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This is a good book, overall. I like the storytelling and the way that it pulls at your heart strings.
“I have always loved, like the moon loves the earth.”
The hardest thing to get through it the uncommon way of writing. Lake chose to use “text speech” to narrate through teenage Leo’s eyes. I definitely struggled for a while to get through this because of this, but it was easier as time went on.
“I have always loved, like the moon loves the earth.”
The hardest thing to get through it the uncommon way of writing. Lake chose to use “text speech” to narrate through teenage Leo’s eyes. I definitely struggled for a while to get through this because of this, but it was easier as time went on.
I loved the idea of this book more than the execution. Especially as I ended up having to give up on it. I just couldn't get used to the writing style, which is more my issue than the book's fault. I stand by liking the premise and the concept was solid. I even liked Leo but I could never fully get into the story because of the style and that was upsetting for me. There are just some things you can't get passed in a book and that was something I couldn't get passed. I have seen plenty of enthusiastic reviews for this book, though, so I know mine isn't the dominant thinking on it.
MY FIRST 5 STAR NOVEL OF THE YEAR!
Thoroughly enjoyed this and did not want it to end - filled with JOY, SADNESS, HUMOUR. I loved every bit of it.
Leo was born in space - his mother is an astronaut, his grandfather was an astronaut.
Before his 16th birthday, he is returning to Earth - the home planet that he has always seen from afar but never stepped foot on. How will Leo's body cope no longer being in 0g?
Thoroughly enjoyed this and did not want it to end - filled with JOY, SADNESS, HUMOUR. I loved every bit of it.
Leo was born in space - his mother is an astronaut, his grandfather was an astronaut.
Before his 16th birthday, he is returning to Earth - the home planet that he has always seen from afar but never stepped foot on. How will Leo's body cope no longer being in 0g?
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Satellite used to be a book I was very uncertain about before I read it. I heard about the “text-speak” aspect of its writing and my interest in it soured a little bit. As fate would have it (and the random number generator I use to pick out my next read), I recently finished this book and I loved it.
When “text-speak” was mentioned, I was afraid it would be actual texting, consisting only of dialogue between characters to carry the story. Luckily, that wasn’t the case. It’s written in a typical story format, but most of the letters are lowercase, “you” is “u,” “see” is “c,” and numbers are typed as numerals, and so on and so forth. It takes a while to get used to and I personally got used to it pretty quickly. I read a compelling and engaging story. I was hooked on at every second so I could see and figure out the mystery at the heart of its plot. The vibes I got were a solid mix of The Space Between Us and Interstellar, plus a hint of Annihilation.
Like Interstellar, the time period is an unknown number of years into the future. It’s shown that the Earth is slowly dying, resources are becoming scarce, and crops are failing. This aspect of the setting was something that I would’ve liked to see developed more. While I did feel the desperate urgency regarding the increasing problems, it wasn’t the focus and I respect that. However, since it was a perhaps “not-so-distant future,” I would’ve liked to see the changes in society that being in the future brings. There was one detail about men wearing nail polish and eyeshadow, but that felt kinda weird to me? Not in a bad way, but it’s a little jarring because the women aren’t described this way and no other fashion trend seems to have come about. (Maybe it’s because the main character, Leo, is gay. I don’t wanna be nitpicky, but doctors shouldn’t be wearing makeup.)
Going onto characters, I loved Leo. He was a romantic. I loved the way he describes all this first-time Earth experiences, the experiences that we take for granted. Despite the growing issues of water shortages and crop failures, he still managed to see the beauty around him, the beauty we might’ve been blind to if we were in this time period.Although I would’ve loved for him to stay on Earth, I also understood his attachment to the space station. Even though Earth was the goal, Moon 2 is home to him. Regarding Libra and Orion, they weren’t in the story much, but because all three of them were going through the same things, I felt for them as much as I did Leo. And Orion’s death broke my heart to pieces.
I do understand why some people couldn’t get into it because of the text-speak writing, but I definitely recommend that people give this a first or second chance and read this book.
When “text-speak” was mentioned, I was afraid it would be actual texting, consisting only of dialogue between characters to carry the story. Luckily, that wasn’t the case. It’s written in a typical story format, but most of the letters are lowercase, “you” is “u,” “see” is “c,” and numbers are typed as numerals, and so on and so forth. It takes a while to get used to and I personally got used to it pretty quickly. I read a compelling and engaging story. I was hooked on at every second so I could see and figure out the mystery at the heart of its plot. The vibes I got were a solid mix of The Space Between Us and Interstellar, plus a hint of Annihilation.
Like Interstellar, the time period is an unknown number of years into the future. It’s shown that the Earth is slowly dying, resources are becoming scarce, and crops are failing. This aspect of the setting was something that I would’ve liked to see developed more. While I did feel the desperate urgency regarding the increasing problems, it wasn’t the focus and I respect that. However, since it was a perhaps “not-so-distant future,” I would’ve liked to see the changes in society that being in the future brings. There was one detail about men wearing nail polish and eyeshadow, but that felt kinda weird to me? Not in a bad way, but it’s a little jarring because the women aren’t described this way and no other fashion trend seems to have come about. (Maybe it’s because the main character, Leo, is gay. I don’t wanna be nitpicky, but doctors shouldn’t be wearing makeup.)
Going onto characters, I loved Leo. He was a romantic. I loved the way he describes all this first-time Earth experiences, the experiences that we take for granted. Despite the growing issues of water shortages and crop failures, he still managed to see the beauty around him, the beauty we might’ve been blind to if we were in this time period.
I do understand why some people couldn’t get into it because of the text-speak writing, but I definitely recommend that people give this a first or second chance and read this book.
I really quite loved this book, despite (or perhaps, because of?) the text speak. Which I grew to enjoy for the significance it had to the story, in a roundabout way.
It was a fun adventure to go on with the main characters, and I learned a lot about what home is.
It was a fun adventure to go on with the main characters, and I learned a lot about what home is.
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Content Warnings
Graphic: Confinement, Death, Gun violence, Blood, Medical content, Murder
Moderate: Infertility
Minor: Xenophobia, Grief, Pregnancy
yeah no. The idea for the book was really cool, however, the text-speak format didn't work with me. It took so much time to read a chapter that I would forget what happened and what was going on. Further, the text-speak to me made a more disconnect with the characters as I wanted to get to know them but couldn't. A third of the book is them just getting to Earth, the next third is quite confusing as it deals with their body and gravity and them trying to adjust to their new life, but I found it all to quite be boring and uneventful. The last third of the book was, I don't even know to be honest. The characters lacked depth, emotion, and personality. I found the characters to just lack everything that can make them human and I didn't really care what happened to them at all; I just felt nothing. For the plot, it lagged and was slow making it super uneventful. Overall, I didn't care for this book and ended up skimming through it because to me I just didn't like it.
My partner gave me this book. It was so passionate, and so bittersweet. I really enjoyed getting to read it and share it with them.
2.5*
**First off thank you so much to Penguin Random House for sending me this book in exchange for an honest review, I’m sorry it took me such a long time to review!**
The characters were honestly the best part of the book. Our main character, Leo, was easy a likeable main character. Libra and Orion, the twins, had a great relationship with Leo. I liked how Libra loved gardening and just how brave the 3 of them were. Also, this book had great representation because Leo was LGBT and it was great that everyone was accepting of it. It was nice to see Leo and his relationship with his mother start to grow as they get to know a little more about each other. Finally, my favourite character was probably his Grandpa. He was super cool, I mean he was an astronaut! Now he has a farm, and sort of mellowed down, but seeing how much he cared about Leo was incredible.
The plot is where I felt I disconnected with the book. The first thing was how it was told in text-to-speech. I, personally, prefer just a normal book, so just having no capitals and spelling ‘see’ like ‘c’ and ‘you’re’ like ‘u’re’ just messed me up. The pacing also felt very off. The beginning felt really slow for some reason. I think that the last third of the book was better paced but the first two thirds varied from very interesting to very slow. The first hundred pages were, honestly, very hard to get through, and I felt as if I had to push through it, which affected my enjoyment of the book. From the very beginning the book felt very predicable. I’ve seen similar plots in a movie I watched recently, and the book ended practically the same way. Finally, since I am a science nerd, hearing the synopsis, and seeing the beautiful starry cover made me expect a lot more of the space-related part of this novel, however, sadly, I was let down.
Overall, I think the characters were great, however the plot just wasn’t for me. The pacing felt extremely off, some parts I just honestly felt like I was dragging through the book. The book felt very predictable, and honestly, my expectations were let down because I assumed that this book would’ve been more space related, and faster-paced. On that note, I understand why people may have enjoyed this book. The characters were great, and if you can push past the very slow parts, it can get a bit interesting. However, I just don’t think that the book was for me at this time. I'd recommend it to you, If you want a diverse read, if you don’t mind the text to speech writing style, and if you’re in the mood for something light or a slower read.
**First off thank you so much to Penguin Random House for sending me this book in exchange for an honest review, I’m sorry it took me such a long time to review!**
The characters were honestly the best part of the book. Our main character, Leo, was easy a likeable main character. Libra and Orion, the twins, had a great relationship with Leo. I liked how Libra loved gardening and just how brave the 3 of them were. Also, this book had great representation because Leo was LGBT and it was great that everyone was accepting of it. It was nice to see Leo and his relationship with his mother start to grow as they get to know a little more about each other. Finally, my favourite character was probably his Grandpa. He was super cool, I mean he was an astronaut! Now he has a farm, and sort of mellowed down, but seeing how much he cared about Leo was incredible.
The plot is where I felt I disconnected with the book. The first thing was how it was told in text-to-speech. I, personally, prefer just a normal book, so just having no capitals and spelling ‘see’ like ‘c’ and ‘you’re’ like ‘u’re’ just messed me up. The pacing also felt very off. The beginning felt really slow for some reason. I think that the last third of the book was better paced but the first two thirds varied from very interesting to very slow. The first hundred pages were, honestly, very hard to get through, and I felt as if I had to push through it, which affected my enjoyment of the book. From the very beginning the book felt very predicable. I’ve seen similar plots in a movie I watched recently, and the book ended practically the same way. Finally, since I am a science nerd, hearing the synopsis, and seeing the beautiful starry cover made me expect a lot more of the space-related part of this novel, however, sadly, I was let down.
Overall, I think the characters were great, however the plot just wasn’t for me. The pacing felt extremely off, some parts I just honestly felt like I was dragging through the book. The book felt very predictable, and honestly, my expectations were let down because I assumed that this book would’ve been more space related, and faster-paced. On that note, I understand why people may have enjoyed this book. The characters were great, and if you can push past the very slow parts, it can get a bit interesting. However, I just don’t think that the book was for me at this time. I'd recommend it to you, If you want a diverse read, if you don’t mind the text to speech writing style, and if you’re in the mood for something light or a slower read.
emotional
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
this made me happy