Reviews with content warning for Animal cruelty - Instant Karma

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Reviews tagging 'Animal cruelty'

Instant Karma by Marissa Meyer

19 reviews

abby_can_read's review against another edition

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lighthearted 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

3.0

📱
I struggled with this book. I've enjoyed several of Meyer's other books. This wasn't a book for me. I really wanted to like it and I kept waiting for something to click, but nothing did. I didn't like the characters and I couldn't connect with the plot.

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bookcheshirecat's review against another edition

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emotional funny lighthearted medium-paced

4.5

'“It's like, Jude, for example," I say, quietly, careful with my words. "He's so nice. Everybody likes him. He just gets along with people, everywhere he goes. I know I'm not that. And Ari, she's so talented, and so passionate about music, but I'm not really passionate about anything, other than wanting to succeed. To do my best. But I can make plans, and I can stay organized, and if a teacher assigns a report, I'm going to write the best darn report they've ever seen. If I'm throwing a gala, I'm going to throw a party that no one will ever forget. I can do that. And if I can impress people, then maybe they won't notice that I'm not witty or beautiful or... fun.”

➽ I was surprised by how much I loved Instant Karma! Initially, I wasn't sure if I wanted to read it, but the premise drew me in. Instant Karma is about Prudence, who gets the ability to cast Karma on others after a night out doing karaoke with her friends. This book was just so much fun, I loved the magical twist and the summer vibes as the story is set in Fortuna Beach during the summer holidays! Prudence ends up volunteering for the local sea animal rescue center because it's the only way she'll get her nemesis Quint to redo their disastrous marine biology report.

➽ Prudence was definitely an unlikable, flawed main character, but I still grew attached to her! Pru is a chronic overachiever with high standards who cannot stand others slacking off. Her lab partner Quint brings out her temper like no one else, as she sees him as unreliable and lazy. Prudence comes across as self-absorbed, critical and judgemental because she can't let go of her narrow perspective. It helped that the entire book was set up to show her how holding others to her impossible standards wasn't a good idea. I also liked seeing her vulnerabilities and the fear that she's not as likable as her brother. Prudence knows that she can be intense, but secretly fears being judged as a 'buzzkill' or a prude. The upside to her character was her boundless energy and dedication to revamping the rescue center with her many ideas.

➽ Prudence's sudden ability to cast Karma on others worked well with her character Arc as Prudence slowly started to question if the universe's judgement was always right. Despite feeling gleeful about holding others accountable, she realizes that you can't know someone's life fully and that they might have a lot of things going on beneath the surface. Morgan and Maya's cases were great at making Pru question if they deserved their Karma or if it was disproportionate. I liked how the Karma ability played a role in the story but didn't dominate it!

➽ Quint's character contrasted nicely with Prudence! He's a friendly, laid-back person who cares deeply about his mother's rescue center and does everything he can to help her out. Quint draws Prudence's ire because of his constant tardiness and lack of hard work ... yet her Karma abilities reward instead of punish him. It was great seeing Prudence's abilities backfiring on her when Quint was the person she most wanted to cast Karma on. It's obvious that there's more to him and her judgement might have been too harsh. Quint confronts her with her negative traits and isn't so easily convinced when she joins the rescue center. After their disastrous project, he's not willing to redo it for a better grade ... only if she's volunteering for the summer. Initially, Quint is sceptical, but seeing a different side to Prudence makes it possible for them to finally work together! I liked their slowburn romance and how Quint was challenging Prudence, especially as he'd been on the receiving end of her judgement!

➽ In general, I loved the setting and focus on the rescue center. The setting of Fortuna Beach was fun as it's a touristy beach town and we see Prudence during her summer holidays. Instant Karma is definitely a great summer read for that reason alone! However, I also loved the discussions about eco-tourism and the importance of the rescue center. Prudence isn't thrilled to be working there, but she quickly grows attached to the animals and tries to find ways to financially support the center! Unfortunately, they're underfunded and in desperate need of some good advertisement, to get everyone to care about the sea animals!

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wordofm's review against another edition

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adventurous funny medium-paced

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

4.0

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justagir1's review against another edition

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emotional funny informative lighthearted medium-paced

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

3.5

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beckyyreadss's review against another edition

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funny hopeful lighthearted medium-paced

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

3.0

I wanted to read this book because I wanted to read more from authors that I've enjoyed in the past. I loved Marissa’s Cinder series and when I saw she was writing a young adult romance book, I was intrigued to see how it would go. Let's just say Marissa has made me hate a character almost as much as Belly from The Summer I Turned Pretty.

This book is based on chronic overachiever Prudence Barnett, and she is always quick to cast judgement on the lazy, rude, and arrogant residents of her coastal town. Her dreams of karmic justice are fulfilled when, after a night out with her friends, she wakes up with the sudden ability to cast instant karma on those around her. Pru giddily make use of the power, punishing everyone from public vandals to mean gossips, but there is one person on whom her powers consistently backfire: Quint Erickson, her slacker of a lab partner. Quint is annoyingly cute and impressively noble, especially when it comes to his work with the rescue centre for local sea animals. When Pru resigns herself to working at the rescue centre for extra credit, she begins to uncover truths about baby otters, environmental upheaval, and romantic crossed signals – not necessarily in that order. Her newfound karmic insights reveal how thin the line is between virtue and vanity, generosity and greed, love and hate.

One of the main issues I had with this book is that Prudence is not a nice person. Like at all. She shouldn’t have this “power” for the instant karma because she deserves the karma and all the shit to come down on her. She is so immature and selfish, and her thoughts were exhausting. I found myself skimming over her thoughts because I was bored and just didn’t need to hear them. I am aware it’s a young adult book, so they aren’t going to act mature or normal, but I was still rolling my eyes throughout the whole book. This was the time where I wanted the physical book instead of reading it on my kindle so that I could physically throw the book at a wall. Quint has a funny way of showing that he liked her, he is constantly belittling her and just throwing random ass accusations at her and just trying to piss her off which makes her more annoying. I’m aware again that it’s a young adult book and it’s like oh he is picking on me, so he likes me, and he told his mum about me, like get better standards. Plus, Quint just instantly accusing her when the whole town was struggling for money instead of building on the trust, they had spent the whole book figuring out just drove me nuts.

I liked the save the animals side and I wanted more from Jude and his crush and whether they got together, and I liked Ari and Ezra and wanted to see more from them. The side characters saved this from being 2 stars.

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nexusthegreat's review against another edition

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informative lighthearted 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

It wasn’t a bad book, I actually surprisingly really liked it. It didn’t start out strong, plot wise, but it gets a lot more captivating once we get past the cliche intro. Also, I have to say, I absolutely cannot wait for With a Little Luck (I love Jude)!!

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liz_241's review against another edition

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funny lighthearted medium-paced

Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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emilia_thereader's review against another edition

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informative lighthearted relaxing medium-paced

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

4.0

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jenna_justi2004's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging funny informative inspiring mysterious 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

Ok wow lots to say and so little words in the dictionary to explain how much of a fucking roller coaster this book was. Where do I start?

Prudences character ark was just so well developed?? I hated her in the beginning but as the story went on the more I fell in love with her.

Her ambition why she does what she does and how passionate she is. about making a business flourish and thrive. The karmatic justice was kinda weird, but it made sense. BUT QUINT. Holy shit. I love him. He was a good character even from the beginning wow, just hands down me too girl.

Even though I’m still upset about what he said about prudence. So quick to judge her☹️

l But it makes sense unfortunately, in a really sad and banging your head on the wall sense.

Because she was going through the money, and like she wasn’t honest when he caught her

Miss communication man always happens in these books. Just talk it out? I mean?

I had no idea that Shauna was the one who stole the money. I wonder if they got all that money back, in the decades that she’s stolen.

So that the rescue center doesn’t suffer because of that. I also wish we got a bit more spicy scenes. The fade to black was nice but it wouldn’t have hurt to get a bit more you know. Not like full blown you know spicy spicy 🥵, but a bit more? At first I wanted to stop reading this book, it I’m so very glad I didn’t. The marine stuff about it, yes ma’am. I ate that shit up, the snorkeling omg, seething with jealousy. He wants to get his scuba license and take pictures of the ocean animals, literally go him. So yeah good book.

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toberomanced's review against another edition

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emotional funny informative inspiring mysterious reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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