This book has a lot of very obvious flaws, but I found it utterly fascinating and couldn't put it down. Even now, more than 4 months after reading it, I find myself thinking about it quite frequently.
Basic plot: The FMC Amber and her younger sister have a rough life on Earth, so they board a colony ship; it goes awry and the ship crashes on an alien planet, killing the vast majority of the humans. The MMC is an alien living on this planet, who finds the remaining stranded settlers and believes helping them is his duty.
The tone: It's so, so bleak. Judging from all the human characters besides the MC, the author thinks humans are generally bad, evil or careless. The main human antagonist, Scott, seems like a parody of himself, a bit too on-the-nose to be really convincing as a villain. The much more interesting villain is the non-human antagonist, who gets a lot less screentime.
Some of the bleakness verges on grimdark. These humans face a lot of really, really awful shit - but, other than Amber, they don't have much character development to show for it. This book's largest fault, imo, is that there is no truly sympathetic human character besides her. There's a couple that come close, but they're very minor characters; the vast majority of the humans are really awful.
The male main character, Meoraq, has amazing character development. This, plus his relationship with Amber, is this novel's strongest point. It's a slow burn, but it feels natural each step of the way.
Worldbuilding: Really, really impressive, but the way the reader is thrown into it feels very jarring; Meoraq's first POV chapter is a lot.
Pacing: Good for the first two-thirds, but the ending feels like one bad thing after another. After Amber is kidnapped in the last third, it feels like the characters don't get any breathing room whatsoever until the very end of the book. There's a massive revelation, but then instead of giving the characters time to digest this, they're immediately thrown into yet another violent conflict. By the end it feels like way too much.
Overall, it's a captivating, dark, unique book - definitely not perfect, but I'm glad I read it.
CWs: extreme violence; detailed on-page rape of main character (by side character, not the MMC); off-page rape of side characters (described, not seen). If you're sensitive to violence at all this book will be a lot.
This book has a lot of very obvious flaws, but I found it utterly fascinating and couldn't put it down. Even now, more than 4 months after reading it, I find myself thinking about it quite frequently.
Basic plot: The FMC Amber and her younger sister have a rough life on Earth, so they board a colony ship; it goes awry and the ship crashes on an alien planet, killing the vast majority of the humans. The MMC is an alien living on this planet, who finds the remaining stranded settlers and believes helping them is his duty.
The tone: It's so, so bleak. Judging from all the human characters besides the MC, the author thinks humans are generally bad, evil or careless. The main human antagonist, Scott, seems like a parody of himself, a bit too on-the-nose to be really convincing as a villain. The much more interesting villain is the non-human antagonist, who gets a lot less screentime.
Some of the bleakness verges on grimdark. These humans face a lot of really, really awful shit - but, other than Amber, they don't have much character development to show for it. This book's largest fault, imo, is that there is no truly sympathetic human character besides her. There's a couple that come close, but they're very minor characters; the vast majority of the humans are really awful.
The male main character, Meoraq, has amazing character development. This, plus his relationship with Amber, is this novel's strongest point. It's a slow burn, but it feels natural each step of the way.
Worldbuilding: Really, really impressive, but the way the reader is thrown into it feels very jarring; Meoraq's first POV chapter is a lot.
Pacing: Good for the first two-thirds, but the ending feels like one bad thing after another. After Amber is kidnapped in the last third, it feels like the characters don't get any breathing room whatsoever until the very end of the book. There's a massive revelation, but then instead of giving the characters time to digest this, they're immediately thrown into yet another violent conflict. By the end it feels like way too much.
Overall, it's a captivating, dark, unique book - definitely not perfect, but I'm glad I read it.
CWs: extreme violence; detailed on-page rape of main character (by side character, not the MMC); off-page rape of side characters (described, not seen). If you're sensitive to violence at all this book will be a lot.
thank you for this review!