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A review by eli02
The Goodbye Kids by Debbie Iancu-Haddad
adventurous
mysterious
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
3.0
I won an arc of this via the StoryGraph giveaway! I love SciFi so that was really exciting. However, it took me quite a long time to finish this book because l kept wanting to DNF it.
Plot: The plot was okay, all in all. I did notice some plot holes that really took me out of the book and made the world-building feel not completely thought through (to give some examples, how is it not more suspicious that a young man seems to be the only one in his "family" who appears well fed and to have the excess energy to build muscles? Especially if food is super limited on earth? Why can a girl afford makeup and nailpolish but not food? Why is makeup even still being produced if earth is so low on resources? And, my least favourite of all, how does a device that seems to be a defibrillator save someone from choking and make them conscious again?).
I was also surprised with how weight was treated in this book. The synopsis mentions "plus-sized heroines just living their life with no mention of weight loss", which l took to mean that weight would be a non-issue in this book. However, the female protagonist talks negatively about her own weight and body on multiple occasions. Having the male lead call her "kind of chubby in a cute way" also plays into one of my least favourite tropes of chubby/fat characters as love interests.
The characters were generally not for me, I don't like the naive girl/manipulative boy dynamic. Also, my absolute highlight of this book, the main character's robotic service dog, was killed off, which really made me want to never finish this.
Writing: The sentences are rather short, which is probably great for new readers (especially those that don't usually read in English) but tended to disrupt my reading flow. I also felt that, especially at the beginning, some worldbuilding details could have been woven in more elegantly. Sometimes the book simply told me things that would have had more impact would they have been explored more.
Plot: The plot was okay, all in all. I did notice some plot holes that really took me out of the book and made the world-building feel not completely thought through (to give some examples, how is it not more suspicious that a young man seems to be the only one in his "family" who appears well fed and to have the excess energy to build muscles? Especially if food is super limited on earth? Why can a girl afford makeup and nailpolish but not food? Why is makeup even still being produced if earth is so low on resources? And, my least favourite of all, how does a device that seems to be a defibrillator save someone from choking and make them conscious again?).
I was also surprised with how weight was treated in this book. The synopsis mentions "plus-sized heroines just living their life with no mention of weight loss", which l took to mean that weight would be a non-issue in this book. However, the female protagonist talks negatively about her own weight and body on multiple occasions. Having the male lead call her "kind of chubby in a cute way" also plays into one of my least favourite tropes of chubby/fat characters as love interests.
The characters were generally not for me, I don't like the naive girl/manipulative boy dynamic. Also, my absolute highlight of this book, the main character's robotic service dog,
Writing: The sentences are rather short, which is probably great for new readers (especially those that don't usually read in English) but tended to disrupt my reading flow. I also felt that, especially at the beginning, some worldbuilding details could have been woven in more elegantly. Sometimes the book simply told me things that would have had more impact would they have been explored more.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Animal death