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

Product Information

Dementia, heart failure and cancer are now the leading causes of death in industrialised nations, where life expectancy is mostly above 80. A century ago, life expectancy was about 50 and people died mainly from infectious diseases. In the Middle Ages, death was mostly caused by famine, plague, childbirth and war. In the Palaeolithic period, where our species spent 95 percent of its time, we frequently died from violence and accidents. In addition to this authenticity were the characters, I initially feared the dreaded insta-love trope was once again going to rear its ugly head, but this, fortunately, managed to remain trope free! Each of the characters felt like well-rounded and real individuals and so I believed in each of the chaotic episodes they found themselves in. Whilst I enjoyed every portion of this novel, the ending was its phenomenal crowning glory. Twist after twist mutated the plot until it was unrecognisable from its original conception and transformed into something truly unforgettable. If I wasn't sold by the rest of it, this ending would keep me reading an eternity's worth of instalments in this series. So with that said, when is the next one due? 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. 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!

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. Nevertheless, he is an optimist. He points to medical marvels that may lie ahead—such as 3 D-printed organs that could make it routine to go into hospital at 60 to “freshen up” with new lungs, kidneys, liver or pancreas, grown from stem cells and optimised by genetic editing. “We could then have hearts like Usain Bolt and lungs like Serena Williams,” he writes. “Many more of us would only die when our brains can no longer function.” The “years of living with chronic disability”, which now blight old age, would be over.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 😨 stars. This was… interesting, and also not my type of book, and kind of disappointing. I honestly think This Mortal Coil is bit of your typical plot-twisty-but-not-very-quality YA sci-fi, and although some things stood out, I just didn’t love it. The science wasn't just there to be kitschy, it had actual purpose to the story, which I really liked.

Not only is there character growth, but relationship growth. Cat has to redefine a lot of how she sees herself after the events in the last book. But she also has to transform, grow, rebuild (and in some cases, begin) lots of relationships. I loved watching how the characters navigated all the changes, and all the new things they themselves learned about their world and the people around them. I borrowed a copy of This Mortal Coil from my library as well as listening along to the audiobook, as some of the chapters contain graphs and tables and while rather expertly narrated, I was still keen to examine the print version of the data. This Mortal Coil is a collection of fantasy and horror short stories by author Cynthia Asquith. It was released in 1947 and was the only collection of the author's stories to be published by Arkham House. It was published in an edition of 2,609 copies. Still, I did feel a little let down with the meager amount of character dynamics, but I also get that it was to add to the non-stop action.

Table of Contents

The world is intricate yes, but the way the world is woven into the story is mainly through the characters telling the reader. The characters will just start explaining what they know about the world they live in for a few paragraphs whenever a scene arrives that needs the explanation. So many details about the tech and genes are revealed this way. Tons of paragraphs of explanation. hey hey if you want to read Emily Suvada's awesome guest post, a THIS MORTAL COIL SURVIVAL GUIDE, you can find it here! Mato as a character was a fantastic addition for the get go, especially with the element of him being completely grey and I had no idea if I wanted to trust him or not. I also feel like I can add in Jun Bei as a new character here as well, as though we only got snippets of her in This Mortal Coil, I feel like we really began to understand her in This Cruel Design. There were definitely both human parts of her revealed to Cat, and the more dangerous side. 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. Stop the presses I’ve found my new YA trilogy obsession with Emily Suvada’s “This Mortal Coil” a fast paced, intricately woven, brilliantly fascinating and best of all intelligent and addictive thriller.