Reviews tagging 'Death of parent'

Machinehood by S.B. Divya

3 reviews

tigger89's review

adventurous mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I like my sci-fi with a heavy helping of philosophy, so this book was my jam. What does it mean, to be an intelligent life form? How do we assign value to entities in society? Who should be given priority, when resources or jobs are scarce? The world felt real to me. I don't have enough science to know if it was entirely realistic, but the author had spent enough time worldbuilding that it felt consistent with itself, like a place that could potentially be real, which is what matters to me.

 One thing I didn't like was that the ending felt a little rushed. I would've liked to see more of how Welga was coping with things. Contrary to some of the other reviewers, I'm okay with how the plot was resolved. I took the "thesis" of the book to be

change may be painful, but it's both inevitable and a good thing. Stagnation is death, and we need to always keep moving forward rather than seeking to return to some kind of golden days of the past.

And the ending fit with that. Between the ending as written and the fact that it felt a little rushed, I wonder if there's not going to be a sequel at some point?

As an aside, to anyone looking for a LGBTQ-focused read, contrary to the tags you should look elsewhere. I was surprised to see the tag when I added the book to my list because I hadn't been made aware of any LGBTQ content in any of the blurbs I'd read. Well, I read and found out, and I can tell you that it amounts to: one non-binary secondary character(loved them, zero complaints there), a couple blink-and-miss-it gay/trans background characters, and the use of a non-binary category when listing gender percentage statistics. The viewpoint characters and their immediate plot concerns are cis-hetero. Is it anti-queer? No, it's not. It's got some solid rep in it, and I liked that the author remembered to think beyond the binary with her population statistics. But is it queer? Not really, at least not in the sense of how we usually discuss books being LGBTQ. There's more to it than "a queer person exists in this book," you know?

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Addiction, and Abortion

Moderate: Death of parent and War

For the abortion CW, one of the viewpoint characters seeks an abortion due to economic reasons, but under the law she needs her partner's permission and he opposes the action on religious grounds. The resolution:

the character bypasses the medical institution and aborts using "back alley" drugs. After initially lying about it, she tells her partner the truth and he's upset, but later they reconcile. She expresses regret for lying to him, but ultimately believes she did the right thing, and he says that god tells us to forgive those who sin.

count_zero's review

adventurous dark mysterious fast-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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment and Violence

Moderate: Death, Gun violence, and War

Minor: Death of parent

kukushka's review

adventurous challenging hopeful inspiring mysterious 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Abortion, Child death, Chronic illness, Confinement, Death, Death of parent, Medical content, Pregnancy, and Terminal illness