Reviews tagging 'Ableism'

Die Berufene by M.R. Carey

3 reviews

juliawren's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad 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? Yes

4.5

Unique writing style - equally beautiful and childlike at times. It's so interesting to see a post apocalyptic world from the perspective of a child, even one like Melanie, and the author did a great job of showing that there's always a kind of hope to be found even in the darkest of times. 

The plot slowed down significantly in the middle and required a bit of powering through, and parts of the ending felt a bit abrupt because of the difference in pacing, but I didn't mind that it wrapped up quickly, and it was satisfying both to have the mystery revealed and to have it fit so cleanly into the characters' arcs. 
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blackberryjambaby's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional 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? It's complicated

4.0

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shieldbearer's review against another edition

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dark emotional sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

An extremely strong showing from Mike Carey, who I know from his work on X-Men. The characterizations were very well done for the most part- most of them are quite layered. The worldbuilding was strong, and the reviewers asking questions about motivations and "evolution" clearly didn't pay attention because those things were explained in the text. 

Ultimately, a few small things did knock this book down by a star for me. For one, I would have
at least switched the fates of Parks and Gallagher, though I also think you could make an argument for Gallagher's survival being more interesting than his death given the detailed backstory and internal conflict he's given. His interaction with the status quo at the end of the story would have been extremely interesting IMO
Part of this may be because I didn't particularly care for Parks, but this is also because Parks doesn't really have anything interesting going on. 

For another, I feel as though
the Hungry children were too easy to corral at the end.
The questions of the long-term viability of Melanie's plan didn't bother me because  that's not the point of the story. 

Finally, and most glaring IMO,
I feel like Sparks would have encoutnered pregnant hungries if they are able to sexually reproduce. I just have a hard time believing this aspect without a little extra narrative support - especially given how often fatal pregnancy is, and how the fungus wrecks so much of the body and shuts down a lot of its systems. Even mentioning a pregnant hungry in the crowd would have helped. I also can't say I'm a fan of the whole "sex is a human instinct" theme. I expected there to be adult hungries like Melanie that showed up later, if they specified that only the kids were the unique ones earlier I somehow missed it.


Either way, I definitely recommend this even if I feel some elements could have been treated with a bit more care- which is about what I would say about his work on the X-Men, as well. 
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