monnibo's review
dark
hopeful
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Medical content, Pregnancy, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Gaslighting, Child abuse, Abandonment, Confinement, Emotional abuse, and Colonisation
Minor: Confinement, Physical abuse, Classism, Infertility, Medical content, Sexual content, and Trafficking
booksthatburn's review
challenging
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
This is a trans-affirming sci-fi book with a premise revolving around someone who has the ability to (in certain contexts) manipulate genetics. It's lovely to read something that doesn't try to "fix" the trans character, but finds other solutions for the in-universe problems caused by their chromosomal situation. It's similarly understanding and cathartic around issues including but not limited to neglect and food restriction. The tagline is "There's a fine line between survival and cruelty", and the overall arc is of someone who was raised under the claim of survival-driven scarcity, slowly, in a zone of love and abundance, untangling which parts of her upbringing were actually just cruel.
Major pieces of backstory and world-building are conveyed in a series of well-described but pretty dense infodumps, one at the very start and a few more sprinkled throughout the rest of the text. They felt a bit clunky but were sufficiently brief as to keep from being overwhelming. The overall effect works well and I love the main characters.
Major pieces of backstory and world-building are conveyed in a series of well-described but pretty dense infodumps, one at the very start and a few more sprinkled throughout the rest of the text. They felt a bit clunky but were sufficiently brief as to keep from being overwhelming. The overall effect works well and I love the main characters.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Pregnancy
Moderate: Sexual content, Grief, Emotional abuse, Bullying, Sexism, Misogyny, Body horror, Medical content, Medical trauma, Trafficking, and Slavery
Minor: Child death and Death
From the book: “This book contains a scene of medical violence. Characters also obsess about food and count calories.”sfbookgirl's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
tense
medium-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
2.0
After reading E. K. Johnston’s Star Wars book Ahsoka, I was really excited to delve into another young adult space story by Johnston. I am not sure if what I was given by NetGalley was a really rough draft, but this story unfortunately read like an unfinished draft. The book is about a young girl named Pendt Harland who lives on her family’s spaceship in which she is despised by her entire family. Pendt, eager to escape her fate of forced insemination, manages to secretly leave her family’s ship and sells herself to a set of young adult male twins to help continue their family line by becoming pregnant.
I was taken aback by the middle-grade writing interwoven with very adult themes. These themes include sexual content, human trafficking, confinement, and uncomfortable medical content. What else bothered me about Aetherbound was the inappropriate use of an eating disorder plotline which I found to be unnecessary and potentially triggering for young adult readers. The other plotlines were unfinished, the writing was poor, and the main character’s choices inadvertently imply that it is ok for women’s bodies to be used at the discretion of a man.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Medical content, Trafficking, Sexual content, Sexism, Pregnancy, Kidnapping, Forced institutionalization, Eating disorder, Confinement, and Child abuse
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