Reviews tagging 'Grief'

The Infinite by Ada Hoffmann

3 reviews

talonsontypewriters's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense medium-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? It's complicated

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical content, Medical trauma, Death, and War

Moderate: Confinement, Kidnapping, Body horror, Emotional abuse, Suicide, Injury/Injury detail, Religious bigotry, Toxic relationship, Mental illness, Gun violence, Grief, Violence, and Gore

Minor: Terminal illness, Child death, Ableism, Addiction, Vomit, Rape, Suicidal thoughts, and Self harm

sarah984's review against another edition

adventurous hopeful tense medium-paced

• 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? It's complicated

4.0

This book wrapped everything up from the trilogy and had some great moments (I loved the ending) but I do feel like there were too many characters - none of the Seven really got the focus they needed to make them feel like distinct characters I should care about, and characters I was invested in barely showed up. Way too much time spent on the Elu/Akavi drama which I have not cared about since book 1, and the wrap up on this plotline had a lot of really bland exposition dialogue about emotions (like "I did this because I felt this" stuff like talking to a therapist).

Overall through a great instalment in a great trilogy.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Confinement, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Suicidal thoughts, Death, Medical content, Body horror, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Terminal illness, and War

Minor: Self harm, Torture, Homophobia, Vomit, Religious bigotry, and Sexual content

anxiousnachos's review

hopeful medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character

4.5

Firstly, let’s all just stare in AWE at the exceptional cover design for this trilogy-ending book. I seriously want a poster of it on my wall. Secondly, THANK YOU ADA HOFFMANN. My 2023 reading was off to such a shaky start but I knew picking this up would make everything good again. 

This is a fantastic, bittersweet ending to my favourite scifi series. I adore the way this series explores religion and godhood in such a unique way to what you often see in SFF. Instead of gods creating humanity, we have humanity creating gods, and I love the difference in perspective this gives. One of the things I loved most about this book, was that we actually got flashbacks to the creation of the very first god. It adds such a layer of complexity to the whole story: when you see the position the humans were in, what should they have done? I love that morally grey, complex ethical decision shit. 

This book, and this trilogy as a whole, is full of complex characters trying to build a better society; of supercomputer gods that you discover are far more complex than you first think; and of cosmic horror mysteries that can tear apart the universe (with lots of tentacles). There are beautifully tender moments, queer relationships, several autistic main characters, other disabled side characters, it pains me this series is not more beloved. 

Content warnings: violence, war, blood and gore, loss of limb, death, confinement, domestic abuse (minor), genocide, grief, kidnapping, medical content / medical trauma, mental illness (major theme), religious bigotry, sexual content (minor), suicidal thoughts (minor), torture (mentions only), toxic relationship

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Medical trauma, Religious bigotry, Violence, War, Kidnapping, Mental illness, Toxic relationship, Death, Genocide, Medical content, Blood, Confinement, and Grief

Minor: Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, and Domestic abuse