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kiiouex's review
2.0
Well, I grabbed this because I only really want to read queer books, and I'm big into xeno and testing out sci-fi so this seemed like it'd tick a lot of boxes (Plus the cover is beautiful). I don't want to drag it too much since it's queer and I think it basically achieves it's goals, but the writing throughout was so poor.
The opening in particular was beyond clumsy - starts in media res but never really doubles back, which leads to a lot of characters awkwardly declaring their relationships to each other, while their situation is never really actually explained. A lot of things that aren't the main character or the main aliens are super vague. Not that knowing the crew's original mission was relevant to the story being told, but it was a very weird thing not to know; the synopsis on the back actually filled in some key points the text skipped. I could make a thousand tiny complains about things that were confusing or grating, but that's not constructive.
The story picked up a lot in the second half and got more interesting, with more time to show it's ideas, and one of the love interests was fun when he was on the page. Sex scenes weren't bad but still suffered from the other issues running through the book like the main character's inconsistent-but-always-overdramatic personality.
I'm also now completely allergic to the word 'snickers'. Especially when used by characters bantering right after their loved ones have died.
Overall it just felt like someone's first book. Not bad ideas under it but so much technical learning still to do.
The opening in particular was beyond clumsy - starts in media res but never really doubles back, which leads to a lot of characters awkwardly declaring their relationships to each other, while their situation is never really actually explained. A lot of things that aren't the main character or the main aliens are super vague. Not that knowing the crew's original mission was relevant to the story being told, but it was a very weird thing not to know; the synopsis on the back actually filled in some key points the text skipped. I could make a thousand tiny complains about things that were confusing or grating, but that's not constructive.
The story picked up a lot in the second half and got more interesting, with more time to show it's ideas, and one of the love interests was fun when he was on the page. Sex scenes weren't bad but still suffered from the other issues running through the book like the main character's inconsistent-but-always-overdramatic personality.
I'm also now completely allergic to the word 'snickers'. Especially when used by characters bantering right after their loved ones have died.
Overall it just felt like someone's first book. Not bad ideas under it but so much technical learning still to do.
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