A review by burningupasun
Starglass by Phoebe North

4.0

JEWS IN SPACE. Honestly I could make this my whole review, tbh, but I'll say a little bit more. As a Jewish person it has always been hard for me to find representation in books, especially in genre books where the genre isn't literally "Jewish fiction." Usually I have to seek these books out actively, so to stumble upon one is always a rare pleasure. For it to be science fiction, of all things, is even more rare and delightful. I have to say I did enjoy this book, despite the fact that I forgot it was book one of two until I got to the cliffhanger ending. I enjoyed the melding of Jewish culture with life on a spaceship, and seeing a Jewish twist on a traditional type of plot/story (i.e., people take to a ship to find life on a new planet). The book had some good LGBT diversity with at least two gay (male) characters, though I could have done with a bit more diversity in general. The culture is very binary and heterocentric but this is explored and detailed as an issue, not something normal basically, which is good even if it was still a bit upsetting at time. I found Terra to be a good teenage character, in the sense that I liked her but also found her occasionally annoying, which is how I generally feel about teenagers in real life. I'm really looking forward to seeing how she is in book two.