Hardcover, 374 pages
Published Nov. 2, 2019 by Redhook Books/Orbit.
It's well written, but not strikingly original. I liked it, but clearly sort of a YA kind of thing.
Content warning Spoiler for a story twist, cw death, animal harm, self harm
It's a little flat. Fantastical but enough racism to just sort of suck the air out of it. I really resented the >>spoiler<< dead dog switcharoo even though I kinda saw it coming. When the >>spoiler<< dead mum turned up alive then the >>spoiler<< dead dad did too then dead friend then dead great aunt ... it was a bit of a struggle to not just nope out.
The worldsbuilding is solid. The characters are solid. Representation of POC is great. One character is in a pan polycule, which is rad. The rest is OK, (pacing, plot, etc.) just very predictable. It's fairly YA but for the self harm. (One day I'll happen upon a novel for grown-ups & faint dead away)
I listened on audio book. I enjoyed parts but felt it went on a bit too long and jumped around a lot, but not in a good way. I was bored by the end. It didn't really ever grab my attention
I really wanted to like this but the over-the-top flowery prose, uneven pacing and style of the book-within-the-book didn't agree with me. I'm also a little tired of woke white women trying to write about issues of race that they've clearly never experienced. And yeah - TECHNICALLY the character isn't REALLY a PoC, but that's a pretty lame loophole. That said, the middle part of the novel was a nice bit of escapism and verged on being a real page-turner. I feel like the author might have some real chops if she can mature past the too-in-love-with-itself prose style.
