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bookish_bry's review
adventurous
emotional
inspiring
reflective
fast-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
3.5
This book was easy to read and rarely bored me, though it had some flaws. To be fair, part of it may be because I am probably getting out of the age range it was intended for.
It could be a bit repetitive at times, and I often wished it would leave a bit to the imagination. I feel like Joy and Felix's pasts and motivations were often revealed too quickly. There was quite a bit of telling and not showing with the internal dialogue and it left very little to surprise me. Even the plot twists ofFelix's parentage was something I predicted pretty much immediately. I would have preferred the main villain to have been... a bit better cloaked instead of immediately blatantly obviously the bad guy.
Though overall, I do think it was a good book and one I would suggest to someone who likes young adult fiction. Like I said, I was rarely bored. I also appreciate the rather casual lgbt+ representation. In a book that did focus on a heterosexual (though I think Joy is demi and Felix is bi/pan) couple, it's always nice to see lbgt+ relationships just casually in the background.
It could be a bit repetitive at times, and I often wished it would leave a bit to the imagination. I feel like Joy and Felix's pasts and motivations were often revealed too quickly. There was quite a bit of telling and not showing with the internal dialogue and it left very little to surprise me. Even the plot twists of
Though overall, I do think it was a good book and one I would suggest to someone who likes young adult fiction. Like I said, I was rarely bored. I also appreciate the rather casual lgbt+ representation. In a book that did focus on a heterosexual (though I think Joy is demi and Felix is bi/pan) couple, it's always nice to see lbgt+ relationships just casually in the background.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Colonisation, Misogyny, Alcoholism, Classism, Fatphobia, Murder, Alcohol, Body shaming, Kidnapping, Racism, Religious bigotry, and Sexism
Moderate: Death, Torture, War, and Death of parent
Minor: Homophobia
psistillreadyou's review against another edition
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder and Death
Moderate: Fatphobia, Body horror, and Alcoholism
Minor: Racism, Gun violence, Death of parent, Police brutality, Mental illness, and Islamophobia
courtnoodles's review
adventurous
emotional
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
tw: fatphobia, classism
points awarded for:
- the coverrrrrrrrrrr
- felix
- general acceptance of all walks of life from the mcs
- a hetero romance being at the center, but one mc being pan/bi (felix) and it being acknowledged and accepted throughout
- use of gender neutral pronouns for a new character until their gender is revealed (why doesn't everyone already do this holy shit??)
- the romance literally being the most swoon-worthy thing ever, go dthey love each other so much
- felix being so obsessed with joy i literally crumbled
- joy's instant obsession with taylor swift, same girl
- this is a soulmate au but aliens and wow wow wow
- did i mention felix is the actual best
points knocked off for:
- yeah the sci fi interplanetary stuff was kinda confusing ok ok
- my brain still hurts a bit after a sci fi novel, wow i am not built for this
- the lineage didn't make a whole lot of sense and the reveals were a little left field? idk how to explain it
- SUPER repetitive, like "we need to get off this planet and go home to face our imminent death" was basically how every. single. chapter. ended.
- for it being an entire point that they have no knowledge whatsoever of terra (earth), there were a couple of instances where terms that they probably wouldn't have had exposure to were thrown in, but they were explained other times, idk some inconsistencies
- also felix calling joy demi-ace, like yes she is, but establish that these sexuality identifications exist on your world too instead of like 70% into the book?
- i think this was my first book that mentions the covid pandemic, and oof, i had to stop reading for a minute, yikes
go pick it up though!!!!!!!!!!!
--
It's a soulmate au but aliens and I swooned 9495859 times
Rtc maybe
points awarded for:
- the coverrrrrrrrrrr
- felix
- general acceptance of all walks of life from the mcs
- a hetero romance being at the center, but one mc being pan/bi (felix) and it being acknowledged and accepted throughout
- use of gender neutral pronouns for a new character until their gender is revealed (why doesn't everyone already do this holy shit??)
- the romance literally being the most swoon-worthy thing ever, go dthey love each other so much
- felix being so obsessed with joy i literally crumbled
- joy's instant obsession with taylor swift, same girl
- this is a soulmate au but aliens and wow wow wow
- did i mention felix is the actual best
points knocked off for:
- yeah the sci fi interplanetary stuff was kinda confusing ok ok
- my brain still hurts a bit after a sci fi novel, wow i am not built for this
- the lineage didn't make a whole lot of sense and the reveals were a little left field? idk how to explain it
- SUPER repetitive, like "we need to get off this planet and go home to face our imminent death" was basically how every. single. chapter. ended.
- for it being an entire point that they have no knowledge whatsoever of terra (earth), there were a couple of instances where terms that they probably wouldn't have had exposure to were thrown in, but they were explained other times, idk some inconsistencies
- also felix calling joy demi-ace, like yes she is, but establish that these sexuality identifications exist on your world too instead of like 70% into the book?
- i think this was my first book that mentions the covid pandemic, and oof, i had to stop reading for a minute, yikes
go pick it up though!!!!!!!!!!!
--
It's a soulmate au but aliens and I swooned 9495859 times
Rtc maybe
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Classism, Death, Body shaming, and Fatphobia
Moderate: Colonisation, Blood, Violence, War, Alcohol, and Xenophobia
Minor: Abandonment and Cursing
theespressoedition's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
inspiring
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? No
5.0
Please allow me to give a wild round of applause to Alechia THE ABSOLUTE QUEEN OF SCI-FI Dow. I don't know how, but she's done it again, and done it SO DARN WELL at that. I have been anxiously anticipating this book release and the second it was available at my library, I checked it out, ready to devour it. And that's exactly what I did. I seriously didn't want to put it down.
If you've read The Sound of Stars, you'll get to enjoy some really fun cameos in this book. That made me so, so happy because I loved that book so much and I had a little bit of hope inside me that there would be references to it. I was definitely not disappointed!
Okay, let me try and convince you to read this the best way I know how - a list:
- phenomenal diversity... like truly gorgeous. I couldn't get enough of the cast of characters and how wildly different they all were from each other - and how that made them all the more wonderful.
- totally immersive atmosphere... I was physically sitting in my bed, but I was mentally on another planet (or multiple planets) and it was easy to picture how everything looked because of the wonderful way it was written.
- mentions of my favorite authors... there was a literal LIST of authors at one point that made me want to weep with joy because it included so many of my favorites - some of which I'm even friends with!
- best friends-to-lovers + forbidden love... and of course this equals a lot of drama but also a lot of emotion and really just the best kind of feels. I was rooting for our protagonists from the get-go because they were just so dang precious I couldn't even handle it.
- TAYLOR SWIFT... you might be like "what???" but if you read it, you'll get it. If you like Taylor Swift, you'll like this book.
If that doesn't convince you, I'm not entirely sure what will. Hopefully, you pick this up because it instantly went on my list of favorites for not only 2022, but of all time!
If you've read The Sound of Stars, you'll get to enjoy some really fun cameos in this book. That made me so, so happy because I loved that book so much and I had a little bit of hope inside me that there would be references to it. I was definitely not disappointed!
Okay, let me try and convince you to read this the best way I know how - a list:
- phenomenal diversity... like truly gorgeous. I couldn't get enough of the cast of characters and how wildly different they all were from each other - and how that made them all the more wonderful.
- totally immersive atmosphere... I was physically sitting in my bed, but I was mentally on another planet (or multiple planets) and it was easy to picture how everything looked because of the wonderful way it was written.
- mentions of my favorite authors... there was a literal LIST of authors at one point that made me want to weep with joy because it included so many of my favorites - some of which I'm even friends with!
- best friends-to-lovers + forbidden love... and of course this equals a lot of drama but also a lot of emotion and really just the best kind of feels. I was rooting for our protagonists from the get-go because they were just so dang precious I couldn't even handle it.
- TAYLOR SWIFT... you might be like "what???" but if you read it, you'll get it. If you like Taylor Swift, you'll like this book.
If that doesn't convince you, I'm not entirely sure what will. Hopefully, you pick this up because it instantly went on my list of favorites for not only 2022, but of all time!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body shaming, Fatphobia, and Misogyny
Moderate: Colonisation, Death, Racism, Gun violence, and Violence
Minor: War
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