A review by megatsunami
The Country of Ice Cream Star by Sandra Newman

5.0

I almost gave up on this book after the first 25 pages or so, because it was really slow going at first with the invented dialect, but I'm glad I kept going because it was so worth it. Emotionally rich and action-packed, full of moral complexity and three-dimensional characters. I found a few details of the world-building to be unconvincing, but on the other hand, there's a lot the narrator doesn't know, so it feels okay that everything's not explained. (Also, whaaa? The Russians are the world superpower? Is this 1955?)

Note: There is quite a bit of violence - not told in gratuitous detail, but there's a lot of it.