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airic_fenn's review against another edition
2.0
Received this book as an arc. Review to come.
(Edit 12/16/2021)
*This Review contains minor spoilers*
I received this book as an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Now I want to say right off the bat that I went into this book loving the concept, and it has a really awesome cover, so points to it there.
In it, we have the characters Ellie and Zach who are, after they’re betrayed and their entire race destroyed by their best friend (and Ellie’s ex-fiance), Cor, on a mission to seek revenge on him for all the harm he caused. In order to finally get to him, they take a job to assassinate a human named Gabe, who is trying to get into the prestigious, off-planet rich people club called the Society. Little do they know, Gabe and Cor are more closely connected than they think, and Cor’s role in the destruction of their species is much more complicated than they’re aware.
Being a sci-fi, there are of course several different alien races and the biggest plot point connecting them is that they’re all willfully segregated by race into different factions, or Zones as they’re called in the book. There are humans, Pleiadeans “if one counted [them] separate from humans,” Lyrans (cat people), Sirians (mer-folk), Silurians (lizard people), and finally, there are the Kausians, the golden-eyed shapeshifters who were all but destroyed by the Silurians all thanks to Cor. Cor, Ellie and Zach seem to be the only ones left, and Ellie and Zach are rightfully hurt, angry, and understandably feeling vengeful. Then we have Gabe who has a bounty on his head for trying to join the Society as a half human, half Sirian.
The story had a lot of potential here, whether it be as a commentary on the flaws of a society like this, as a space-western, or even simply as a good, fast-paced character driven novel. Unfortunately, that’s about where the good things I have to say end because in the end it didn’t deliver. I desperately tried to like this book and I read all the way through, hoping for something that would redeem it, and was left disappointed.
I’m not sure where to begin, because all of it was rather frustrating and I’m not even sure if I can touch on it all in a single review. It often felt like the story was being spoon fed to the reader and more often “told” than “showed” when it came to the characters’ feelings, interactions, and even some scenes throughout the book. This didn't leave a lot of room for the reader to think, or room for much of any suspense or tension to build up, especially at the end where suspense would have been this book’s ally. As for the worldbuilding in the book, it could have used more detail as well - anything to make it easier to understand the setting the characters interacted with beyond the knowledge of the Zones. And despite being a space western, the space and the western meshed together like a raygun in the wrong holster.
There was also a lot of odd and unnecessary repetition littered across the pages. For example, a character would come to a conclusion, and upon that conclusion reiterate that same point over and over just in different ways from that point on. Then in the next pov chapter, that next character would have that same thought or quickly come to the same conclusion, and the cycle would continue. One instance that comes to mind is when Cor is on a ship to the Society and he thinks about the fact that he easily gets sick on transportation like this. Then in both Ellie and Zach’s following chapters, they both make points to reiterate how they, too, get sick on ships the instant idea is brought up. Then when we get to Gabe’s pov, it is mentioned that he observes this in the former characters, and he reaches the conclusion that all Kausians seem to get sick on transportation (excuse me, WHY???). In another instance, Ellie would spend most of her chapters thinking about how she wanted to get revenge and how hurt she was and how there was no way she could ever forgive Cor and she’s definitely going to kill him. But then when she sees him again and he recounts his version of events, she seems all too ready to forgive him and the subsequent “oh but I’ll just wait and see how he turns out before I trust him,” was very unconvincing.
It truly felt like a good chunk of the book was telling me things I already knew and things that didn’t need to be reiterated. On the flip side, the book failed to provide or focus on many details for things that would have been helpful to know for the flow of the plot and characterization. Taking Ellie as an example again, it would have been great to read about her memories or in-depth thoughts on her old feelings for Cor that would have given the reader something more to go off of than the fact that they’re exes and he betrayed her, thus making her a more “relatable” character.
On that note, the characters were rather two-dimensional and all of their meager personalities read the same more often than not, especially for Ellie, Cor and Zach (oh and everyone felt annoyingly hypocritical, but I’ll get to that later). Ellie hated dresses, liked poker, and was focused on Revenge. Zach liked “frilly” drinks, was asexual, and functioned as the slightly more reasonable side of Ellie. With Cor at least, while not having much beyond wanting to make up for his actions and being a sex worker, we get a slightly more in-depth look into his backstory since its needed to explain why. Oh and did I mention all three of them get sick on transportation? Honestly I found myself wondering if they were a hivemind, because they had similar behaviours and thought processes, and somehow seemed to accurately guess how another of the three was probably feeling. Them being thick as thieves as teenagers doesn’t seem like a valid excuse. Gabe was probably the most well developed out of the four, maybe because he differed enough in personality from the others, and he’s given concerns beyond the plot directly in front of him.
Moving on from the characters themselves, the dialogue and conversations were also incredibly awkward and juvenile. For a book that’s marketed as upper YA/NA, I expected more. There was a scene not long after Zach and Ellie meet Gabe where they find out Cor has had to do sex work to get by, with Gabe often serving as his pimp. After a similar reaction from Ellie in her pov, we get to read this lovely reaction from Zach:
Zach then proceeds to double over laughing, but then assures in his head that there’s nothing wrong with being a prostitute, its just so darn funny that their ex-friend is one. Oh but of course he’s offended when Gabe is confused by his reaction and tries to explain that many people like sleeping with Kausians for their shapeshifting abilities. This wasn’t funny or comedic relief, it was annoying, and for the amount of times he and Ellie took digs at sex work, it didn’t feel much like they were really joking either.
That leads me to the characters’ hypocrisy. Like Zach and Ellie’s reactions to sex work, there would often be an “-ism” (racism often) portrayed in the book by some side character, then the pov character would make sure to say or think, “oh yes but I dont approve of that.” But of course this is never actually showed in the book, and again like with Ellie and Zach’s reactions to prostitution, they often contradicted themselves. For a character-driven book with a heavy focus on the racism that the main characters faced (to the point of genocide in the Kausian’s case), one would think at least one of them would have more empathy (the closest we got to was with Gabe)? For every one of them to instead go off and do things like box the other races into stereotypes was…not great. Had any of the characters acknowledged this as a flaw, or showed signs of them realizing the problems with the dynamic of their society if not by the end, then in the following book(s), then I think it would have actually made for a truly interesting piece of characterization and plot that would have worked well. But no, their world was just like that.
This book honestly felt like it was trying to be something it wasn't, like trying to fit a round peg into a square hole. Or a raygun in the wrong holster.
(Edit 12/16/2021)
*This Review contains minor spoilers*
I received this book as an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Now I want to say right off the bat that I went into this book loving the concept, and it has a really awesome cover, so points to it there.
In it, we have the characters Ellie and Zach who are, after they’re betrayed and their entire race destroyed by their best friend (and Ellie’s ex-fiance), Cor, on a mission to seek revenge on him for all the harm he caused. In order to finally get to him, they take a job to assassinate a human named Gabe, who is trying to get into the prestigious, off-planet rich people club called the Society. Little do they know, Gabe and Cor are more closely connected than they think, and Cor’s role in the destruction of their species is much more complicated than they’re aware.
Being a sci-fi, there are of course several different alien races and the biggest plot point connecting them is that they’re all willfully segregated by race into different factions, or Zones as they’re called in the book. There are humans, Pleiadeans “if one counted [them] separate from humans,” Lyrans (cat people), Sirians (mer-folk), Silurians (lizard people), and finally, there are the Kausians, the golden-eyed shapeshifters who were all but destroyed by the Silurians all thanks to Cor. Cor, Ellie and Zach seem to be the only ones left, and Ellie and Zach are rightfully hurt, angry, and understandably feeling vengeful. Then we have Gabe who has a bounty on his head for trying to join the Society as a half human, half Sirian.
The story had a lot of potential here, whether it be as a commentary on the flaws of a society like this, as a space-western, or even simply as a good, fast-paced character driven novel. Unfortunately, that’s about where the good things I have to say end because in the end it didn’t deliver. I desperately tried to like this book and I read all the way through, hoping for something that would redeem it, and was left disappointed.
I’m not sure where to begin, because all of it was rather frustrating and I’m not even sure if I can touch on it all in a single review. It often felt like the story was being spoon fed to the reader and more often “told” than “showed” when it came to the characters’ feelings, interactions, and even some scenes throughout the book. This didn't leave a lot of room for the reader to think, or room for much of any suspense or tension to build up, especially at the end where suspense would have been this book’s ally. As for the worldbuilding in the book, it could have used more detail as well - anything to make it easier to understand the setting the characters interacted with beyond the knowledge of the Zones. And despite being a space western, the space and the western meshed together like a raygun in the wrong holster.
There was also a lot of odd and unnecessary repetition littered across the pages. For example, a character would come to a conclusion, and upon that conclusion reiterate that same point over and over just in different ways from that point on. Then in the next pov chapter, that next character would have that same thought or quickly come to the same conclusion, and the cycle would continue. One instance that comes to mind is when Cor is on a ship to the Society and he thinks about the fact that he easily gets sick on transportation like this. Then in both Ellie and Zach’s following chapters, they both make points to reiterate how they, too, get sick on ships the instant idea is brought up. Then when we get to Gabe’s pov, it is mentioned that he observes this in the former characters, and he reaches the conclusion that all Kausians seem to get sick on transportation (excuse me, WHY???). In another instance, Ellie would spend most of her chapters thinking about how she wanted to get revenge and how hurt she was and how there was no way she could ever forgive Cor and she’s definitely going to kill him. But then when she sees him again and he recounts his version of events, she seems all too ready to forgive him and the subsequent “oh but I’ll just wait and see how he turns out before I trust him,” was very unconvincing.
It truly felt like a good chunk of the book was telling me things I already knew and things that didn’t need to be reiterated. On the flip side, the book failed to provide or focus on many details for things that would have been helpful to know for the flow of the plot and characterization. Taking Ellie as an example again, it would have been great to read about her memories or in-depth thoughts on her old feelings for Cor that would have given the reader something more to go off of than the fact that they’re exes and he betrayed her, thus making her a more “relatable” character.
On that note, the characters were rather two-dimensional and all of their meager personalities read the same more often than not, especially for Ellie, Cor and Zach (oh and everyone felt annoyingly hypocritical, but I’ll get to that later). Ellie hated dresses, liked poker, and was focused on Revenge. Zach liked “frilly” drinks, was asexual, and functioned as the slightly more reasonable side of Ellie. With Cor at least, while not having much beyond wanting to make up for his actions and being a sex worker, we get a slightly more in-depth look into his backstory since its needed to explain why
Spoiler
he’s actually not the bad guy and he was basically framedMoving on from the characters themselves, the dialogue and conversations were also incredibly awkward and juvenile. For a book that’s marketed as upper YA/NA, I expected more. There was a scene not long after Zach and Ellie meet Gabe where they find out Cor has had to do sex work to get by, with Gabe often serving as his pimp. After a similar reaction from Ellie in her pov, we get to read this lovely reaction from Zach:
"...And I dress Cor up for his job."
I pressed my fist on my palm as if I had a thought. "Oh that reminds me. Can you give me a specific word for what he does?"
"He’s a prostitute."
Zach then proceeds to double over laughing, but then assures in his head that there’s nothing wrong with being a prostitute, its just so darn funny that their ex-friend is one. Oh but of course he’s offended when Gabe is confused by his reaction and tries to explain that many people like sleeping with Kausians for their shapeshifting abilities. This wasn’t funny or comedic relief, it was annoying, and for the amount of times he and Ellie took digs at sex work, it didn’t feel much like they were really joking either.
That leads me to the characters’ hypocrisy. Like Zach and Ellie’s reactions to sex work, there would often be an “-ism” (racism often) portrayed in the book by some side character, then the pov character would make sure to say or think, “oh yes but I dont approve of that.” But of course this is never actually showed in the book, and again like with Ellie and Zach’s reactions to prostitution, they often contradicted themselves. For a character-driven book with a heavy focus on the racism that the main characters faced (to the point of genocide in the Kausian’s case), one would think at least one of them would have more empathy (the closest we got to was with Gabe)? For every one of them to instead go off and do things like box the other races into stereotypes was…not great. Had any of the characters acknowledged this as a flaw, or showed signs of them realizing the problems with the dynamic of their society if not by the end, then in the following book(s), then I think it would have actually made for a truly interesting piece of characterization and plot that would have worked well. But no, their world was just like that.
This book honestly felt like it was trying to be something it wasn't, like trying to fit a round peg into a square hole. Or a raygun in the wrong holster.
beastreader's review against another edition
4.0
This is my first introduction to author, Dani Hoots. For which, this book did get me hooked and wanting to check out more books by this author.
I am a fan of westerns and sci fi, so when you say western sci fi book; I say sign me up. Thus how I came to read Revenge by Dani Hoots. This book has a great cast of characters. Each character has an equal part in the overall storyline.
Ellie is the only female presence. She is great. She has a take charge attitude and helps to keep the group focused on their mission. Zach who is Ellie's best friend might be my favorite. He brought comedic relief to the story. Then there is Cornelius aka Cor (Ellie's ex) and his new boyfriend, Gabe. They help to round out this group of four.
The story does start out a bit slowly but does progress quicker the further you get into the storyline. With it really picking up momentum in the latter half of the story. I look forward to book two.
I am a fan of westerns and sci fi, so when you say western sci fi book; I say sign me up. Thus how I came to read Revenge by Dani Hoots. This book has a great cast of characters. Each character has an equal part in the overall storyline.
Ellie is the only female presence. She is great. She has a take charge attitude and helps to keep the group focused on their mission. Zach who is Ellie's best friend might be my favorite. He brought comedic relief to the story. Then there is Cornelius aka Cor (Ellie's ex) and his new boyfriend, Gabe. They help to round out this group of four.
The story does start out a bit slowly but does progress quicker the further you get into the storyline. With it really picking up momentum in the latter half of the story. I look forward to book two.
czarinameansqueen's review
1.0
I really wanted to like this book. I really did. I picked it up mainly because the cover was gorgeous, but sadly I was disappointed.
My main problem with this book was it was trying to do too much. The story is relatively small. It could have probably done well as a smaller arc in a larger book and told in fewer pages. Something that added to this problem was there were just too many narrators in the story, which felt like it contributes to the lack of character development in the main cast of characters. The story might have been a lot stronger if it had focused on one, maybe, two narrators and built more information to their POVs. My last main issue with this book was the amount of describing feelings over telling them. Every character described not only their own actions before they did them, but would often also describe what the other main characters probably felt before they did an action. This led to a lot of repetition of descriptions in different characters POVs which destroyed the flow of the scenes.
I really wanted to be drawn into the world but struggled to do to the lack of worldbuilding. The characters move throughout a few placed in the book yet it feels like it's all taking place in the same city. Each place didn't feel unique enough, other than maybe a character stating that "this place was different because of Blank", each place the characters encountered felt the same and led to the world feeling a lot less fleshed out as it could have been.
The part of the book that probably drove me the most crazy was there was so much unnecessary fluff in a lot of the scenes. So many extra lines of dialogue and description that kept making me ask myself why do I need to know this? Many of the chapters would have been so much more exciting if it had cut down on so many of the unnecessary details.
My main problem with this book was it was trying to do too much. The story is relatively small. It could have probably done well as a smaller arc in a larger book and told in fewer pages. Something that added to this problem was there were just too many narrators in the story, which felt like it contributes to the lack of character development in the main cast of characters. The story might have been a lot stronger if it had focused on one, maybe, two narrators and built more information to their POVs. My last main issue with this book was the amount of describing feelings over telling them. Every character described not only their own actions before they did them, but would often also describe what the other main characters probably felt before they did an action. This led to a lot of repetition of descriptions in different characters POVs which destroyed the flow of the scenes.
I really wanted to be drawn into the world but struggled to do to the lack of worldbuilding. The characters move throughout a few placed in the book yet it feels like it's all taking place in the same city. Each place didn't feel unique enough, other than maybe a character stating that "this place was different because of Blank", each place the characters encountered felt the same and led to the world feeling a lot less fleshed out as it could have been.
The part of the book that probably drove me the most crazy was there was so much unnecessary fluff in a lot of the scenes. So many extra lines of dialogue and description that kept making me ask myself why do I need to know this? Many of the chapters would have been so much more exciting if it had cut down on so many of the unnecessary details.
kady_cordova's review
5.0
What a world!! I'm floored!
I loved it!! This is so much more than I thought. As a YA/NA LGBTQ+ sci-fi western I was floored with the detailed and dynamic world Dani has created. I was on the edge of my seat and needed to know what happened next. I loved the diverse range of characters, sexualities (I love Zach!), and connection. I cannot wait for BOOK TWO!!!!
An adventurous escape into another world so imaginatively created, it's so complex and has elements of magic, shifters, sci-fi, futuristic, cowboys, assistants, and dystopian feels.
I love fantasy and other worlds but this is the first SciFi (ish) western I've read and omg I'm hooked. The characters are so wonderfully vivid you feel like you're along for the ride as you cheat death at every turn, reveal secrets that will shock and be on the edge of your seat as you discover a truth that could change everything.
My only comment would be that the writing style was a bit unique and "backwards" in terms of certain phases being said "in the wrong order" I feel I only noticed this or had an issue with it because of my dyslexia which made parts a little challenging to read and flow through. This would totally be because I received an ARC, so this might not be the case with the final cut!
I really enjoyed the pace of this book and I was never bored or wondering where this was going. I liked the friendships and connections and am interested in seeing how the dynamic between Ellie, Cor, and Gabe. I feel for Gabe and his love for Cor, knowing he's not necessarily number 1. I worry for him and what the future holds for the whole gang.
These four have worked their way into my heart and I can not wait for the next book!! I need it now, I have so many questions, OMG!
I loved it!! This is so much more than I thought. As a YA/NA LGBTQ+ sci-fi western I was floored with the detailed and dynamic world Dani has created. I was on the edge of my seat and needed to know what happened next. I loved the diverse range of characters, sexualities (I love Zach!), and connection. I cannot wait for BOOK TWO!!!!
An adventurous escape into another world so imaginatively created, it's so complex and has elements of magic, shifters, sci-fi, futuristic, cowboys, assistants, and dystopian feels.
I love fantasy and other worlds but this is the first SciFi (ish) western I've read and omg I'm hooked. The characters are so wonderfully vivid you feel like you're along for the ride as you cheat death at every turn, reveal secrets that will shock and be on the edge of your seat as you discover a truth that could change everything.
My only comment would be that the writing style was a bit unique and "backwards" in terms of certain phases being said "in the wrong order" I feel I only noticed this or had an issue with it because of my dyslexia which made parts a little challenging to read and flow through. This would totally be because I received an ARC, so this might not be the case with the final cut!
I really enjoyed the pace of this book and I was never bored or wondering where this was going. I liked the friendships and connections and am interested in seeing how the dynamic between Ellie, Cor, and Gabe. I feel for Gabe and his love for Cor, knowing he's not necessarily number 1. I worry for him and what the future holds for the whole gang.
These four have worked their way into my heart and I can not wait for the next book!! I need it now, I have so many questions, OMG!
bookworm151719's review against another edition
4.0
This was a different sort of read for me since I don't really like westerns and I'm not as big on sci-fi as I used to. However, this was a super cute read, even my husband liked it and he's picky with books that I read. He said it reminded him of Cowboy Bebop.
dodie_sullivan's review against another edition
adventurous
lighthearted
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
authorabbylattanzio's review against another edition
adventurous
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
3.5
Such an interesting concept! Reminiscent of Firefly. Love the ace representation!
emeraldsky's review against another edition
4.0
First off, this cover is gorgeous. The world has a Firefly/cowboy Bepop feel, which is one of my favorites. I liked the variety of four different POV. The plot was interesting and I'm excited to see where the next book goes! LGBTQ+ rep, too.
book4grace's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0