A review by sunsuci
How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe by Charles Yu

adventurous emotional funny inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

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

3.75

What an fun and original read. Advice- don’t take the logistics of this story too seriously. I enjoyed it more after starting to read it for the experience of cosmic time-space weirdness! The second 4th of the book gets pretty slow because world building is super heavy and repetitive through certain descriptions. Then it suddenly feels like a complete turn around into something unexpected and it kind of annoyed me because what and how !!?? But wow does it all pull everything together for me in a lot of unexpected ways… Although there’s so much repetitive rambling (because it is an internal monologue) I realized that it’s deeply reflective and relatable in a lot of painfully truthful ways. Hilarious and thoughtful, this book. Trippy and bittersweet as well. Lots of flowery language about very technical terms and concepts. Explores ideas of regrets, family, isolation, etc. Sounds sad, but I think there are still so many wholesome moments.  I think it explored the super complex relationships and feelings between parent and child well too.