Reviews with content warning for Car accident - The Disasters

I was so looking forward to this book, despite the relatively mixed reviews, and I am just...so disappointed.

Starting with the good: I am so, so glad to see books full of diverse characters whose point isn't to be diverse. There were no tokens, nor was the story About How Different They Were. Individually, I liked each of the characters - their personalities were fun, and their backstories interesting. However...this leads us to the bad, of which I had three main complaints that spoiled the reading experience for me:

Contrived Found Family. There was never a moment in the book where the closeness of the relationships between the characters made sense. I am such a sucker for well-done found family, and this book let me down in almost every way concerning it. Practically upon their very first meeting, they were already ribbing and talking about their backstory - and then quickly after that, Nax was physically comforting Case through a panic attack? Like not even a full day later, he's already grabbed her hand and run his thumb over the back of it? The intimacy felt forced, and I know I would have yanked my hand back from someone I'd known less than a day, even if life-or-death situations had just occurred. Asra's introduction to the story felt much the same - they crashed into her, and then she was almost immediately accepted into their little group for the convenience of moving the plot along.

Convenient Plot. The feeling of convenient plot hooks and beats like Asra's introduction plagued the book. They crashed onto the first planet so they could meet Asra. Their heist was interrupted by guards so Rion could take a bullet to the shoulder. Nax's brother was a security guard so they could discover the device. I know that this is how stories have to move sometimes, but it felt like at every turn there was a quick fix - Case would have a "Genius Girl" moment, or Asra would hack the right lock, or Zee would kick someone. There are ways to write plot-driven stories without having them feel like the characters lucked out of each situation. It made any successes feel empty, and generally like the stakes weren't very high at all.

Poor Romance. More than this, though, I was bothered by the author's handling of ~romance~ through the entire novel. They were rocketing through space and literally being hunted, and then trying to stop an interstellar terrorist attack, and yet it felt like almost every chance he got, Nax was commenting on how attractive Case and Rion were. I would have been fine with a mention here or there, but the way Nax was constantly holding himself back from trying to kiss Rion (less than three days after meeting him) felt more like England was trying to hammer home his bisexuality than putting any real thought into if a romantic relationship could - or really, should - develop in the middle of the plot she had dropped them in. I also deeply resented the way Nax, at multiple points throughout the book, debated who he should go after: Case or Rion, only for there to be absolutely no resolution as to those plot lines in the end. IDK if this was to keep things open for future books or what, but if there wasn't going to be a resolution, I feel like it could have been eliminated entirely - especially the scene where Nax and Case kissed, which made me vaguely uncomfortable through the whole thing. Who kisses someone almost immediately after waking them up from a nightmare??? Especially someone you've known, again, less than three days.

Beyond these three major disappointments, I found myself more neutrally disappointed by how juvenile the whole thing felt. I am not a newcomer to YA, and I've read many, many books that do a better job of handling topics like mental health, strained family relationships (Nax's entire disagreement with his brother was based on misunderstanding and Ihateitsomuch), and science fiction in general. I loved England's idea of human colonies on other planets, but ultimately I feel like she could have done so much more. Would not recommend.

Content Warnings