Reviews tagging 'Cursing'

Gemina by Jay Kristoff, Amie Kaufman

6 reviews

birdy's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Injury/Injury detail, Gun violence, Murder, Violence, Animal death, Blood, Death, and Death of parent

Moderate: Chronic illness, Drug abuse, Child abuse, Grief, Child death, Gore, War, Vomit, Cursing, Suicide, Self harm, Medical content, and Mass/school shootings

cd87's review

adventurous emotional tense fast-paced

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

4.75

I can't believe this series. Just when I thought "meh, this isn't as good as the first one, it's not as twisty" I get a huge twist thrown at me.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Drug use, Injury/Injury detail, Gun violence, Violence, and Death of parent

Moderate: Confinement, Body horror, and Cursing

Disability rep

lucilaroife's review

challenging dark emotional tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, Drug use, Excrement, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Grief, Gore, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Violence, Vomit, and War

Moderate: Cursing and Child death

nxclx's review

emotional 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? It's complicated

4.0

Giving this three stars hurt me, so I didn't. It was still intriguing and drew me in, but it was almost the same formula as the first one: BeiTech attacking with an non-human secondary threat. But still good.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Ableism, Blood, Body horror, Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Drug use, Grief, Gun violence, Mass/school shootings, Murder, and Violence

caoimhe9876's review

adventurous challenging emotional sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Violence, Murder, Gun violence, Gore, Drug use, Death of parent, and Blood

Moderate: Addiction, Child death, Chronic illness, Cursing, Drug abuse, Drug use, Grief, Suicide, and Torture

nytephoenyx's review against another edition

adventurous dark lighthearted tense fast-paced

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

4.25

And so continues the story of the Illuminae Files.

First off, I have to once again applaud the audiobook production of Gemina.  I know this has nothing to do with the actual book, but like Illuminae, the full cast production was stellar.  Each voice actor was great, but the music and sound effects take the story to the next level.  This series is in my top three for favorite audiobooks – they’re so immersive.

Story-wise, I didn’t like Gemina quite as much as much as Illuminae.  It felt too similar.  Much of the book was spent in a space survival situation, hiding in vents and avoiding or negotiating with an enemy. In fact, I’d even go so far as to say that Hanna and Nik felt like photocopies of Kady and Ezrato me, only lacking some of their depth.  None of this made Gemina a bad book, but it did make me grateful for the length of time I waited between books so it wasn’t as exhausting as it could have been.

If you want to find a series with constant action and small, quick twists, I think the Illuminae Files does a great job.  The science is well explained and accessible for those who aren’t science fiction aficionados, but there isn’t so much of it that it drags down the story or becomes pretentious.  The characters tend to be witty and there are a lot of quips.  The only thing that bothered me about the dialogue was a single repeated joke, “I’d like to buy a vowel please,” implying that not only is Wheel of Fortune alive and well deep into this distant future, but it’s cool enough to be quoted by teens.  Since that isn’t true now, this struck me as a bit out of place.  That’s such a small little nitpick, but it got under my skin, so I wanted to mention it.

Overall, I still think the series is interesting and generally original, particularly in the YA genre.  I was a little thrown off in the beginning (where are Kady and AIDEN?  Who is this Hanna character?), but I think the way Kaufman and Kristoff tied both storylines together at the end was really good.  My hope for Obsidio would be that we don’t get another whole new cast of characters and then have to tie these ones in again, because that trick has already been done before, and it just wouldn’t be as good the second time.  For myself, I’ll definitely be reading Obsidio.  The Illuminae Files gets a lot of praise and while I’m not sure it’s at the level of gushing-I-can’t-even-describe-my-feelings-omg-this-book, it’s a highly entertaining read and worth your time!

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Cursing