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A review by rosexgold
Annex by Rich Larson
4.0
I only found out about this book because of the preview that came at the end of "Into The Drowning Deep." I usually don't read those previews because they are almost always from another book by the same author of the book I've just finished. And if it's an author I like I'm most likely going to read their other books anyway, so I don't like to read the beginning in a preview and then forget it all and have to reread it again when I go to read the actual book.
The way we are kind of thrown into the story with the aliens already being present is what grabbed me and made me want to find the full book and continue with it. I'm glad I did because I really enjoyed this story. I'm not the biggest fan of books that start somewhere in the middle of the action and give you a lot of new world information that doesn't make any sense yet. This book did it the right way.
One thing I couldn't stand was the way the characters would talk sometimes. They'd fragment their sentences weirdly and it would just infuriate me. It would be one thing if it was a unique characteristic of a single character, but it was so irritating and unrealistic to have everyone do it.
I (unromantically) LOVED Gloom for some reason. I just liked how he was strange enough to stand out as an alien but still so pure and nice. I loved the way he would phrase things.
Also, it probably wasn't supposed to be a good thing, but I really liked how the bad aliens (we don't get a name for them) would say things like "We can make you happy. Your version of happy." I don't know why but it just really stood out to me.
The reviews on here saying they didn't enjoy it because they couldn't believe these young kids could do all of this... they obviously way underestimate children. Also, it *is* fiction haha but really, it wasn't so crazy for me to imagine these young children could get things done in these circumstances when they really didn't have any other choice. Fighting for survival makes you resourceful. And young children all over the world are able to deal with very strong hardships. Children are amazing.
As for the reviews about the mistreatment of the transgender character...did these people read the book? (Of course this is coming from a cis point of view so...) The only dead-naming was first done in flashbacks of Violet's life... so of course their old name is going to be used. That is how the story explained to us about Violet's transition and her struggles with it. The only other time was when the aliens were trying to trick her so they could grab her. The dead-naming was used to show that the othermothers were sloppy and the aliens weren't as smart as they all thought and half-assing or just not good at getting their research. There was an instance of a character purposely misgendering Violet but that was to show the evilness of that character. Not to say that makes any of these things "ok" but they weren't just gratuitous trans-bashing scenes like some reviews make it out to be. All of these instances were important to character and background building. If a character is trans, it isn't a crime to realistically portray how the outside world will react. (Even if realistic reactions are horrible)
Anyway, I am definitely now waiting for the next book.
The way we are kind of thrown into the story with the aliens already being present is what grabbed me and made me want to find the full book and continue with it. I'm glad I did because I really enjoyed this story. I'm not the biggest fan of books that start somewhere in the middle of the action and give you a lot of new world information that doesn't make any sense yet. This book did it the right way.
One thing I couldn't stand was the way the characters would talk sometimes. They'd fragment their sentences weirdly and it would just infuriate me. It would be one thing if it was a unique characteristic of a single character, but it was so irritating and unrealistic to have everyone do it.
I (unromantically) LOVED Gloom for some reason. I just liked how he was strange enough to stand out as an alien but still so pure and nice. I loved the way he would phrase things.
Also, it probably wasn't supposed to be a good thing, but I really liked how the bad aliens (we don't get a name for them) would say things like "We can make you happy. Your version of happy." I don't know why but it just really stood out to me.
The reviews on here saying they didn't enjoy it because they couldn't believe these young kids could do all of this... they obviously way underestimate children. Also, it *is* fiction haha but really, it wasn't so crazy for me to imagine these young children could get things done in these circumstances when they really didn't have any other choice. Fighting for survival makes you resourceful. And young children all over the world are able to deal with very strong hardships. Children are amazing.
As for the reviews about the mistreatment of the transgender character...did these people read the book? (Of course this is coming from a cis point of view so...) The only dead-naming was first done in flashbacks of Violet's life... so of course their old name is going to be used. That is how the story explained to us about Violet's transition and her struggles with it. The only other time was when the aliens were trying to trick her so they could grab her. The dead-naming was used to show that the othermothers were sloppy and the aliens weren't as smart as they all thought and half-assing or just not good at getting their research. There was an instance of a character purposely misgendering Violet but that was to show the evilness of that character. Not to say that makes any of these things "ok" but they weren't just gratuitous trans-bashing scenes like some reviews make it out to be. All of these instances were important to character and background building. If a character is trans, it isn't a crime to realistically portray how the outside world will react. (Even if realistic reactions are horrible)
Anyway, I am definitely now waiting for the next book.