Reviews with content warning for War - American War

Oooh this was good in the most grim, unremitting way possible.

I did struggle with the pacing at the start, but overall this was such an interesting piling on of events. I particularly loved the shifting focus at the end - the conclusion was exactly what I expected and also not at all.

I listened to this on audiobook, and while I thought it was so, so well done I do wish I'd a physical copy of the book so I could flick back between some of the events and documentation as well.

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theemeraldgirl23's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional inspiring tense slow-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

4.0

The last third of the novel made it all worth it to me. The heart of the story is so raw and emotional and Sarat's story was just so multi-faceted. At first I thought I was in for another "not like other girls" story, but it turned out to be much more than that. This story is about family, love, heartbreak, life existing in gray. This a story where the protagonist isn't good in the traditional sense. War has no real winners and this showcases that perfectly.

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baddgerose's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.75

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verysarahbennett's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional sad slow-paced

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

4.5

Bennett Family Book club read. :) I've been really putting off writing this review because there's so much to this book and I know I'm not going to catch everything that's worth saying about this book, but I'm going to give it a go.

This book was tough but SO thought-provoking. It's wild that it came out in 2017, before the pandemic, when biological warfare/pandemics are such an interesting part of this story. It was extremely scary in the sense that the book is very believable and possible as a somewhat near future. It's a really powerful dystopian message that touches on global warming and climate change, pandemics, division in the country, war. The way the world has transformed in such a little amount of time from the current day and the way everyone is still just finding a way to live and make do is heartbreaking and universal. A really strong statement about America and its relationship with the world and with itself.

Sarat was a very fascinating main character to follow. It definitely was interesting to see how she thinks and functions, but I still feel like I couldn't completely grasp everything about her as much as I wanted to. I still don't understand her motivations or how she specifically got moved so far in one extremist direction.

It was a really great book club book--love it or hate it (or not even finish it), there's SO much to discuss; you probably wouldn't even need to have prepared questions in advance.

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