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madarauchiha's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
sad
slow-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? It's complicated
5.0
โค๏ธ ๐งก ๐ ๐ ๐ ๐ my about / byf / CW info carrd: uchiha-madara ๐ ๐ ๐ ๐ ๐งก โค๏ธ
I love that it drops you into the heart of it. No need to go on tedious pre launch training missions or that boring 'meet the potential crew mates and do a reality show elimination until we get the who's who of the final crew'. Nope. This fucked up world is fully established. You either catch up on what's happening or get left behind. I think it helpfully contributes to the desperation and tail spin of trying to figure out just what is happening on the space ship. The occasionally alternating past-and-present POV chapters were especially useful to break up the constant throttling helpless sensation. I noticed some other reviewers disliked the unreliable narration, which is confusing to me. That is the point, we simply don't know and we're going to find out. That's like complaining we don't get reliable narration from Moriarty in a Sherlock Holmes novel.
Title drops are so cheesy and yet. my heart bursts with joy just reading that. I loved the conclusion, I thought it was very solid and tied everything together very cleanly. I love that the androids were not some godawful slavery cyberpunk racial analogy. I love the autistic mc and I thought it was incredibly heartwarming to have such a protagonist. God wow new fave author.
I love the creeping tension, how you can see everything going wrong. it's so suffocating, this is great writing. I think the technical aspects were done well. It's not excessively math diagrams, half remembered from a distant college course, and it's not too philosophical, half baked weed ramblings. It was set up with in universe support and fleshed out enough to let the reader understand what is going on.
If I REALLY had to compare it to other medias: the first dead space game, the Alien franchise, Interstellar [2014]. I'm not saying this is a ripoff of any of those medias but if I had to make a venn diagram of various sci fi books and medias, WHABH would be places in the same circle as these medias. I do think this book is better than Interstellar but that's just me. :)
It's so unfortunate theres a Asian / white romance, but it doesn't feature very much. Like, it's present but it's not the main focus.
I think it's kinda fuckig weird there's no black characters. Like... we're out here colonizing space and it's the end of the world and we have all sorts of semi-sapient AIs and there's still no black characters? Huh. That feels so wrong.
I do love that the cop character is literally a piece of shit. Just like irl pigs! Thank you, author. I honestly hate when scifi and fantasy does the magical or pseudo police, and make them the good guy.
As far as triggering / heavy themes: not too much. There were pretty explicit scenes but nothing I would consider trauma-/tortureporn a la The Poppy War by R F Kuang.
The only thing I hate about this book is that it's a debut novel. They're my fave new author and I want to devour the rest of their works!!!
Content warnings:
minor NSFW, blood, child death, kidnapping, suicide ideation, trafficking, vomit / emetophobia
medium animal cruelty, animal hunting, body horror, death, ecofascism, genocide, gun violence, medical content, military abuse?, murder, parental death, poisoning, self harm, suicide ideation, swearing, terror attacks, wars, wrist trauma
major body horror, death, fire, gore, gun violence, mental illness, murder, unreality, violence
I love that it drops you into the heart of it. No need to go on tedious pre launch training missions or that boring 'meet the potential crew mates and do a reality show elimination until we get the who's who of the final crew'. Nope. This fucked up world is fully established. You either catch up on what's happening or get left behind. I think it helpfully contributes to the desperation and tail spin of trying to figure out just what is happening on the space ship. The occasionally alternating past-and-present POV chapters were especially useful to break up the constant throttling helpless sensation. I noticed some other reviewers disliked the unreliable narration, which is confusing to me. That is the point, we simply don't know and we're going to find out. That's like complaining we don't get reliable narration from Moriarty in a Sherlock Holmes novel.
Title drops are so cheesy and yet. my heart bursts with joy just reading that. I loved the conclusion, I thought it was very solid and tied everything together very cleanly. I love that the androids were not some godawful slavery cyberpunk racial analogy. I love the autistic mc and I thought it was incredibly heartwarming to have such a protagonist. God wow new fave author.
I love the creeping tension, how you can see everything going wrong. it's so suffocating, this is great writing. I think the technical aspects were done well. It's not excessively math diagrams, half remembered from a distant college course, and it's not too philosophical, half baked weed ramblings. It was set up with in universe support and fleshed out enough to let the reader understand what is going on.
If I REALLY had to compare it to other medias: the first dead space game, the Alien franchise, Interstellar [2014]. I'm not saying this is a ripoff of any of those medias but if I had to make a venn diagram of various sci fi books and medias, WHABH would be places in the same circle as these medias. I do think this book is better than Interstellar but that's just me. :)
It's so unfortunate theres a Asian / white romance, but it doesn't feature very much. Like, it's present but it's not the main focus.
I think it's kinda fuckig weird there's no black characters. Like... we're out here colonizing space and it's the end of the world and we have all sorts of semi-sapient AIs and there's still no black characters? Huh. That feels so wrong.
I do love that the cop character is literally a piece of shit. Just like irl pigs! Thank you, author. I honestly hate when scifi and fantasy does the magical or pseudo police, and make them the good guy.
As far as triggering / heavy themes: not too much. There were pretty explicit scenes but nothing I would consider trauma-/tortureporn a la The Poppy War by R F Kuang.
The only thing I hate about this book is that it's a debut novel. They're my fave new author and I want to devour the rest of their works!!!
Content warnings:
minor NSFW, blood, child death, kidnapping, suicide ideation, trafficking, vomit / emetophobia
medium animal cruelty, animal hunting, body horror, death, ecofascism, genocide, gun violence, medical content, military abuse?, murder, parental death, poisoning, self harm, suicide ideation, swearing, terror attacks, wars, wrist trauma
major body horror, death, fire, gore, gun violence, mental illness, murder, unreality, violence
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Gun violence, Mental illness, Murder, and Violence
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Death, Genocide, Gun violence, Medical content, Murder, Death of parent, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, and Cursing
Minor: Sexual content, Blood, Child death, Kidnapping, Suicidal thoughts, Vomit, and Trafficking
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