partway through and added a secondary POV that at first, I was annoyed by, and then INFURIATED BY because I just wanted to get into cora’s head again, and then, I ended up really thinking it was a smart narrative decision, and THEN the final passage of the book nailed me flat and I think that I will be thinking about it for a while.
(This is not going to be a very coherent review, as if mine ever really are lol. That’s not what I do here, I just vent some emotions about the book into a void).
I think I’ll be thinking about a LOT of this book for a while.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide attempt
Minor: Alcoholism, Body horror, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Hate crime, Racism, Toxic relationship, Blood, Police brutality, Medical content, Religious bigotry, and Abandonment
erynlasbelin's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
slow-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
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Cursing, Death, Genocide, Gun violence, Hate crime, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Racial slurs, Racism, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Xenophobia, Police brutality, Antisemitism, Islamophobia, Grief, Religious bigotry, Suicide attempt, Murder, and Abandonment
Moderate: Alcoholism, Gore, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail
balfies's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
emotional
funny
reflective
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? Yes
4.5
The sequel to Axiom's End which I read last year. Lindsay Ellis is my fave video essayist, and her second novel, Truth Of The Divine, delivers.
The promise of the series - an alien first contact story set within post 9/11 Bush administration (well, now the Cheney administration for them) - continues to interrogate how American militarism, conspiracy, exceptionalism, and immigrant cultures react to the warring factions between intergalactic asylum seekers.
Must reiterate - I am not big on sci fi or fantasy usually, but I make an exception for Lindsay, in part because I wanna support her but mostly because she's an excellent, witty writer and I trust her voice.
The promise of the series - an alien first contact story set within post 9/11 Bush administration (well, now the Cheney administration for them) - continues to interrogate how American militarism, conspiracy, exceptionalism, and immigrant cultures react to the warring factions between intergalactic asylum seekers.
Must reiterate - I am not big on sci fi or fantasy usually, but I make an exception for Lindsay, in part because I wanna support her but mostly because she's an excellent, witty writer and I trust her voice.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Eating disorder, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, Self harm, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Forced institutionalization, Xenophobia, Blood, Antisemitism, Kidnapping, Grief, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, and Murder
Moderate: Eating disorder, Racial slurs, Dementia, and Religious bigotry