Reviews with content warning for Infidelity - Girlfriend on Mars

I've seen a lot of negative reviews of this book, but I think many of them stem from a fundamental misunderstanding of what Willis set out to do with this story. What could have been a slapstick kind of satire with a Hunger Games-style competition for a spot on the first mission to Mars was instead a thoughtful and insightful rumination on belief, religion, humanism, and the varieties of trauma we carry with us from childhood to adulthood.

Amber and Kevin are both likable and unlikable in their own unique ways—you desperately want to root for them even as you want to take them by the shoulders and shake them. But that's also what makes the story compelling. Neither is entirely right or wrong in the way they see the world, or how they approach life's challenges.

If you go into this book expecting the space & sci-fi elements to take center-stage, you're going to be disappointed. But I sort of enjoyed how much Willis made them the background for the real human drama to play against. Of course, in our day and age of privatized wealth, extreme privilege, and obsession with social media, the next major space development won't have the same noble aura of NASA's previous advancements. It will be farcical and half-baked and driven by dreams of profit. And because of that it will fade into the background of our lives with the other examples of wealthy behavior that impact all our wellbeing even as they have nothing to do with our day-to-day lives.

I really enjoyed Girlfriend on Mars and am looking forward to reading more from Willis. This would make a perfect beach read for someone looking for a story at the intersection of fluff and thought-provoking.

Content Warnings

daniellekat's review against another edition

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slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.25

This book sounded great in theory—Something kind of funny and not-so-casually pointing out all the ways the planet is dying, but this was just poorly executed. The writing itself wasn’t that bad but this could have used a major edit. There were some strange writing choices that I thought would pan out in the end but never did make any sense (the weird flashback scene cuts in the Kevin chapters come to mind). The characters were all awful and one dimensional. The alternating POVs was somewhat well used but by the last third of the book it was just a lot of the same repeated writing. I’m struggling to understand the author’s intention with this one, it’s left me feeling like I missed something.

Content Warnings

kmagers's review against another edition

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medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

1.0

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