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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
electricute's review
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
5.0
Minor: Gun violence, Racism, Kidnapping, Colonisation, Classism, and Pandemic/Epidemic
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
kbairbooks's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
Moderate: Torture, Violence, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism
Minor: Colonisation
thebakersbooks's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Early parts of the book where the characters are new to Earth have strong ‘Star Trek: The Voyage Home’ vibes, which was so much fun. I actually preferred the parts of the book that took place on fictional planets, but watching the main characters discover everyday human practices and items was entertaining. Landing on Earth also allows the main characters to grapple with some of the flaws in their own home, delving into issues of economic disparity and colonialism.
And of course, no review of this book would be complete without discussing the central premise: Kindred. A concept designed to combat but not eliminate harsh class divides, the Kindred system pairs each individual with someone born around the same time. They’re mentally linked for the rest of their lives, able to see and feel everything their Kindred does. The two protagonists, Joy and Felix, are an incongruous Kindred pair, and much of the tension in the story stems from their vastly different social statuses and upbringings.
Above everything else, I loved watching a girl who’s always been told to make herself smaller and quieter get attention from hot guys, receive compliments on her appearance and personality from peers, and generally be affirmed in her existence just as she is. This book is undoubtedly a love letter to anyone who’s ever been told their skin’s too dark, their body’s too big, or their laugh is too loud, to paraphrase a quote from Joy.
I highly recommend this book to folks who enjoyed The Sound of Stars and anyone who likes sci-fi that’s innovative but doesn’t have a big learning curve due to super complex worldbuilding. You’ll probably enjoy the book most if you’re a fan of romance, but I’m not especially and I liked it anyway!
content warnings: fatphobia (external and internalized), body shaming and food shaming, colorism, strong themes of classism, themes of colonization, socio-cultural misogyny
Graphic: Body shaming and Fatphobia
Minor: Colonisation and Classism
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
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
- 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
theespressoedition'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? No
5.0
If you've read The Sound of Stars, you'll get to enjoy some really fun cameos in this book. That made me so, so happy because I loved that book so much and I had a little bit of hope inside me that there would be references to it. I was definitely not disappointed!
Okay, let me try and convince you to read this the best way I know how - a list:
- phenomenal diversity... like truly gorgeous. I couldn't get enough of the cast of characters and how wildly different they all were from each other - and how that made them all the more wonderful.
- totally immersive atmosphere... I was physically sitting in my bed, but I was mentally on another planet (or multiple planets) and it was easy to picture how everything looked because of the wonderful way it was written.
- mentions of my favorite authors... there was a literal LIST of authors at one point that made me want to weep with joy because it included so many of my favorites - some of which I'm even friends with!
- best friends-to-lovers + forbidden love... and of course this equals a lot of drama but also a lot of emotion and really just the best kind of feels. I was rooting for our protagonists from the get-go because they were just so dang precious I couldn't even handle it.
- TAYLOR SWIFT... you might be like "what???" but if you read it, you'll get it. If you like Taylor Swift, you'll like this book.
If that doesn't convince you, I'm not entirely sure what will. Hopefully, you pick this up because it instantly went on my list of favorites for not only 2022, but of all time!
Graphic: Body shaming, Fatphobia, and Misogyny
Moderate: Death, Gun violence, Racism, Violence, and Colonisation
Minor: War