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greystory's review
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.75
I'm torn about how to rate this.
I feel bad for giving this a low rating. The biggest reason for my displeasure with the book has to do with pure personal preference: I find age gaps, especially ones right around the ages in this book, to be off-putting. To be honest, I started skimming the book rather than reading and entirely skipped all of the spice scenes.
I enjoyed getting to see Kez's point of view since we saw him as a character in book 2, the New Guy, even though this book breaks from the mold by having the book from Kez's point of view as the male 'love interest' instead of from the female main character's point of view. It was interesting to get to see more about what makes Kez tick and be the way he is (I mean, he was kinda basically a drug dealer in book 2?) and why he's friends with Ro or why he disliked Maggie so much. I enjoyed seeing that private, hidden, dark side of his life.
Bia, the female main character, I liked her - on her own. I was happy to see her getting out, making friends, learning new things, seeing the world a bit (just one building apparently). She was a sweet kid but therein lies the problem - kid. She's described as being naive and innocent repeatedly, as having a childish excitement about her, of being immature and overly idealistic. Kez himself thinks she's way too young for him and Bia's current guardian acknowledges the age gap but thinks Bia needs a mentor (which, socially and culturally, she does). There's a big difference between a mentor and a romantic/sexual partner, though.
Bia was orphaned and taken in by an older Balin woman. On her 2 year journey to Earth, she was not classified as an adult yet. It's unclear how long she's been on Earth or Kez's neighbor but she's only just now getting her GED on Earth, so I'm going to guess her to be like 18-20ish in Earth time. (Kez himself gives a rough estimate of 21) That means she was an adolescent who went through the trauma of losing her family, being taken in by a race of people who hated her, losing her entire world (literally) and being evacuated to a different planet, and then hanging on every word of the much older man living next door who shows her the slightest kindness by not hating her.
Kez doesn't give his own age either but does say he feels too old and can't remember his own age. He mentally thinks of himself as an old man (though clearly not elderly). Bia's guardian says Kez isn't old enough to be Bia's father (which Kez also disliked as being the cutoff) so I'm guessing Kez is at least 10-15 years older, possibly more. To me, that age gap in particular is just not it. I can't do it for personal reasons and negative personal experiences. I can do them under some circumstances - like if the youngest is at least mid-20s or the age gap is less severe, or if they're both older then the age gap can also be larger and I wouldn't care (like 30s vs 60s or 23 vs 12,000 or whatever).
Bia clearly needs mentorship and more good role models in her life. She can absolutely use friends and some adults in her life to guide her. I'm not on board with an older man engaging in a romantic/sexual relationship with a barely legal young woman who is very impressionable, very isolated, and desperate for someone to accept and love her. I've been that young woman and it is not pretty.
There's also lines that just specifically gave me the ick. Like: "I’m growing up as fast as I can. I just want to be good enough for you now." Bia says to Kez. This is probably supposed to be romantic or sweet but this just made me grimace and shudder. She goes on to describe how she views Kez as this magical hero to her sad story, that sweeps her off of her feet, and makes everything better again. Again, I get the feeling it's supposed to be sweet but I can't shake the feeling it's more youthful hero worship and an idealistic fairytale, not a realistic foundation for a healthy, stable relationship.
If you want to be flip about it, you could say they both have daddy issues (Kez especially) so I guess this is how things worked out. To be fair, Kez does get some life lessons of his own along the way and has to learn to be a little vulnerable himself, but again, I personally don't feel like that has to be or completely appropriate as a romantic/sexual relationship with someone considerably younger.
My plan is to read the Christmas special that is Book 5, the whole reason I decided to read this series now, but I might end up skipping Bia and Kez's.
Anyway, I enjoyed Ro and Kez arguing about the Balin way to mimic flicking someone off since they only have 3 fingers instead of 5 and they can't agree on which finger counts as 'THE finger' to give. (pg 175 if you don't want to read the whole book) I enjoyed the very ending and epilogue. And finally, I appreciated the author's note about racism, representing the struggles of biracial identity, and owning up to failures as a writer.
I feel bad for giving this a low rating. The biggest reason for my displeasure with the book has to do with pure personal preference: I find age gaps, especially ones right around the ages in this book, to be off-putting. To be honest, I started skimming the book rather than reading and entirely skipped all of the spice scenes.
I enjoyed getting to see Kez's point of view since we saw him as a character in book 2, the New Guy, even though this book breaks from the mold by having the book from Kez's point of view as the male 'love interest' instead of from the female main character's point of view. It was interesting to get to see more about what makes Kez tick and be the way he is (I mean, he was kinda basically a drug dealer in book 2?) and why he's friends with Ro or why he disliked Maggie so much. I enjoyed seeing that private, hidden, dark side of his life.
Bia, the female main character, I liked her - on her own. I was happy to see her getting out, making friends, learning new things, seeing the world a bit (just one building apparently). She was a sweet kid but therein lies the problem - kid. She's described as being naive and innocent repeatedly, as having a childish excitement about her, of being immature and overly idealistic. Kez himself thinks she's way too young for him and Bia's current guardian acknowledges the age gap but thinks Bia needs a mentor (which, socially and culturally, she does). There's a big difference between a mentor and a romantic/sexual partner, though.
Bia was orphaned and taken in by an older Balin woman. On her 2 year journey to Earth, she was not classified as an adult yet. It's unclear how long she's been on Earth or Kez's neighbor but she's only just now getting her GED on Earth, so I'm going to guess her to be like 18-20ish in Earth time. (Kez himself gives a rough estimate of 21) That means she was an adolescent who went through the trauma of losing her family, being taken in by a race of people who hated her, losing her entire world (literally) and being evacuated to a different planet, and then hanging on every word of the much older man living next door who shows her the slightest kindness by not hating her.
Kez doesn't give his own age either but does say he feels too old and can't remember his own age. He mentally thinks of himself as an old man (though clearly not elderly). Bia's guardian says Kez isn't old enough to be Bia's father (which Kez also disliked as being the cutoff) so I'm guessing Kez is at least 10-15 years older, possibly more. To me, that age gap in particular is just not it. I can't do it for personal reasons and negative personal experiences. I can do them under some circumstances - like if the youngest is at least mid-20s or the age gap is less severe, or if they're both older then the age gap can also be larger and I wouldn't care (like 30s vs 60s or 23 vs 12,000 or whatever).
Bia clearly needs mentorship and more good role models in her life. She can absolutely use friends and some adults in her life to guide her. I'm not on board with an older man engaging in a romantic/sexual relationship with a barely legal young woman who is very impressionable, very isolated, and desperate for someone to accept and love her. I've been that young woman and it is not pretty.
There's also lines that just specifically gave me the ick. Like: "I’m growing up as fast as I can. I just want to be good enough for you now." Bia says to Kez. This is probably supposed to be romantic or sweet but this just made me grimace and shudder. She goes on to describe how she views Kez as this magical hero to her sad story, that sweeps her off of her feet, and makes everything better again. Again, I get the feeling it's supposed to be sweet but I can't shake the feeling it's more youthful hero worship and an idealistic fairytale, not a realistic foundation for a healthy, stable relationship.
If you want to be flip about it, you could say they both have daddy issues (Kez especially) so I guess this is how things worked out. To be fair, Kez does get some life lessons of his own along the way and has to learn to be a little vulnerable himself, but again, I personally don't feel like that has to be or completely appropriate as a romantic/sexual relationship with someone considerably younger.
My plan is to read the Christmas special that is Book 5, the whole reason I decided to read this series now, but I might end up skipping Bia and Kez's.
Anyway, I enjoyed Ro and Kez arguing about the Balin way to mimic flicking someone off since they only have 3 fingers instead of 5 and they can't agree on which finger counts as 'THE finger' to give. (pg 175 if you don't want to read the whole book) I enjoyed the very ending and epilogue. And finally, I appreciated the author's note about racism, representing the struggles of biracial identity, and owning up to failures as a writer.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racial slurs, Xenophobia, Racism, and Toxic relationship
Moderate: Slavery
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