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A review by kittyg
Before Mars: A Planetfall Novel by Emma Newman
5.0
*I was sent this for free from the publisher in exchange for an honest review*
I am SO glad I read this. It's officially my new favourite for the year, and that's becuase it made me cry. I am the sort of person who cries easily at films, but when it comes to books, I very rarely do unless the characters I love are threatened (looking at you Ms. Hobb) or the topic is so emotionally heartfelt it hits where it hurts (yep, this book falls into that category). For me, this one had a bit of both, but it's more about the themes and the way Emma writes than anything else. This story is exceptionally well detailed, beautifully evocative, and personally raw, honest and open. I feel like even though this whole book is set on Mars, I learned some very real truths about humans and humanity by reading this story.
This follows the journey of Anna Kubrin, a painter and geologist, who is going to Mars on funding from GaborCorp (one of the richest and most powerful companies on Earth) to paint and study. She has had a 6-month journey to get to Mars, and when she does things aren't quite as she expected they would be and she finds herself feeling detached from her home life and lost on Mars. Anna's story quickly takes a scary turn when she finds a painted note in her rooms (which she believes is in her own hand) and a footprint on an area of Mars believed unexplored. Things just don't really seem to be adding up and it looks like she's going to have to try and tie everything together and uncover some harsh truths.
Alongside the mystery and story we follow Anna on, we also follow her emotional and mental journey as she adjusts to life away from her family and on an entirely new planet. She's unsure about how she can go back to her mundane lifestyle after this, and at the same time she's having feelings for her crew that she can't understand. There's a lot to trouble her, and when other people like Principia (the AI based on Mars for the GaborCorp) and her others start to pop up in her subconscious, she knows that bad things are happening.
There is a lot of discussion of motherhood and postnatal depression in this book. It's done so incredibly well, fitting in with the story, the character and the situation. She's a mother who doesn't fit the mothers you see in adverts, she's a woman who doesn't fit society's mould of how you should act and what technology you should consume, basically, Anna is pretty interesting.
Again we have a non-binary character called Petranek and ze uses non-binary pronouns throughout. We also have all sorts of crazy new technology like printed food, intelligent AIs and life on Mars, it's pretty damn cool.
Overall, the last few chapters of this book hit me HARD and made me teary to the point where I have to admit I was crying and not just teary-eyed. The ending of this story is raw and devastating, emotional and heavy, but there is also hope and love and forgiveness, and basically all the feels you could want at once. I then also read the acknowledgements, and boy, they hit just as hard. Exceptional, amazing, and truly a master of her craft, Emma Newman does it again. 5*s of course.
I am SO glad I read this. It's officially my new favourite for the year, and that's becuase it made me cry. I am the sort of person who cries easily at films, but when it comes to books, I very rarely do unless the characters I love are threatened (looking at you Ms. Hobb) or the topic is so emotionally heartfelt it hits where it hurts (yep, this book falls into that category). For me, this one had a bit of both, but it's more about the themes and the way Emma writes than anything else. This story is exceptionally well detailed, beautifully evocative, and personally raw, honest and open. I feel like even though this whole book is set on Mars, I learned some very real truths about humans and humanity by reading this story.
This follows the journey of Anna Kubrin, a painter and geologist, who is going to Mars on funding from GaborCorp (one of the richest and most powerful companies on Earth) to paint and study. She has had a 6-month journey to get to Mars, and when she does things aren't quite as she expected they would be and she finds herself feeling detached from her home life and lost on Mars. Anna's story quickly takes a scary turn when she finds a painted note in her rooms (which she believes is in her own hand) and a footprint on an area of Mars believed unexplored. Things just don't really seem to be adding up and it looks like she's going to have to try and tie everything together and uncover some harsh truths.
Alongside the mystery and story we follow Anna on, we also follow her emotional and mental journey as she adjusts to life away from her family and on an entirely new planet. She's unsure about how she can go back to her mundane lifestyle after this, and at the same time she's having feelings for her crew that she can't understand. There's a lot to trouble her, and when other people like Principia (the AI based on Mars for the GaborCorp) and her others start to pop up in her subconscious, she knows that bad things are happening.
There is a lot of discussion of motherhood and postnatal depression in this book. It's done so incredibly well, fitting in with the story, the character and the situation. She's a mother who doesn't fit the mothers you see in adverts, she's a woman who doesn't fit society's mould of how you should act and what technology you should consume, basically, Anna is pretty interesting.
Again we have a non-binary character called Petranek and ze uses non-binary pronouns throughout. We also have all sorts of crazy new technology like printed food, intelligent AIs and life on Mars, it's pretty damn cool.
Overall, the last few chapters of this book hit me HARD and made me teary to the point where I have to admit I was crying and not just teary-eyed. The ending of this story is raw and devastating, emotional and heavy, but there is also hope and love and forgiveness, and basically all the feels you could want at once. I then also read the acknowledgements, and boy, they hit just as hard. Exceptional, amazing, and truly a master of her craft, Emma Newman does it again. 5*s of course.