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kmartbooks's review against another edition
1.75
"The Goodbye Kids" by Debbie Iancu-Haddad offers a unique blend of science fiction, romance, and intrigue in a futuristic setting. The story revolves around Haley, a plus-size teen who has grown up friendless on a space station, nurturing dreams of becoming an intergalactic pilot. Her only companion is Nano, a lovable robot dog. The narrative takes an unexpected turn with the arrival of Jorden, a young man with a dark past and a dangerous mission. He's on a suicide mission to save Earth for his cult, and he ends up pulling Haley into his perilous scheme unknowingly. As their relationship deepens, they find themselves falling in love despite the lies between them.
Iancu-Haddad creates a vivid and imaginative space station setting, complete with unique technology and social dynamics. The inclusion of Nano, the talking robot dog, adds a delightful and heartwarming aspect to the narrative. However, it's important to note that the story takes a somber turn when Nano meets a tragic end. This event deeply affected the reading experience for some, as the loss of a beloved character can be emotionally challenging. Especially when it's the love interest that is responsible.
Another aspect of the story that may be polarizing is the moral dilemma faced by Jorden, who hails from a cult-like background. His involvement in the mission and the choices he makes may lead readers to have mixed feelings about his character. I certainly did.
Overall, "The Goodbye Kids" offers a fresh take on the science fiction genre, with well-developed characters and a thought-provoking storyline. I wish it was not set up as a romance, honestly.
Iancu-Haddad creates a vivid and imaginative space station setting, complete with unique technology and social dynamics. The inclusion of Nano, the talking robot dog, adds a delightful and heartwarming aspect to the narrative. However, it's important to note that the story takes a somber turn when Nano meets a tragic end. This event deeply affected the reading experience for some, as the loss of a beloved character can be emotionally challenging. Especially when it's the love interest that is responsible.
Another aspect of the story that may be polarizing is the moral dilemma faced by Jorden, who hails from a cult-like background. His involvement in the mission and the choices he makes may lead readers to have mixed feelings about his character. I certainly did.
Overall, "The Goodbye Kids" offers a fresh take on the science fiction genre, with well-developed characters and a thought-provoking storyline. I wish it was not set up as a romance, honestly.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death
Moderate: Gaslighting
jaslikestoread's review
adventurous
emotional
funny
mysterious
reflective
tense
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? Yes
4.5
I wasn’t sure if I was going to like this book, but the more I kept reading, the more I kept finding myself not wanting to stop. This story goes back and forth between Jorden and Haley’s perspective. It can be a little confusing at times, but I see wha the author is doing. While reading this book, I found Haley to be slightly annoying, but then remember she’s 16 and she doesn’t want to get hurt by people. She slowly grew on me. Watching her breakdown the wall she was keeping up for others was great to see. Jorden thinks he’s using Haley, but we just watch him fall deeper in love with Haley. You think Jorden has a change in heart and tries to give up the mission he was on in the first place because of Haley, but that all turns so fast when Nancy comes back. This book is very well written to make you keep wanting to see what happens in the end.
thechroniclesofreading's review
adventurous
emotional
lighthearted
mysterious
fast-paced
- 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
4.0
I received a free copy of this book as part of a StoryGraph giveaway. Even though I’m not a huge fan of sci-fi I thought the blurb of this book sounded interesting and so was excited to win a copy.
This book is very readable, easy and engaging. I liked the idea of the plot, an eco-terrorist from Earth with a mission to destroy and a friendless girl in the space station who is needed to help him accomplish this. I really liked the two main characters and their relationship was kinda sweet.
Being a plus-size women, I could relate to how Haley thought and talked down to herself. It’s hard to know the motives of people, hard to know how to take and/or trust compliments and it’s easier to protect yourself by being distant. I found her inner voice to be very similar to how I talked to myself at 16.
Jorden was interesting, it was fun to see how his mind was working through his mission, his complicated relationship with his father and really understanding the cost of his actions. I think I would have liked to see him thinking more about the other faceless people, rather than just his actions effecting Haley. I think the most I liked him was towards the end when things start to get a little hard for him and he started to get desperate.
Nancy was someone who I wasn’t too sure on, I’m not sure why she mentioned there being another person in on the mission… this was never mentioned again? Might be they appear in book 2 or maybe it was a threat. Not sure.
Quite intrigued by the hints of the ‘new world’. Will happily read the next book in the series as I think it will be fun to see how Jorden deteriorates and what he plans to do next.
Overall, I think this is a quick, gentle, fun YA sci-fi and I look forward to the next book.
This book is very readable, easy and engaging. I liked the idea of the plot, an eco-terrorist from Earth with a mission to destroy and a friendless girl in the space station who is needed to help him accomplish this. I really liked the two main characters and their relationship was kinda sweet.
Being a plus-size women, I could relate to how Haley thought and talked down to herself. It’s hard to know the motives of people, hard to know how to take and/or trust compliments and it’s easier to protect yourself by being distant. I found her inner voice to be very similar to how I talked to myself at 16.
Jorden was interesting, it was fun to see how his mind was working through his mission, his complicated relationship with his father and really understanding the cost of his actions. I think I would have liked to see him thinking more about the other faceless people, rather than just his actions effecting Haley. I think the most I liked him was towards the end when things start to get a little hard for him and he started to get desperate.
Nancy was someone who I wasn’t too sure on, I’m not sure why she mentioned there being another person in on the mission… this was never mentioned again? Might be they appear in book 2 or maybe it was a threat. Not sure.
Quite intrigued by the hints of the ‘new world’. Will happily read the next book in the series as I think it will be fun to see how Jorden deteriorates and what he plans to do next.
Overall, I think this is a quick, gentle, fun YA sci-fi and I look forward to the next book.
hikio123's review
adventurous
emotional
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
I received the ARC version of the book during a giveaway.
Fun read, the story was intriguing, and knowing what's going on for most of it added to it instead of making it predictable. While the romance is cute, I found it hard to care or relate to Jordan due to his mission. I felt for Hayley a lot more. I can't wrap my head around why she would even still feel anything but hatred towards him once she knows the truth.
I did skim over the kissing scenes, there's something really weird to me about reading two teenagers making out when I'm almost twice their age. At the very least it was very minimal, so didn't really impact the story that much.
It was a lot more romance than anything else. While it was easy to read because the writing is for younger audiences, I feel like I couldn't get into it as much because it was basically a romance with some bomber plot in the background that came into head only in the last four chapters. As an adult, romance between teens and normal every day life is not something I'm really into.
Also, I have to say that despite the summary saying Hayley is plus size, it is barely noticable in the plot. It's brought up to put herself down or in comments such as 'how can he love me when I look like this'. It's kinda dissapointing.
Dawn is there at the start, dissappears most of the book, then comes back at the end to get the climax started. It was disappointed. No characters really exist outside the two main ones, which could really use being more fleshed out and more than just he's a suicide bomber that fells bad about it and a loney girl that was pushed aside for some reason.
Fun read, the story was intriguing, and knowing what's going on for most of it added to it instead of making it predictable. While the romance is cute, I found it hard to care or relate to Jordan due to his mission. I felt for Hayley a lot more. I can't wrap my head around why she would even still feel anything but hatred towards him once she knows the truth.
I did skim over the kissing scenes, there's something really weird to me about reading two teenagers making out when I'm almost twice their age. At the very least it was very minimal, so didn't really impact the story that much.
It was a lot more romance than anything else. While it was easy to read because the writing is for younger audiences, I feel like I couldn't get into it as much because it was basically a romance with some bomber plot in the background that came into head only in the last four chapters. As an adult, romance between teens and normal every day life is not something I'm really into.
Also, I have to say that despite the summary saying Hayley is plus size, it is barely noticable in the plot. It's brought up to put herself down or in comments such as 'how can he love me when I look like this'. It's kinda dissapointing.
Dawn is there at the start, dissappears most of the book, then comes back at the end to get the climax started. It was disappointed. No characters really exist outside the two main ones, which could really use being more fleshed out and more than just he's a suicide bomber that fells bad about it and a loney girl that was pushed aside for some reason.
robinwalter's review
The synopsis sounded interesting so I entered the Storygraph giveaway for this book and was delighted to win. Unfortunately it did not gel with me.
I read 1/4 of the story, and found the constant change of perspective and 1st-person narration difficult to connect with. It was by no means the least favourite of my many aborted attempts to read YA, but the general tenor of other reviews here at the Storygraph suggests I did the right thing pulling out when I did.
One minor technical point that irked me : The characters' weight and height are given in US measurements. The US is already one of fewer than 5 countries that don't use SI measurements, the chances of SI not being used in the late 22nd century seem absurdly remote
I read 1/4 of the story, and found the constant change of perspective and 1st-person narration difficult to connect with. It was by no means the least favourite of my many aborted attempts to read YA, but the general tenor of other reviews here at the Storygraph suggests I did the right thing pulling out when I did.
One minor technical point that irked me : The characters' weight and height are given in US measurements. The US is already one of fewer than 5 countries that don't use SI measurements, the chances of SI not being used in the late 22nd century seem absurdly remote
lwneihoff92's review
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
1.0
I had so many problems with this book that I can’t remember them all. I’ll start with the story line. I found it so slow I almost didn’t finish. None of the characters were likable. It felt like the same problem over and over again. It could have been a much shorter book if the same conflicts weren’t repeated. The biggest problem I had was that the description said this was a plus size heroine but the only time her body type is mentioned is when she’s putting herself down or it’s hindering her in some way. I did not feel like this was the body positive main character the description led me to believe she would be. Nano was the only good character in this book but jorden killed him and she didn’t hate him after that??? If someone killed my dog I would have killed them a million times in my head. Everyone would know my disdain for that person. This book needed to be simplified. There was too much going on and too many unresolved story lines.
moose_a_million's review
adventurous
emotional
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
I received a free copy of this book as part of a StoryGraph giveaway
Content Warnings
Moderate: Mental illness, Violence, Medical content, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Body shaming, Death, Fatphobia, Gore, Panic attacks/disorders, Toxic relationship, Grief, Death of parent, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Toxic friendship
greta_mal's review
Okay, so I read 70% of the book, and usually if I read more than 50% of the book and am still not clicking with it I push through and still finish it. But I just couldn't force myself to do it.
The characters aren't well-written - you do not get a clear idea of who Jorden is or what he trully wants even though you're reading from his pov.
And Haley doesn't have any qualities other than being insecure, naive, anti-social and plus size.
Now for the plot... It sounds very interesting when you read the blurb, but it isn't executed very well - sometimes there are 2+ week time skips, where stuff happens, and you only learn of it because of an off-hand comment by either Jorden or Haley. Also, sometimes the story gets too caught up on technical details and really it should focus more on the story unfolding.
The characters aren't well-written - you do not get a clear idea of who Jorden is or what he trully wants even though you're reading from his pov.
And Haley doesn't have any qualities other than being insecure, naive, anti-social and plus size.
Now for the plot... It sounds very interesting when you read the blurb, but it isn't executed very well - sometimes there are 2+ week time skips, where stuff happens, and you only learn of it because of an off-hand comment by either Jorden or Haley. Also, sometimes the story gets too caught up on technical details and really it should focus more on the story unfolding.
myladyarianne's review
emotional
hopeful
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
The premiss is really interesting and sets the main character up for character growth.
After a short setup you get thrown right into the main story and you get some flashbacks to build out the world and characters when more info is needed.
The characters are very likeable but I felt they act too childish in some scenes and have to make very grown up choices in others making them feel less real and harder to emphasise with.
The main premis of the story gets a little lost as the focus shifts more towards the relationships between the characters. The origional objective/premiss comes back to the forefront towards the end of the book.
I would have liked a bigger focus on the premis, the buildup towards it and the way the characters deal with the emotional consequences and a little less on the romance.
But overall a very enjoyable read.
After a short setup you get thrown right into the main story and you get some flashbacks to build out the world and characters when more info is needed.
The characters are very likeable but I felt they act too childish in some scenes and have to make very grown up choices in others making them feel less real and harder to emphasise with.
The main premis of the story gets a little lost as the focus shifts more towards the relationships between the characters. The origional objective/premiss comes back to the forefront towards the end of the book.
I would have liked a bigger focus on the premis, the buildup towards it and the way the characters deal with the emotional consequences and a little less on the romance.
But overall a very enjoyable read.
nataliesboooks's review
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0