Reviews tagging 'Pandemic/Epidemic'

Cress by Marissa Meyer

13 reviews

agiraffereads's review against another edition

adventurous funny inspiring 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? No

4.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Pandemic/Epidemic, War, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Confinement, and Trafficking

Minor: Forced institutionalization

noellegrace8's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

4.75

The plot really saves this one for me. It's gotten so intricate at this point that it's impossible not to enjoy it! The epitome of a great storyline. So good. But I am going to rant about one piece that bothered me, but not enough to affect my rating much:

While I love Thorne SO much, and understand Cress and her lack of social interaction and therefore knowledge even if I personally find her to be a little exhausting, the *way* their romance is written really irks me. It's entirely limmerance from Cress and nothing from Thorne until random moments. These random moments are thrilling, with scenes written better than even Cinder+Kai or Scarlet+Wolf, but they're not enough to make up for the underlying underdevelopment of their actual romance throughout the rest of the book. The entirety of them crashing in the desert fell flat for me. My personal "I hate the miscommunication trope!" is, "I hate the 'I don't want to hurt her' trope!" And that's (sort of? It's unclear, and therefore infuriating, at times) what we're given from Thorne.

Hoping the 4th book quickly clears up the limmerance from Cress and intermittent apathy from Thorne. It's a WONDERFUL series.

I don't factor audiobook performance into my star ratings, but I would give Rebecca Soler a 4.5/5. At this point, I've gotten very used to her narration and voicing. As previously stated, she can be a bit too flat at times or have a tone that isn't quite right for what's described, but she's generally good at differentiating voices in scenes with accents and tones. I really like the way she voices Iko haha. It's perfect for that android! I don't understand why Soler wasn't asked to re-record a couple places where she says "kAY-toe" instead of "kEYE-toe" though.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism, Death, Violence, Pandemic/Epidemic, Terminal illness, and War

Moderate: Kidnapping, Medical content, Xenophobia, Death of parent, Murder, Child abuse, Genocide, Injury/Injury detail, Confinement, Death, Abandonment, Ableism, Colonisation, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Medical trauma, Blood, Body horror, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, and Torture

Minor: Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual content, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Car accident, Sexual assault, Gun violence, Mental illness, Animal cruelty, Bullying, Adult/minor relationship, Cursing, Gore, Grief, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Sexual harassment, Slavery, and Trafficking

As this series is very political and based around a clear power imbalance, the things I sorted into "Graphic" are fundamental in this book. "Moderate" listings have mostly to do with plotpoints such as the classic Rapunzel-and-her-abusive-guardian retelling, the events that led to Cinder's current cyborg state, Thorne losing his vision, the tortured nature of Wolf/ his genetic alterations, and the general tension between Lunars and Earthens. "Minor" labels are due to Scarlet and Cress both being taken (separate contexts), the push and pull between most of the relationships in this series thus far (but particularly Wolf+Scarlet), and our brief encounter with Princess Winter. Lastly, the only reason I warned of adult-minor relationship is because I believe most of the male love interests in this series are quite a few years older than their female, teen counterparts. More importantly, Cress is said to be 16, and Thorne is most definitely an adult, likely about 20 (has served in the military and is a well-known criminal at this point) so... a bit gray.

lawbooks600's review against another edition

adventurous medium-paced

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

4.0

Representation: Asian character
Score: Seven out of ten.

Well. It looks like I finally read Cress. After picking up (and surprisingly enjoying) Cinder and Scarlet by Marissa Meyer, I wanted to give her another shot to see if the The Lunar Chronicles continued to impress me. I glanced at the blurb, making it seem intriguing and a book that would suit my tastes. When I closed the final page, it was enjoyable.

It starts with the titular character, Cress, living in a satellite orbiting Earth in the opening pages. She lives there for a while before eventually she has to visit Earth to meet characters from the previous two instalments, Cinder and Scarlet. The opening pages and the middle are slow as usual, but it's typical from the author to do this, and I expected a slow-burn start anyways based on other books I've read from her. The action builds toward the last 200 pages as Cress is told to stop Cinder and Scarlet from forcing Queen Levana to abdicate, but fortunately, the plan does not go as intended. I like most aspects about Cress, but I can't believe I have to wait one more book until the characters put the plan into action. At least the characters were likable. The conclusion finishes Cress on a cliffhanger, with some bonus reading material added afterward, including a sneak peak of Winter.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pandemic/Epidemic, War, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, and Death

Full trigger warnings: Pandemic, military violence and war themes, mass death in the past, physical assault and injury, blood depiction

eeyores_flowers's review against another edition

adventurous dark fast-paced

• 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent

Moderate: Medical trauma and Abandonment

Minor: Police brutality, Pandemic/Epidemic, War, and Kidnapping

tania_mybookishsecret's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional fast-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Violence, Gun violence, Death of parent, and Blood

Moderate: Torture, Emotional abuse, Pandemic/Epidemic, Kidnapping, and Confinement

Minor: War, Grief, and Murder

momloves2read's review

adventurous dark tense fast-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? No

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Torture, and Blood

Moderate: Confinement and Pandemic/Epidemic

Minor: Trafficking

taque's review against another edition

fast-paced

3.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Terminal illness

Minor: Death of parent, Torture, Suicide, Pandemic/Epidemic, Kidnapping, Hate crime, Medical content, Slavery, Racism, Mental illness, Genocide, Xenophobia, Child death, Death, War, Abandonment, Mass/school shootings, and Blood

novelnerd_11's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, War, Death of parent, Pandemic/Epidemic, and Death

Minor: Suicide

msradiosilence's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny hopeful mysterious sad tense 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

3.5

TLDR; 3.5 rating, age gaps, and once again no setting descirptions.
Content warnings at the bottom. :)

Well, I can’t always have nice things. Once again, Meyer seems allergic to describing her settings in any detail, and once again it’s set in a culture that she, as a white woman, has no claim on. As such, and additionally with my other gripe, this is the beginning of the Lunar Chronicles downhill plummet.

Much like in Laini Taylor’s Strange the Dreamer and Muse of Nightmares, I hate age gaps like the one in Cress. Cress is 16. She’s a child. And Thorne is a grown ass man. It’s especially icky because he pushes her away not because she’s a child but because he doesn’t think he’s good enough for her. So, gross. Hate it. Also, their miscommunication drives me nuts. I hate miscommunication plots.

I also don’t like that

Dr. Erland is reveled as Cress’ dad in this book and it’s literally mentioned ONCE in the next one.

I feel like that’s information that is relevant, not only to Cress but to her emotional stability in the next installment? But nope.

There’s no mourning, she’s fine after finding her dad and then watching him die.

Rating: 3.5
Would I recommend? Kind of, especially if you enjoy age gaps, found family and literally found family, and sci-fi fairytale retellings.

Content warnings: Death, Mental illness, Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Blood, Genocide, Gun violence, Kidnapping, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, Pandemic/Epidemic, Ableism, Car accident, Child abuse, Child death, Fire/Fire injury, Murder, Dementia, Gore, Grief, Medical trauma, Violence, War, Medical content, and Torture

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Genocide, Gore, Murder, Pandemic/Epidemic, War, Grief, Death of parent, Dementia, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Mental illness, Torture, Violence, Child death, Ableism, Child abuse, Death, Medical content, Medical trauma, Alcohol, Car accident, Adult/minor relationship, and Blood

kenna13's review

adventurous emotional funny inspiring lighthearted tense medium-paced

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

5.0

My favorite so far! I love love love Cinder and Kai in this book, not to mention Cress and Thorne.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Kidnapping, Murder, Terminal illness, Confinement, Pandemic/Epidemic, Abandonment, Bullying, Injury/Injury detail, and Death of parent

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury and War

Minor: Grief