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A review by inuyasha
Gearbreakers by Zoe Hana Mikuta
3.0
the author's note for this starts off with calling this "more of a rom-com featuring robots than anything else" and that is both the best and worst thing about this book. like... yes... waiter my compliments to the chef the yuri was incredible but also outside of the romance in this i was left,,,, Wanting. but before i derail this by being a negative hater i really want to drive home how loveable and well fleshed out the two main characters are, how naturally their relationship unfolded, how much i adored their dynamic and how much it went against expectations i had for them (especially given that this was a YA).
ok, now hater hour: the world building in this feels really hollow at times - the hook that made me pick up this book was the reference to the mechas being revered in this as gods, but we really don't see any of that outside of vague mentions. i kept thinking about how much harder we could go here - seeing reverent worshippers, people who collect photocards of pilots the way people do k-pop idols, etc. for a technologically advanced, centuries beyond our own reality world, this felt very rooted in the 2020s. and by keeping us only in the academy and the hollows, we explore very little of the world at large (and although the characters often go on long journeys between these two locations, we aren't given much of a description) and makes everything feel kind of cartoonishly flat. i would have appreciated the world feeling more of a living breathing thing rather than a background for puppets of sona and eris to flirt in front of (altho i did love the flirting!)
this also has the normal pitfalls of YA: too many named side characters that don't necessarily move the plot along and a forced, sickly-sweet "found family" trope that upsets the pacing of the narrative because at certain points the author is too focused on shoving this concept down your throat instead of moving things along. but also,,,, i am not a found family person so . shrug emoji.
all that being said this passed my really only true litmus test for YA which is: if i read this in high school would i be kind of obsessed and stay up late to write fanfic for this that would get maybe 20 hits ? and the answer is absolutely.
ok, now hater hour: the world building in this feels really hollow at times - the hook that made me pick up this book was the reference to the mechas being revered in this as gods, but we really don't see any of that outside of vague mentions. i kept thinking about how much harder we could go here - seeing reverent worshippers, people who collect photocards of pilots the way people do k-pop idols, etc. for a technologically advanced, centuries beyond our own reality world, this felt very rooted in the 2020s. and by keeping us only in the academy and the hollows, we explore very little of the world at large (and although the characters often go on long journeys between these two locations, we aren't given much of a description) and makes everything feel kind of cartoonishly flat. i would have appreciated the world feeling more of a living breathing thing rather than a background for puppets of sona and eris to flirt in front of (altho i did love the flirting!)
this also has the normal pitfalls of YA: too many named side characters that don't necessarily move the plot along and a forced, sickly-sweet "found family" trope that upsets the pacing of the narrative because at certain points the author is too focused on shoving this concept down your throat instead of moving things along. but also,,,, i am not a found family person so . shrug emoji.
all that being said this passed my really only true litmus test for YA which is: if i read this in high school would i be kind of obsessed and stay up late to write fanfic for this that would get maybe 20 hits ? and the answer is absolutely.