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chrysanthemum_days's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
Well 1st of all there is a lot of body horror in this book according to me. It's not done badly, infact it's an important part of the world building, it's an advanced world with people who have 'surgery' to become a 'strong' person, someone who can do math in their fingertips someone who can memorise what they see hear read etc. All kinds of augmentation you can do under the sun on human senses and intellectual abilities and physical abilities get done on the characters of this world. Quite horrific if you ask me sheesh. I'd like to stay as un'augmented as possible thank you very much especially since they have debilitating consequences as well. Not well recieved for the faint of heart, I draw a line at body horror it seems.
Apart from that, the way the author has used such augmentation of the characters and woven them into the story was mindblowing truly. Loved our main characters Din and Ana. Okay I thought this would be like any other books and have maybe a hint of romance with the mystery being the main focus but I spit my water out when I read Ana was like 50 or something. I thought uh is the author going to make an age gap romance happen? Well good for me it didn't happen and bad for me there wasn't any hint of romance (there was a mini dash of it between
The story is part of an instalment of maybe 3 books I suppose? Not sure if I will continue reading. It took me like 12 days to finish the book, partly because the world was so complex it wasn't very readable and like I said, body horror. Oof. Anyways keeping it all aside the story is objectively wonderful. Maybe I'll continue and see.
Graphic: Body horror and Death
Moderate: Sexual harassment
el_reads17's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Body horror and Murder
Moderate: Gore, Violence, and Blood
kendal_reads's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
Graphic: Body horror, Death, and Murder
Moderate: Gore, Violence, and Blood
Minor: Drug use, Vomit, and Classism
elzibub'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
Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Torture, Medical trauma, Murder, Toxic friendship, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism
katieo156's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Graphic: Body horror, Death, and Blood
Moderate: Violence and Sexual harassment
Minor: Confinement, Drug use, and Death of parent
blacksphinx'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? No
5.0
This is a richly alien fantasy world with fun characters and a well-realized mystery. I am so proud I figured a piece out before our Sherlock expy laid it out for us! This book also made me realize how little the characters in the books I read swear, and once I got used to it... it was kind of nice to have a smart lady running around who says the word fuck. I also loved that the author understood that Sherlock is not a cold or mean person, which shines through in the way he writes his expy, Ana. Her and our PoV character Din have such great rapport while being their own characters. I also loved the disability representation, when it clicked that the protagonist actually had dyslexia and it wasn't some magical side effect I teared up.
Can't wait for the next book in the series!
Graphic: Body horror, Death, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism
Moderate: Ableism, Cursing, Violence, Blood, Medical content, and Sexual harassment
Minor: Infertility, Infidelity, Fire/Fire injury, and Pandemic/Epidemic
bookwyrmknits'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? Yes
4.5
And even though the people are also bio-engineered to a degree, they do feel very real, with human desires and fears. Most (if not all) of the characters we meet have changed themselves to at least a small degree, and it often seems like they felt they had to in order to get ahead in their world. The modifications they make to themselves made me wonder if I would want any of the modifications. Some people change their physical strength, others enhance their memory, and still others increase their mental aptitude for things like math or science. But the downside is that everything comes with a cost, and many of the modifications will shorten lifespans or cause mental breakdowns in later life.
If there's a downside to this book, it's that the people felt too normal compared to the setting. Yes, they are modified and super-strong or super-smart or have perfect memory. But during the scenes when they were all sitting around talking, it was easy to see them as just people. The setting, in contrast, was so much more alien.
All told, though, this was a really enjoyable murder mystery, and I'm already looking forward to the sequel. There's so much more to explore in this world, and I am really interested to see where Bennett takes his characters next. This was my first book by Robert Jackson Bennett, but it certainly won't be my last.
Graphic: Body horror and Murder
Moderate: Gore and Blood
Minor: Drug use and Classism
ripxreads'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
4.0
Moderate: Body horror and Violence
breezer'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 and Gore
woolerys's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.75
Graphic: Death
Moderate: Body horror
Specific content warning for death via rapidly-growing plants, and for a minor/in-the-past description of an infestation that reads a bit like a description of an epidemic.