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arielkirst 's review for:
Before Mars
by Emma Newman
I will start by saying I did not read the other two in the series. This was recommended to me on Net Galley, and so I was unfamiliar with the world or, if they showed up in former books, the characters.
The plot synopsis sounded interesting.
The writing was engaging.
It's missing three stars for a few reasons.
1) Anna (our MC) spends an inordinate amount of time talking about how she didn't want to be a mother, didn't really like her husband, and all the associated guilt that went with that. This would have been a nice payoff if those factors played hugely into the super surprising ending, but they didn't really, so it was just a lot of pages I ended up skimming.
2) The excitement took about 2/3rds of the book to build up, and I almost DNFed it in that time. Newman did a good job of building up the "am I crazy or is this really happening?" in Anna's head, but it was interspersed with too much drama and dialogue and got a bit bogged down.
3) There were actually lots of cool bits in this story that I wanted to know more about, but didn't learn anything. Like Anna's parents, for instance, and their whole schtick. (Maybe they were another book? I don't know? The synopsis' of the other ones didn't indicate that.)
4) The ending felt a bit rushed. Epsecially one bit. You can message me for further thoughts if you want, but I won't spoil it. But I didn't care for the epilogue much.
Pluses: non binary character ftw!! Space! Cool technology!
All in all, two stars. Could have been better.
P.S. Got this as a review copy from Net Galley and reviewed it ridiculously late. Sorry, NG.
The plot synopsis sounded interesting.
The writing was engaging.
It's missing three stars for a few reasons.
1) Anna (our MC) spends an inordinate amount of time talking about how she didn't want to be a mother, didn't really like her husband, and all the associated guilt that went with that. This would have been a nice payoff if those factors played hugely into the super surprising ending, but they didn't really, so it was just a lot of pages I ended up skimming.
2) The excitement took about 2/3rds of the book to build up, and I almost DNFed it in that time. Newman did a good job of building up the "am I crazy or is this really happening?" in Anna's head, but it was interspersed with too much drama and dialogue and got a bit bogged down.
3) There were actually lots of cool bits in this story that I wanted to know more about, but didn't learn anything. Like Anna's parents, for instance, and their whole schtick. (Maybe they were another book? I don't know? The synopsis' of the other ones didn't indicate that.)
4) The ending felt a bit rushed. Epsecially one bit. You can message me for further thoughts if you want, but I won't spoil it. But I didn't care for the epilogue much.
Pluses: non binary character ftw!! Space! Cool technology!
All in all, two stars. Could have been better.
P.S. Got this as a review copy from Net Galley and reviewed it ridiculously late. Sorry, NG.