This Mortal Coil: Emily Suvada (This Mortal Coil, 1)

Product Information

The ending for me wasn't the strongest, it was unique sure, but I left the book feeling a little letdown AND I BLAME THE DAMN HYPE!

Anyway, since I don't have the habit of taking notes while reading, this will be my review for now until I remember what I've missed.

About the contributors

When a lone soldier, Cole, arrives with news of Lachlan Agatta's death, all hope seems lost for Catarina. This book had SO many tropes and yet ... I thought they worked, for the most part. A main character who's an odd genius/special snowflake with serious daddy issues. The love triangle. The sort-of forbidden love with the bodyguard, who is in love with a mysterious missing coder. A virus. A mysterious missing character. Whenever a character is "missing" in a book and there's no verified body, they're rarely really missing, you know? I figured out this plot twist right away. Probs because I just saw a version of it in two different YA books recently. Something about her writing has me flipping to the next chapter even though I know I'm supposed to be doing something else, and this makes her books so entertaining, which I love. Although I didn't love This Cruel Design as much as I did This Mortal Coil (more on that later), the action and twists were still similarly up to par, which I know Suvada values a lot in her writing, and this definitely shows through. a b c Colin Larkin, ed. (2003). The Virgin Encyclopedia of Eighties Music (Thirded.). Virgin Books. p.460. ISBN 1-85227-969-9.

All of the characters in the book were delightfully written, unique and original. Some of the new characters, like Mato and Regina, added to the story nicely. Where there's good, there's bad, and Mato and Regina, both morally gray characters, were fun to get to know. Jun Bei's story also ramped up in This Cruel Design. The more I learn about Jun Bei, the more I like her character. She has a streak of compassion but all the hardness of someone who's had a really hard life. The publishers provided an advanced readers copy of this book for reviewing purposes. All opinions are my own. So I did and I dislike virus books and am not a huge fan of triangles but ... I actually liked this. What immediately grabbed me from the start and impressed me was the writing style. From the very first line, it intrigued me. The writing is vibrant and colorful, and I absolutely loved it. If a book can grab me with the writing, it says a lot, and this book could.Was this book slow? It didn't feel like it to me. Were the characters flat? Kinda, but that's a common thing in action-heavy books and I didn't find it a big problem. Was it the coolest sci-fi of all time? I don't read that much sci-fi but probably not. Was it one of the better YA sci fi books I've read recently? Yes. Here are some of the choice examples of the causes of death recorded in a Bill of Mortality from 1664: Douridas, Chris (13 March 1998). "Morning Becomes Eclectic interview with Ivo Watts-Russell". KCRW . Retrieved 16 March 2021. Although I enjoyed this book I dont believe its as amazing as everyone says it is, I mean yes some parts were amazing, but not the book as a whole.

Her words are clipped and sharp. She speaks the way a rife fires. She is steel and glass and blood fused into a blade. I do think part of the reason why I didn't love This Cruel Design as much as I did This Mortal Coil was because I was expecting to like This Cruel Design, where I walked into This Mortal Coil basically blind and hoping for something good (and something good it was).

Select a format:

I was also disappointed by the focus on the unnecessary love triangle. One of the love interests is just not even a bit necessary. I do not exaggerate, this book would barely even change if he weren’t a love interest. The other is just kind of bland. Like… he’s fine, I don’t hate him, but his characterization is nonexistent. He goes from Bad Boy to Soft Boy by the second as if he’s trying to hit every YA trope at once, and overall just reads bland. We've come full circle, kids. The first book I officially reviewed (not including one certain 4,000 word rant...ahem..The Selection) was This Mortal Coil. And here we are! One year and some months later reviewing This Cruel Design. This fact is irrelevant but there it is and now you can't unlearn it! Anyways, How do you follow up the wild ride of This Mortal Coil? I mean, it's like how they're making a Frozen 2 and a Toy Story 4 in the same year. Can we even handle that? Will they be as good as their predecessors? Time will tell on those. But as far as This Cruel Design goes, I think it stands up well compared to the thrill-ride of This Mortal Coil. Furthermore, the author of this book is Australian. I love supporting fellow Aussies in the publishing world since I feel I don’t do it enough. So, when I found out Emily Suvada was a fellow girl from Aus I was pretty stoked. all the unique ideas (honestly, originality is what I love most about books. I'm jumping on my toes whenever I read something fresh that is also logical, and it's why I love sci-fi so much)

Audiobook: The narrator slightly mispronounced several words, but upon some searching I discovered that she's British and using British English pronunciations, so she wasn't incorrect. The book is set in the US with US characters and she uses a US accent, which is the only reason those words stood out to me. In bunkers and strongholds across the world, people are celebrating. There's a vaccine to the virus that has ravaged the planet for years. Looks like this book will be the first in a trilogy, so ... hoping this trilogy does not follow the YA Triangle Roadmap of Ugh. One thing that really makes me think is everyone has ‘healing tech’ built-in and how doctors actually can barely heal you traditionally anymore because they’re so used to just fine-tuning your apps than ‘treating’ you physically. How scary to think that we all get so used to technology and how much we end up depend on it to the point of in danger of losing our learned skills. Such a terrifying thought indeed.The writing for this was wonderfully descriptive, and the overall plot and pacing was good. I never felt bored, or feel the need to skip text to get into the action - the action was pretty much continuous, and I didn't want to stop reading.The world building is also done well, and fully explores the world in which the characters inhabit. However a downside to this was that I wanted to send more time with Catarina on her own in the world, especially when we first meet her. More time spent exploring the horrors that the people left behind must face, and the sacrifices they make, would have helped to better understand the virus itself, and why everyone is so afraid of it. I feel I could have understood the former Neurosurgeon and his family more, and perhaps had more sympathy for them, if I had a better understand of what they'd been through. As it was, I just really wanted Catarina to punish them, and I felt a little let down by her actions. So (of course) Guy #2 shows up, and he's been scientifically enhanced by her father to protect her and so has a sort of (in 80s movie references) The-Bodyguard-meets-The-Terminator twisted appeal. And because Guy #1 calls her "Princess" (kind of sarcastically, but still) I am SO voting for Guy #2. hoo boy this is going to be a bitch of a review to write. i don't think i've ever been so conflicted about a book in a while. This book got everything. To name a few, I experienced some razor sharp action, last minute escapes, a lot of seriously great plot twists, powerful dialogues, humour, slow burn romance & that totally unexpected ending! Man! I wasn't prepared for that 😨 Mutation that made the vitamin C deficient was harmless to our ancestors and passed on down the generations.