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A review by ashleyrich3825
The Kaiju Preservation Society by John Scalzi
5.0
I read this in one day, which is something I haven't done in a really long time.
My expectations were actually quite low with this book, but I was pleasantly surprised by how quickly I was hooked. The characters were all likeable, realistic, and had organic feeling relationships with one another; the dialogue, in my opinion, perfectly straddled the line between quirky (derogatory) and quirky (funny and endearing.)
I'm also starting to realize how much I enjoy a degree of speculative biology in the media I consume; reading about the biological function of the Kaiju and the ways that their ecosystem functioned not only made me feel like I had a big galaxy brain, but also immersed me in the stakes and events of the plot.
My only gripe with The Kaiju Preservation Society is also kind of a positive element: Rob Sanders became an almost cartoonishly evil villain toward the end of the story. Like straight up is willing to set off a nuke and kill ten thousand innocent Canadians just to...do something with his company's stocks (he lost me a little in that part of the monologue, not gonna lie.) But almost immediately after I had that thought, I realized that given the chance, most billionaires would almost certainly go to those or even greater lengths for the sake of profit and personal gain (hence the hell-times we currently occupy.) So that plot element ended up being in the story's favor for me the more I thought about it.
One element that I loved that was a bit less impactful was the casual queer rep sprinkled in; Jamie's roommates are a gay couple and one of the main characters, Niamh, uses they/them pronouns; I can say without shame that I was smiling to myself the first time Niamh was introduced.
Ultimately, I really loved The Kaiju Preservation Society, and I will be looking for a copy of my own.
My expectations were actually quite low with this book, but I was pleasantly surprised by how quickly I was hooked. The characters were all likeable, realistic, and had organic feeling relationships with one another; the dialogue, in my opinion, perfectly straddled the line between quirky (derogatory) and quirky (funny and endearing.)
I'm also starting to realize how much I enjoy a degree of speculative biology in the media I consume; reading about the biological function of the Kaiju and the ways that their ecosystem functioned not only made me feel like I had a big galaxy brain, but also immersed me in the stakes and events of the plot.
My only gripe with The Kaiju Preservation Society is also kind of a positive element: Rob Sanders became an almost cartoonishly evil villain toward the end of the story. Like straight up is willing to set off a nuke and kill ten thousand innocent Canadians just to...do something with his company's stocks (he lost me a little in that part of the monologue, not gonna lie.) But almost immediately after I had that thought, I realized that given the chance, most billionaires would almost certainly go to those or even greater lengths for the sake of profit and personal gain (hence the hell-times we currently occupy.) So that plot element ended up being in the story's favor for me the more I thought about it.
One element that I loved that was a bit less impactful was the casual queer rep sprinkled in; Jamie's roommates are a gay couple and one of the main characters, Niamh, uses they/them pronouns; I can say without shame that I was smiling to myself the first time Niamh was introduced.
Ultimately, I really loved The Kaiju Preservation Society, and I will be looking for a copy of my own.