A review by laufox
Dead Space by Kali Wallace

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.5

This book, on balance, was mostly fine. It didn't lean into the space horror elements I thought it was going to and that I love, but it nevertheless felt sufficiently creepy especially on some of the corporate greed points that struck a bit close to home (whether that was intentional or not to be horrific). I felt a bit kept at a distance from the main character, even while the novel was told from her perspective, so in that facet this book was a bit lackluster. One character I did enjoy though was Vanguard. I'd read a whole novel from Vanguard's POV if the author writes one (no plans to from what I've seen, so I'm just wildly throwing this out there 😂). I also enjoyed Adisa, and, surprisingly, Van Arondonck grew on me, too. While her writing is perfectly fine as far as clarity and ideas go, the pacing itself was a bit off at times as descriptions and flashbacks slowed the plot down at critical, fast-paced junctures, and other times, especially the ending, moved so quickly that I felt like I needed some more details for the resolution. So a bit of a mixed bag. I'm curious to try Salvation Day by her as I believe it has more horror elements, and would read more from this author, but overall this one didn't super stand out.