Reviews with content warning for Gun violence - The Kindred

I really love the concept of having people connected and able to read each others thoughts/ emotions and how well thought out that part of the worldbuilding was and how it is all tied into the history of their world.
I also love the casual demi/ ace and plus size representation. Although Felix was slightly annoying at times, his character made sense and I really liked their relationship.

Overall this was just a very enjoyable read and I would recommend it!

I did especially like the space/ scifi parts and felt like the pacing and overall tone was a bit too slow once they were on earth. Because at times it felt more like a contemporary drama as they were going to school. Which is fine, but can also become a tiny bit boring and predictable compared with the magical alien things that were going on before.
And although I completely agree with most of the criticism this book gives on humanity, I felt like it was very un-subtle. Sure, it makes sense for the aliens to be weirded out by those big horrible things, but I would have found it more interesting to show their reactions to more subtle things that are normalized and kind of give a new view on them. Whereas in this case it felt like they were just pointing out the obvious, preaching to the choir. (Or maybe I feel like having guns be legal is insane because I am not American and this is different and more radical for USA readers.)

I do really think these are important issues and since it is a YA book it is understandable for them to be brought up this way. And very good for these themes and problems to be discussed.

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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!

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