A review by laurareads87
Just Out of Jupiter's Reach by Nnedi Okorafor

adventurous emotional fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes

3.0

In Just Out of Jupiter's Reach, a group of seven humans are each genetically paired with a sentient, organic space ship and sent on a journey of exploration; the rules of the study severely limit their ability to interact with each other, and for much of the journey they are alone with their pets and ships.  These individuals are not astronauts, but rather individuals from various walks of life chosen because of their genetic compatibility with the ships and their having signed up to be considered.

I like a lot about this - the overall narrative tone, the worldbuilding, the entire premise of the organic ships and ship/human pairings.  I've read quite a few of Okorafor's books and her worldbuilding in a small number of pages is always impressive.  In this story, my struggle is that I loved the setup and the premise but the story ended up too focused on interpersnal relationships that, in many ways, could've played out in any number of other settings besides the very compelling setting of this particular story.

I feel like one of the characters
cooking and eating another character's pet
then very shortly afterward becoming the love interest of the narrator was pretty awful and kind of ruined things for me.

Content warnings: suicide, death, violence, gun violence, confinement / isolation, animal cruelty, animal death, grief
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