Megan
A really good little cozy mystery! Exactly what I expected, but also fun that it was set in Ashland. I found this one interesting because the main character's relationship status is very “It's complicated” right from the start but feels very realistic. I liked how the various conflicts set up the rest of the series. So often with these kinds of series the reader is told why the MC came to, or back to, their small town to start their business (which is the usual trope) at the the start. In this you get to see how and why the MC makes the decision to make the move permanent. I love to mother-daughter relationship too.
I disagree with everyone who says this writing style is lyrical and beautiful. I personally found the book overwritten and the style was distracting. I pushed through because I was interested and had a good enough time. There was quite a bit of repetition of super odd phrases (ex: pebbled skin, organ in my chest) that, again, was incredibly distracting. Despite that, I did find myself enjoying the story and wanting to read more. It's no more than what I expected it to be, and that's okay. I just hope the second book is edited more thoroughly and the MC has some distinct character growth. I can't handle the same amount of “everyone I love dies so I can't have love” inner monologue as was in this book.
This ended up being exactly what I wanted and needed this story to be! As someone with zoo experience and current studies focused on the illegal wildlife trade, I can say this is such an accurate portrayal of all things zoo, conservation, and wildlife related. It's cozy yet has a good plot with tons of emotion and great character moments. A keeper struggling to conquer the public speaking demon is so real too. No one gets into such a low-paying job because they love talking to people - it's definitely the animals!
Look, I wasn't NOT going to read a book called GENERATION SHIP when I spend half my life telling people that's one of my favorite tropes/settings/etc. I was always going to like this. Was it perfect? No. Did I enjoy my time and keep wanting to read because I'm just a simple woman? Yes. I'd say this was maybe a little long and occasionally suffered a TINY bit from the “set on a spaceship but you forget they're in space” issue that a lot of generation ship stories run into. It never lasted too long though, and the political intrigue abounded. I'm so happy this wasn't one of those generation ship books where they never reach the planet and instead turn around to go back to Earth while still in our solar system. Authors are doing that too much lately. I want to see the planet you spend the whole book telling us about!!! Thank you Michael Mammay for delivering on that promise.
The critiques of this book are valid (assumptions of what someone must have felt, etc.), but I think the author made a purposeful choice to give as much of these women's lives back to them as she could. To make them as real on the page as possible, because we all know they've had that taken from them literally and then time and time again by the media for decades. I believe conjecture into how someone may have felt or what they may have done in an effort to accomplish that is absolutely fine. I appreciate that this book exists and attempts, and in my opinion succeeds, to redefine what true crime can be and how treatment of victims' stories should be done.
Very cute! The Kiki's Deliver Service inspiration is pretty heavy-handed, but I can see where the author is going and diverging from that initial inspiration by the end. I can see how this will be even better in the next book, which I plan to pick up. I don't love the rhyming incantations because it feels extra childish and bizarre to read an adult saying cute little sayings, but other than that the magic system was actually quite interesting! The friendships are wonderful too. The biggest problem I had was that almost everything and everyone felt developed at, or just below, surface level. I think as the series goes on this could definitely improve though!
Incredible documentation of first-hand accounts.
Quotes:
“Of course it was not the best of the white race that created the hellish situation in Tulsa. But none the less, the best of the white race is responsible. The leadership of a community is responsible for the deeds of the community.”
“The elements that contributed to the disaster—the view of Black equality as anathema to the natural social order, official complicity in mob violence, and weaponization of legislation in service to monied interests—still animate the American landscape we inhabit today.”
“The freedom that is promised to all Americans is conditional for Black Americans, driven by arbitrary measures of whether they are intelligent enough, industrious enough, humble enough, nonthreatening enough, innocent enough, patriotic enough, and so on.”
“The hardship that generations of his family carried from the trauma of being hated by their own government and fellow citizens remains a burden.”
“So when the Capitol insurrection unfolded, I recognized what I was seeing. It was the culmination of four years of an administration that had terrified me from its inception for its promise of cruelty. But the worst part was the sense of normalcy that was being thrust on us by leaders who deliberately and determinedly refused to acknowledge the danger of the worst public health crisis in generations and who downplayed the justness of community outrage and protests in the face of the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis by a uniformed police officer. Instead, these two defining circumstances of 2020 were weaponized in furtherance of a regressive, racist agenda, in the face of which the public was bombarded with messaging that ran counter to objective reality and moral norms. The U.S. president downplayed the lethality of a pandemic, the likes of which had not affected humanity since 1918, when he knew of the widespread disease and death that would result. While the country was reeling from COVID-19, mass public protests in reaction to Floyd's murder were mischaracterized as evidence that the Black Lives Matter movement was a violent antigovernment movement committed to anarchy.”
“In the current era of historic firsts by African Americans, we must recall that the firsts are not overdue because Black people weren't ready—it is the country that wasn't ready.”
This was a fairly goofy early YA sci-fi that I'd say is perfect for middle grade readers who are interested in reading more difficult topics but maybe aren't quite ready for everything in YA books. It's fun sci-fi that doesn't feel at all like it's set on a spaceship, which some people may really like (it wasn't for me unfortunately), and goes completely off the rails as the story progresses. Don't look too closely at the plot. Don't take any of it too seriously. Just enjoy it for the adventure and look at it with tweens and younger teens in mind. That being said, my enjoyment was minimal. It wasn't bad but it really lost me in the last third or so.
First book of 2023 done, and I spent the first 75% of it thinking it was another book and waiting for a particular plot point to happen. Given it's almost 900 pages and I was still hooked even though that wrong plot was “taking forever” to develop, I'd say that speaks volumes for the book. I really enjoyed it. Great way to start off the year!
I agree with another review I saw that this is quite cozy yet still realistic in terms of the cost of war, politics, and the like on your average citizen. It was really good but dragged a little bit around the 3/4 mark for me. I definitely enjoyed the writing style though and am interested to try more from this author.
This was simply too abstract for me to enjoy it. On top of that everything was held at an arm's length from the reader so I couldn't even try to feel invested in anything. It's typical sci-fi ponderings of what it means to be human, done in a somewhat interesting way but that's where the interest ended for me.
