A review by astropova
Ocean's Godori by Elaine U. Cho

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

3.75

I think there was some really cool world-building in this book, but ultimately the story felt a little lackluster to me.

Characters are my main reading pathway, and the characters in this book did not feel strong to me. We have this big cast of characters, and at first they are all very different from each other and vibrant. However, that quickly seems to disappear as the quirks start feeling more like window dressing rather than purposeful. Most of the characters do not end up very fleshed-out at all. Only Ocean, Teo, and Phoenix get any significant screentime during which they could possibly have a character arc. And yet it seems that Haven is the only one that experiences any significant growth.

My second issue is that the pacing seemed very off. There's this air of mystery and investigation for the entire book, but the final confrontation is extremely abrupt. It felt kind of like the author didn't really know how to tie up any of the character arcs or relationships, so instead she just plopped the final battle in. This ties into my issue with the characters. There seems to be no resolution to anyone's problems or relationships, nor to many, many plot questions. I am left wondering:
Is anyone together at the end? How are they going to convince anyone that Teo didn't murder everyone? How are they going catch or actually defeat Corvus? How are they going to deal with the Alliance? Where even were Haven and the Captain for the entire last 15%-or-so of the book? So what ended up being the deal with Teo's family company? Who even is Corvus and what is his deal, other than terrorist leader and Phoenix's apparent ex? What even happened on Teo's ship where everyone got murdered, and why?


Also, I don't think the description and the comp titles do a good job of previewing the book. The comparison to Firefly I can agree with, but this felt nothing like Becky Chambers to me, probably because of the supreme lack of chemistry between the characters. The description also makes it seem like Ocean was really going to struggle with her lack of Korean-ness, but this seems to be limited to just
being inexplicably rejected by her entire family and people, but then she swims real good to save her life once and I guess that trauma is all resolved, yay!


Finally, I read this book as an audiobook, and I do not recommend it. I think the narrator did an ok job, but struggled with male characters' voices and mispronounced pretty standard words.

Really bummed that I didn't enjoy this very much. The cover is beautiful and that's what made me grab it. Definitely props to the artist!!
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