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shelvesofivy's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
3.25
Graphic: Body shaming, Emotional abuse, Violence, and Blood
Moderate: Fatphobia, Racism, Grief, and Alcohol
Minor: Alcoholism, Death of parent, Colonisation, and War
bookish_bry's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
It could be a bit repetitive at times, and I often wished it would leave a bit to the imagination. I feel like Joy and Felix's pasts and motivations were often revealed too quickly. There was quite a bit of telling and not showing with the internal dialogue and it left very little to surprise me. Even the plot twists of
Though overall, I do think it was a good book and one I would suggest to someone who likes young adult fiction. Like I said, I was rarely bored. I also appreciate the rather casual lgbt+ representation. In a book that did focus on a heterosexual (though I think Joy is demi and Felix is bi/pan) couple, it's always nice to see lbgt+ relationships just casually in the background.
Graphic: Alcoholism, Body shaming, Fatphobia, Misogyny, Racism, Sexism, Kidnapping, Religious bigotry, Murder, Alcohol, Colonisation, and Classism
Moderate: Death, Torture, Death of parent, and War
Minor: Homophobia
courtnoodles's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
points awarded for:
- the coverrrrrrrrrrr
- felix
- general acceptance of all walks of life from the mcs
- a hetero romance being at the center, but one mc being pan/bi (felix) and it being acknowledged and accepted throughout
- use of gender neutral pronouns for a new character until their gender is revealed (why doesn't everyone already do this holy shit??)
- the romance literally being the most swoon-worthy thing ever, go dthey love each other so much
- felix being so obsessed with joy i literally crumbled
- joy's instant obsession with taylor swift, same girl
- this is a soulmate au but aliens and wow wow wow
- did i mention felix is the actual best
points knocked off for:
- yeah the sci fi interplanetary stuff was kinda confusing ok ok
- my brain still hurts a bit after a sci fi novel, wow i am not built for this
- the lineage didn't make a whole lot of sense and the reveals were a little left field? idk how to explain it
- SUPER repetitive, like "we need to get off this planet and go home to face our imminent death" was basically how every. single. chapter. ended.
- for it being an entire point that they have no knowledge whatsoever of terra (earth), there were a couple of instances where terms that they probably wouldn't have had exposure to were thrown in, but they were explained other times, idk some inconsistencies
- also felix calling joy demi-ace, like yes she is, but establish that these sexuality identifications exist on your world too instead of like 70% into the book?
- i think this was my first book that mentions the covid pandemic, and oof, i had to stop reading for a minute, yikes
go pick it up though!!!!!!!!!!!
--
It's a soulmate au but aliens and I swooned 9495859 times
Rtc maybe
Graphic: Body horror, Body shaming, Death, Fatphobia, and Classism
Moderate: Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Alcohol, Colonisation, and War
Minor: Cursing and Abandonment
shelleys_shelf's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Minor: Body shaming, Fatphobia, Death of parent, and Alcohol
readingthroughinfinity's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.75
I found the pacing of the middle third too slow and I think the ending was too rushed, but on the whole, I enjoyed this. I would have loved to see more mentions of Joy's aspec/demi identity, as I feel like this was dropped in near the end but not really discussed in much detail. But Joy was a great character and I especially liked the way she challenged people's fatphobia, racism and colourism (the social commentary was woven into the narrative really well, too).
Moderate: Body shaming, Fatphobia, Racism, Violence, Kidnapping, Alcohol, Colonisation, and Classism
Minor: Murder and War
b_robinson's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.75
We have aliens and a plot to overthrow the monarchy and two teenagers who are connected with some weird brain thingy and so that means that inevitably they're in love. They crash land on earth after escaping without dying in the first 50 pages, make some human friends... And everything sort of goes to plan in the end? Miraculously???
The main element of this story is literally just the romance. HOWEVER there were also some SOLID subplots scattered throughout, particularly the commentary on social classes and race.
AND AND AND AND AND we got some *exquisite* rep in this. For your perusal, a breakdown; demi-ace woman of colour, a pansexual royal adoptee, a gay poc dealing with severe grief, all served with a side of complete and utter acceptance and sensitivity towards gender non-comformity. Like I'm talking every single new character was referred to using they/them until it was indicated otherwise, and multiple characters are introduced with pronouns. Hell yes for normalisation!! And I get that it might not feel like a big deal but man it's just so nice.
Unfortunately, I didn't really vibe with the romance for most of the novel, and the writing style just wasn't for me. You win some you lose some, I guess???
Moderate: Alcoholism, Body shaming, Bullying, Grief, Religious bigotry, Murder, and Alcohol
Minor: Genocide and Colonisation
chippyreads's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Graphic: Misogyny, Racism, and Sexism
Moderate: Domestic abuse, Fatphobia, Panic attacks/disorders, and Kidnapping
Minor: Body shaming, Infertility, Toxic relationship, Vomit, Death of parent, Alcohol, Colonisation, War, and Classism
jaz_gets_literary's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
4.0
Moderate: Body shaming, Fatphobia, Grief, Death of parent, and Classism
Minor: Racism, Abandonment, and Alcohol
foreverinastory's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.5
Thank you to the publisher for an eARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.
Dear Alechia Dow, please write more books about aliens including: a book starring Allister, and a sequel to The Sound of the Stars. Please, please, please.
The Kindred is not really related to The Sound of Stars, but does take place in the same multiverse as it, and features several references and at least 1 crossover character. I loved all the references to TSOS so much!! However, let's talk more about The Kindred. In the galactic Kingdom ruled by the Qadins, everyone is paired with a Kindred a birth, someone who is always with you inside your thoughts. The program aims to give everyone a voice no matter their socioeconomic status.
Joy Abarra knows her place: it's with her mother until the day she can marry and do her duty to her planet/culture. Joy has one thing most don't: her Kindred is Duke Felix Hamdi, cousin to the Royal throne. However, the two haven't met yet, but they hope to soon. Then the Qadin royals are assassinated and Felix becomes next in line...and the one accused of murdering the royals. Felix and Joy must escape the galaxy and find some place to hide so they can figure out what happened and how to prove their innocence.
This book was a fucking ride. I loved it soooo much. Felix is a disaster bi and Joy is my precious ace. Also the mutual pining? Off the charts. I loved exploring the new alien worlds/cultures. I'm really hoping this will shape out to be a big multiverse series, mainly because I need to know what happens after the end of TSOS.
I loved how queernormative this book was. Which I'm not surprised, because I'm pretty certain TSOS was the same. But every new character is introduced as them until they give their pronouns and I loved that so much.
I feel like I have more thoughts about this book, but my brain is just racing around yelling at me about how much it loved all the characters and the world, so I think this is a good place to stop.
Rep: Fat Black demisexual female MC, biracial/Black bisexual male MC, achillean Black male side character, Black nonbinary femme side character, fat Black female side character, queer normative world, lots of aliens too.
CWs: Alcohol consumption, body shaming, fatphobia, gaslighting/manipulation, kidnapping, murder, violence, war, torture.
Graphic: Body shaming, Fatphobia, Torture, Violence, Kidnapping, Murder, Gaslighting, Alcohol, and War