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lbelow's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
tense
4.0
This is a solid sequel. The situation with the compounds and the Cosmics evolves while deepening the relationships Amira has. Mind the trigger warnings though, this book might not be for everyone!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Torture, Death, Body horror, Religious bigotry, Murder, Confinement, Misogyny, Kidnapping, Gun violence, Pregnancy, Violence, Medical trauma, and Child death
Minor: Racism
Be aware, at the end of the book, Amiraklibri's review
2.75
My patience for reading action/thriller got used up. Amira is friends with cops. Hadrian's linguistic affectation, for someone who moved to the States when he was twelve, is still obnoxious.
shonatiger's review
4.0
Thank you to NetGalley and to Flame Tree Press for this eARC.
The Emergent is Nadia Afifi’s sequel to The Sentient, which I dug up to read before I went into this one. I had found The Sentient a little too sciencey and much too YA for my taste, so I was pleased to find this denser and more cohesive.
The main protagonist is Amira Valdez, a young woman who grew up on a compund, a religious cult with a great deal of abuse and other general horrors. She escaped to the city of Westport before the events of the first book in the series, where she joined The Academy, a scientific institution. She became famous for her ability to use the holomentic machine, a machine for memory reading (!), and because she got caught up in a plot to create the first human clone.
In The Emergent, Amira grows up, and her character develops a lot more complexity, which is welcome. We also learn more about the compounds, and about the darker side of the Academy. There’s a lot more action and plot, and a lot less fantastical science, which helped me enjoy this a lot more than the first book. Amira also gets a rather irrelevant love interest.
My main criticism of these books is how many triggers there are: this is a really very dark world, and the author does not spare us. My other criticism is the implausibility of the science: this series skews more fantasy, on the whole. In The Emergent, characters are a lot more developed, and the plot is sustained quite well. There are plot holes which the author either belatedly tries to close up or ignores entirely, but they don’t really detract from enjoyment of the book. The ending feels strange, and rushed; but I assume that is to set us up for the next book in the series.
Overall, this is probably enjoyable for any fan of soft sci-fi/dystopia; fans of the Divergent series will probably enjoy this. I found The Emergent much more solid, gripping and enjoyable than The Sentient, so if you read the first book, I am happy to recommend this second one to you.
Rated: 7/10. However, read the first book in the series, The Sentient, before you read this one.
https://shonareads.wordpress.com/2022/06/02/the-emergent-x-nadia-afifi-arc/
The Emergent is Nadia Afifi’s sequel to The Sentient, which I dug up to read before I went into this one. I had found The Sentient a little too sciencey and much too YA for my taste, so I was pleased to find this denser and more cohesive.
The main protagonist is Amira Valdez, a young woman who grew up on a compund, a religious cult with a great deal of abuse and other general horrors. She escaped to the city of Westport before the events of the first book in the series, where she joined The Academy, a scientific institution. She became famous for her ability to use the holomentic machine, a machine for memory reading (!), and because she got caught up in a plot to create the first human clone.
In The Emergent, Amira grows up, and her character develops a lot more complexity, which is welcome. We also learn more about the compounds, and about the darker side of the Academy. There’s a lot more action and plot, and a lot less fantastical science, which helped me enjoy this a lot more than the first book. Amira also gets a rather irrelevant love interest.
My main criticism of these books is how many triggers there are: this is a really very dark world, and the author does not spare us. My other criticism is the implausibility of the science: this series skews more fantasy, on the whole. In The Emergent, characters are a lot more developed, and the plot is sustained quite well. There are plot holes which the author either belatedly tries to close up or ignores entirely, but they don’t really detract from enjoyment of the book. The ending feels strange, and rushed; but I assume that is to set us up for the next book in the series.
Overall, this is probably enjoyable for any fan of soft sci-fi/dystopia; fans of the Divergent series will probably enjoy this. I found The Emergent much more solid, gripping and enjoyable than The Sentient, so if you read the first book, I am happy to recommend this second one to you.
Rated: 7/10. However, read the first book in the series, The Sentient, before you read this one.
https://shonareads.wordpress.com/2022/06/02/the-emergent-x-nadia-afifi-arc/
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