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cthonautical 's review for:
Escaping Exodus
by Nicky Drayden
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This problem with this book plain and simple is that it does too much, but it doesn't do enough to do any of it well. It needs more space or time to have a strength somewhere, but it is what it is.
The World
I think out of anything this book does, the world building is the strongest element, but I don't think it totally succeeds in that.
They live inside a beast. Never properly explained how they came to be there or any history whatsoever other than they move when their old home dies (Why not take care of it? Not really explained.) You will not learn what this beast eats or how gravity and lights work or reproduction.
The family units are unique, but I could not explain how they work. There are nine adults and 1 child. There are heart mothers, head mothers, will mothers, tin fathers. Do not ask me which is which and why. I don't think even the author knows. Also, again, only 1 child per family. You're wondering, "Wouldn't that lead to population collapse pretty quickly?" Me too. It's not explained. Even more so when we see like 10 or 20 kids die on their first day of work and shrugged off like it was a common thing.
Then, after the first section, it kind of peters out of caring about the world. You'll see something, have questions. They will not be answered. "I thought they don't bring anything from the old beast. Why are the dead bodies of their ancestors on the new beast?" Dunno. Give up caring now about details. The details are not implemented methodically imo.
The Characters
We have two main characters: Seske the heir to the throne and Adalla, who works on the beast. I dont know their exact ages but it's young. Seske gets her first period. I think the book said 12. And that will be a sore point for me later.
There will be no backstory of how these two girls in completely different castes met or were allowed to be friends.
First, I DO NOT LIKE SESKE. She is incredible cruel for no reason. And I think the author meant for me to like her, which makes things worse. She's the heir but clearly doesn't care about the role. It's very much the rebellious princess trope, but with the princess being heartless. She has a sister, which legally isn't allowed to exist. The sister isn't allowed to have a name or eat with the family. I wanted to know more about sisterkin, but the story treats her like Cinderella's evil sister. The whole book I thought, "Sisterkin should be the next matriarch. She cares and is good at it." Seske gets mad at sisterkin when sisterkin ASKS TO BE CALLED BY A REAL NAME. She is not kind to Adalla and I do not know why this is considered a love story between the two. Also if she's twelve, either there were unmentioned time skips or a twelve year old is doing some incredibly unbelievable and inappropriate things. Twelve year olds shouldn't be getting married or running around unsupervised in anuses, or violated by tentacles, or whipping slaves.
Adalla is better but ignorant of the world she lives in. And she does grow in that she learns there is a problem. How do they not know how it works? There's gotta be like a village worth of people given the aforementioned population collapse.
All the families are cruel to these two and their society for no apparent purpose.
The Writing and Themes
The writing was very YA. I dont think it was always clear (see: twelve or time skips). Ultimately does the job, just nothing special imo.
There are too many themes, and many of them don't really get resolved. Plotlines dropped or resolved offscreen. The ending, imo is not satisfying. If you're looking for biopunk with an environmental message, this book fits.
Read "Daughters of the Vast Black" instead if being on a living ship run by women interests you. It's actually done well.
The World
I think out of anything this book does, the world building is the strongest element, but I don't think it totally succeeds in that.
They live inside a beast. Never properly explained how they came to be there or any history whatsoever other than they move when their old home dies (Why not take care of it? Not really explained.) You will not learn what this beast eats or how gravity and lights work or reproduction.
The family units are unique, but I could not explain how they work. There are nine adults and 1 child. There are heart mothers, head mothers, will mothers, tin fathers. Do not ask me which is which and why. I don't think even the author knows. Also, again, only 1 child per family. You're wondering, "Wouldn't that lead to population collapse pretty quickly?" Me too. It's not explained. Even more so when we see like 10 or 20 kids die on their first day of work and shrugged off like it was a common thing.
Then, after the first section, it kind of peters out of caring about the world. You'll see something, have questions. They will not be answered. "I thought they don't bring anything from the old beast. Why are the dead bodies of their ancestors on the new beast?" Dunno. Give up caring now about details. The details are not implemented methodically imo.
The Characters
We have two main characters: Seske the heir to the throne and Adalla, who works on the beast. I dont know their exact ages but it's young. Seske gets her first period. I think the book said 12. And that will be a sore point for me later.
There will be no backstory of how these two girls in completely different castes met or were allowed to be friends.
First, I DO NOT LIKE SESKE. She is incredible cruel for no reason. And I think the author meant for me to like her, which makes things worse. She's the heir but clearly doesn't care about the role. It's very much the rebellious princess trope, but with the princess being heartless. She has a sister, which legally isn't allowed to exist. The sister isn't allowed to have a name or eat with the family. I wanted to know more about sisterkin, but the story treats her like Cinderella's evil sister. The whole book I thought, "Sisterkin should be the next matriarch. She cares and is good at it." Seske gets mad at sisterkin when sisterkin ASKS TO BE CALLED BY A REAL NAME. She is not kind to Adalla and I do not know why this is considered a love story between the two. Also if she's twelve, either there were unmentioned time skips or a twelve year old is doing some incredibly unbelievable and inappropriate things. Twelve year olds shouldn't be getting married or running around unsupervised in anuses, or violated by tentacles, or whipping slaves.
Adalla is better but ignorant of the world she lives in. And she does grow in that she learns there is a problem. How do they not know how it works? There's gotta be like a village worth of people given the aforementioned population collapse.
All the families are cruel to these two and their society for no apparent purpose.
The Writing and Themes
The writing was very YA. I dont think it was always clear (see: twelve or time skips). Ultimately does the job, just nothing special imo.
There are too many themes, and many of them don't really get resolved. Plotlines dropped or resolved offscreen. The ending, imo is not satisfying. If you're looking for biopunk with an environmental message, this book fits.
Read "Daughters of the Vast Black" instead if being on a living ship run by women interests you. It's actually done well.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Domestic abuse, Rape, Slavery
Moderate: Body horror, Child death, Excrement, Classism