#pridemonthbooks

YESSSSSS

if you like sci-fi and found family. please fucking read this book. it was so fun and full of heart and love, with an ensemble crew and found family dynamic that takes what firefly did and fucking ran with it. im gonna be thinking about this book for a really long time to come.

loved how this author wrote a multi-species crew, loved the world building (galaxy building?) and seriously the naturalness of the crew interacting, occasional friction, external conflict and how they react to it, etc.... fucking sublime. my very favorite scenes were often post-stressful-thing where they talk to each other afterwards, because all the characters have slightly different communication styles and just absolutely incredibly telegraphed voices and it was just so perfect. (i loved all the characters but kizzy was my favorite.)

the stops they make along the way, the trouble they get into, the joy and the grief, all feel so honest to the setting and the characters. really i dont know what im going to do having finished this one lol i want more!!

ill be real, this one is really hard for me to process and produce words about. it was incredible, and reading it really hit home that i need to read more books with trans protagonists, but past that its just too many emotions to fully express here. just going to put down a few things that i really loved about this book, without dredging up too many of my own feelings (esp since im writing this at work lmaooo).

this book was absolutely stellar! from beginning to end i was hooked, and i read most of it in one day. the protagonist is absolutely wonderful and so organically written, from her relationship with her own body and in terms of her reactions to things in general. it was a real treat watching her make mistakes and eventually blossom, and especially seeing how she was able to be unsure of herself and yet so certain about who she was and what her goals were.

i also really really loved the kid and wanted to experience more scenes centering on the kid in general! such presence on the page, both via ada’s descriptions and the authors use of strong character voice in dialogue. the author also did a superb job at never using any pronouns whatsoever for the kid, and for really brilliantly hinting at the kids relationship with gender in the historical setting. also the descriptions of fashion and the landscape were always so nice, the wall and the groups home and all of the kids outfits were so vivid in my mind!

speaking of which, the setting was great. obviously the story is very centered on women in the west, and the whole concept is at its core so loving to women of all races and all relationships to gender. the whole central group is so dynamic, all i can think to wish for is more! 100% would read a sequel, especially if it were based on the group post-book (trying to stay vague about the ending lol but i think there would be room for a sequel). i would just die for a sequel centering on the kid. literally would be foaming at the mouth lol, but this book came out relatively recently and nothing is announced obviously so i’m probably not gonna get my hopes up.

————————spoilers past this point! —————————

ugh i just really enjoyed the snippets we got to see of the kid being just an incredible leader? and i really really want more, and more about cassie and their life together and also just the whole group in general. and i want to know what happened to lo!!!! and!! does ada see her family again!! i’m going a little mental thinking about all the unresolved things that would be amazing in a sequel lmaooo

i really enjoyed lark and ada together, and thought their brief time as a couple was so sweet. the mutual understanding they quietly accumulated as things were revealed, and the bi4bi energy, just absolutely sublime! that his death was so sudden was heartbreaking, but also made sense because of the way death is treated throughout the book - always possible, usually sudden, and a natural risk. a presence in the room. just in general the theme of death was really refreshing and felt rooted in ada’s background in midwifing and medicine.