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vaguely_pink's review
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Grief, Colonisation, and Slavery
Moderate: Death of parent, Gun violence, Medical content, Pregnancy, Racism, Terminal illness, Violence, Murder, Animal death, Biphobia, Body horror, Cancer, Child death, Fire/Fire injury, and Gore
Minor: Cursing, Homophobia, Sexual content, Suicide, and Vomit
noreadingdegree's review against another edition
dark
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
sad
tense
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
once again, audiobooks are killing it for me. this one was fantastic. i didn't realize how much i enjoyed first contact stories until i read this book. there is something about humans trying to navigate and come to terms with extraterrestrial life that fascinates me. i loved that this book focused on multi-POVs from the same family/friend circle and how the arrival of the arrivals changed their lives with each other.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gore, Violence, Slavery, Murder, Infidelity, Grief, Death, and Animal death
Moderate: Cancer, Homophobia, and Terminal illness
Minor: Sexual content and Car accident
ohlhauc's review against another edition
dark
hopeful
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
This story is broken down into three different periods of time on the U.S. Virgin Islands. The first follows the human characters and their normal life a few weeks before aliens, the Ynaa, land on one island. The second period starts five years after the Ynaa arrive and follow the new normal that has fell upon the island, albeit with rising tensions. The third part happens a year after the climactic event in the novel.
The separation of the novel into these three acts was an effective structure to write a first contact novel. Usually we see what happens in the immediate aftermath but by choosing to choose these time frames, we get to see how big events change us in large and small ways, and how quickly we can adjust to such change.
What made the book remarkable was its ending and the themes it covered. Drawing parallels to colonial invasions and slavery (and there were some flashbacks to this time), this was a devastating, poignant reflection on the devastation that can happen when an invading culture clashes with native inhabitants and the social trauma that results whena significant portion of the population is decimated through genocide or murder -- and even parallels to mass incarceration. While some people have mentioned that they didn't like the vagueness behind the Ynaa's purpose on the islands and the open ending, those were my favourite parts. It reflects the realities that when a group of people go through pain, closure doesn't come neatly tied up in a bow and knowing why something was done doesn't make its impact less painful. The reflections the ending raises definitely bumped this novel up from one that was just okay to one that I ended up liking.
What didn't work for me was that I didn't care about the characters. As a society and on the whole, I cared and got emotional during the dramatic scenes but individually, we spent so little time with the characters, that I found it hard to fully connect and understand the characters. The story was told from multiple perspectives by main characters, as well as quite a few secondary and even tertiary characters. It felt like a collection of short stories of different people reflecting on the same event, but each story felt incomplete and I would've liked to see more background.
Overall, I do recommend this book if you're interested in science fiction, literature reflecting on colonialism, and vivid writing with multiple characters.
The separation of the novel into these three acts was an effective structure to write a first contact novel. Usually we see what happens in the immediate aftermath but by choosing to choose these time frames, we get to see how big events change us in large and small ways, and how quickly we can adjust to such change.
What made the book remarkable was its ending and the themes it covered. Drawing parallels to colonial invasions and slavery (and there were some flashbacks to this time), this was a devastating, poignant reflection on the devastation that can happen when an invading culture clashes with native inhabitants and the social trauma that results when
What didn't work for me was that I didn't care about the characters. As a society and on the whole, I cared and got emotional during the dramatic scenes but individually, we spent so little time with the characters, that I found it hard to fully connect and understand the characters. The story was told from multiple perspectives by main characters, as well as quite a few secondary and even tertiary characters. It felt like a collection of short stories of different people reflecting on the same event, but each story felt incomplete and I would've liked to see more background.
Overall, I do recommend this book if you're interested in science fiction, literature reflecting on colonialism, and vivid writing with multiple characters.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Genocide, Gun violence, Slavery, and Violence
Moderate: Infidelity, Murder, and Sexual content
Minor: Animal death
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