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itsatyepo'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
4.0
Graphic: Body horror, Body shaming, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Deadnaming, Death, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Homophobia, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Transphobia, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, Alcohol, Dysphoria, and Pandemic/Epidemic
ziracrow'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
5.0
Graphic: Body horror, Deadnaming, Gore, Gun violence, Homophobia, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, Dysphoria, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, and Gaslighting
salemander's review against another edition
4.5
Graphic: Body horror, Deadnaming, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Hate crime, Homophobia, Torture, Transphobia, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Religious bigotry, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail
periodblood'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? It's complicated
4.25
Graphic: Body horror, Emotional abuse, Gore, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Murder, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Deadnaming, Genocide, Misogyny, Torture, Death of parent, and War
Minor: Grief
hemlockbabe's review against another edition
- 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
5.0
I adored this book. I picked it up entirely on a whim during pride month on the wall of recommended reading at a small bookstore. I read (more like skimmed) the blurb on why the shop employee recommended it so highly. I love reading religious trauma inspired books, so I pretty much was sold immediately.
I devoured this book during the span of one six hour shift at my workplace. I've always been a fast reader- it's my attention span that ruins my ability to read books. This book sucked me in hard enough that occasionally I had to be prompted multiple times by customers to buy their stuff.
I don't know if I would have had a different experience with it if I had known of the trigger warnings, especially the violence, purposeful misgendering, and body horror. I've always loved zombie books, and I read those curled up in chairs in the library of my high school, so I didn't think much of the location I would be reading this book.
Public crying, for me, is the highest form of torture, but I couldn't tear my eyes away from the pages of this book. The pacing, the content, the plight of the main character- all of it kept me hooked until the very end. I'm just glad I didn't snap at a kid for interrupting my reading time with a craving for Pokémon cards.
My review doesn't mean much in the grand scheme of public opinion- I have a history of really liking books and movies that had piss poor reviews and ratings- but I loved this book so much. As I've gotten older and more mentally ill, I don't get sucked into the pages of a book like a used to as a kid. I miss the ability to be absorbed in a story until it's done, and this book brought that back for me.
This book is definitely not for everyone, and all readers should be mindful of their triggers to disturbing content. But I definitely enjoyed myself, hence the five star rating.
Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Gore, Homophobia, Mental illness, Self harm, Transphobia, Forced institutionalization, Religious bigotry, Outing, Cultural appropriation, and Pandemic/Epidemic
Moderate: Ableism, Body shaming, Deadnaming, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Cannibalism, Gaslighting, and Abandonment
Zombie apocalypse, and a religious cult worshipping it as the rapture. Or God's work to cleanse this Earth and remake it anew.biancafrancisco'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? It's complicated
4.0
The way the books touches so many themes - genocide (quite relevant to today), religious as a tool of imperialism and oppression vs individual expression, eco-facism, the weaponization of ideology to frighten people into obeying, a contageous virus, trans experiences, and the MC's relationship with his body, how it is gendered but also through its mutation (this is done in a very reflective and surprisingly tender way) - and a ton more, was really interesting.
The three things it could have done well with were:
1. A better fleshed out world, it seemed a bit weird that we barely knew what was happening outside the city and that even within it was like only a group of teens and some kind of nationalist type group existed;
2. Better fleshed out characters, in the middle of all the action I feel like there was a tiny scene or two thrown in there about them hanging out and getting along, but we barely saw any of their personalities beyond "this is their sexuality/identity, this is their ethnicity and here is one personality trait". I recognize this can be hard with so much else going on, and it is a debut so I'm confident their next works might improve on it;
3. It really bothered me that, for people who have been surviving for 2 years in shitty conditions, they showed zero attempts to improvise and adapt?? Are you telling me they couldn't have made reusable pads (this one really stood out to me) or any type of agriculture, etc? One of the kids came from a doom prepper family! And either way, people are nifty and crafty and it would've been so interesting to see the ways the ALC organized and became self sufficient. It just seemed really unrealistic that they basically depended only on the Vanguard's supplies. Also, the initial "there's not really anyone in charge here, we're all contributing" was such pandering to this idea of an anarchist community when during the rest of the book no one, besides the Watch a bit, had any say in any decision - might as well have kept that out. I understand these weren't the main themes the book was meant to focus on but it wouldn't have been that hard to add a thing here or there to make it more plausible.
These weren't egregious enough to bother my reading experience. On the contrary, I loved reading this book and did it almost all in one sitting. The message came across really well and I liked the premise and setting of the world. It kind of reminded me of The Last of Us - gory but very meaningful. There was so much love in this story and a lot of moments stuck with me.
Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Deadnaming, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Kidnapping, Grief, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, Dysphoria, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic
Moderate: Confinement
Minor: Colonisation and Classism
refrejarator'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
5.0
Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Deadnaming, Death, Eating disorder, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Homophobia, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Torture, Transphobia, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Cannibalism, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Dysphoria, War, and Injury/Injury detail
renegadereads'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? It's complicated
5.0
Graphic: Body horror, Deadnaming, Death, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Transphobia, Blood, Vomit, Grief, Religious bigotry, Gaslighting, Dysphoria, and Pandemic/Epidemic
This book is very gory - honest made me feel sick at points.elfinafroghat's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.75
Graphic: Body horror, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Grief, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Murder, Dysphoria, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Child death, Confinement, Deadnaming, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Fire/Fire injury, and Gaslighting
Minor: Animal death, Sexual content, Toxic friendship, and Alcohol
winterhartarts's review against another edition
- 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
Graphic: Ableism, Animal death, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Cursing, Deadnaming, Death, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Homophobia, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual content, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Xenophobia, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Mass/school shootings, Cannibalism, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Colonisation, Dysphoria, War, Injury/Injury detail, Classism, and Pandemic/Epidemic