Marlowe

I enjoyed this significantly more than the first book! The characters were much more fleshed out and I actually felt more invested. Callum grew on me (like fungus, he's awful but I love him) as well as Parisa, and to some extent Libby. Reina still felt kind of flat compared to the rest of the cast (but I can see her potential more here), and Nico and his cohort still carried this book on their shoulders (particularly Gideon, I would die for that boy). Atlas was developed more, and Ezra continues to intrigue me (though I also despise him in equal measure). Generally a good improvement from the first book, and I felt a lot more invested in pretty much every character compared to the first book.

Libby's trip to the past was a great way to develop her more; seeing her interact with characters outside of the main cast and come more into her own was fun to read, and I like where her character arc is going. I'm interested in seeing how it impacts the present day.

It's still not my favourite series, but the potential is absolutely there, and I'm really hoping The Atlas Complex pulls through. The writing style was strong and the worldbuilding is intriguing; I do find myself pulled into the mystery and I'm interested in seeing where things go.

Thank you to Netgalley and Kodansha Comics for providing me with a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

I absolutely adored my time reading this manga! I myself identify as asexual, and Chika's feelings regarding feeling alienated from other people because of her disinterest in relationships and romance really hit home. Since there was no romance, it really gave the author the opportunity to create strong platonic bonds between Chika and her new friends, and they did such an incredible job of it! Chika's bonds with Ishii, Moto, Ito and Ume were developed beautifully, and their encouragement and support of Chika really carried this book.

I also really loved how everyone's identites were never ‘perfect'. Even Chika's relationship with her sexual, romantic and gender identity isnt exactly answered by the end of the book, but it's because it's something so personal to her and something she can explore and find an answer to at any time, and everyone around her will support her along the way. This book is only the beginning of Chika discovering herself, and it's handled beautifully. The manga also did a great job at educating the reader in an organic way that never felt forced into the story, and instead helped along Chika understand different identities as well.

I do think the queer-platonic(?) relationship with Ume felt a little rushed, but it could be due to the fact that the author spent all 256 pages fleshing out everyone that it felt very sudden to me, but I appreciate that it's something the two are still working towards and it's very early days for them.

Overall, i really enjoyed this manga, and strongly recommend it to anyone looking to learn about asexuality, or even other identities, whilst also watching the main character learn and grow with them along the way.

Thank you to Netgalley and Quercus books for providing me with an EARC of this novel in exchange for an honest review!

I had such a good time with this book! Shesheshen was such an integrated g protagonist to follow, and the exploration of her humanity and Homily's family dynamics had me hooked the whole way through.

Homily in particular was such an interesting character. Her upbringing and family dynamic were incredibly toxic, but pulling yourself away from the cycle of abuse is hard, and this book handled her situation so respectfully. It wasn't a cure-all after she met Shesheshen, and it's something she still has to work on even beyond the last page on the novel.

I do feel like there could have been a little more development regarding the relationship between Homily and Shesheshen. I do think that, to some extent, the nature of the characters lent to the quickly-developed romance; one character who is a major people-pleaser vs someone who isn't quite human and likely hasn't experienced much, if any, human compassion in their lifetime, so this is something I'm being more lenient with. However, at times it did feel a little like they were saying a lot and barely anything to each other all at once.

The actual dynamic between Homily and Shesheshen was actually beautiful though; the unconditional acceptance the each of them gave each other, allowing them both to be entirely comfortable with one another and growing together was so refreshing, and the asexuality of the characters was just something they both experienced and loved about one another. It was such an unconventional and beautiful relationship.

One thing that absolutely didn't affect my rating but I wanted to point out; this was completely unreadable on a Kindle.

Netgalley does allow you to send books to your kindle, and this is my main method to reading digitally, but the numbers used in the formatting made it basically impossible unless you were willing to read a sentence per page. I'm sure this is a pre-publishing format and won't be in the final product, but it's something I wanted to point out.

Once again thank you for providing me with a free digital copy of this book!

I am making this review after also reading the sequel so I'm trying to be conscious of me mixing together the two plots; please read spoilered text with caution. I have also read 10+ books since finishing this novel, so my memory is not 100% trustworthy.

The premise of this book has a lot of potential. I found a lot of the characters unlikeable at first. In particular, Reina felt very bland, Tristan was annoying and I wanted to punch Callum in the face on multiple occasions. It was a very slow read for me, but this may have been due to me being in a long reading slump prior to reading this book, though the twists were enough to keep me engaged particularly regarding Ezra, I did not see that coming, but I quite enjoyed it. Parisa was interesting; I didn't adore her, but I didn't have any strong negative feelings towards her like some characters, and she was intriguing enough to enjoy her POV. Libby... I wanted to like her more, but her character was quite frustrating at times.

Nico and his little cohort carried this book, I loved them to pieces, and the bond between them and Nico is so refreshing amongst the complicated relationships happening between all the main characters of the novel. I wish we could have spent more time with them, but considering there were 5 other main characters to develop, I understand that's quite unrealistic.

The writing style itself I think is quite strong, but drags a little in places (I am reviewing this by memory, but I've read 100+ books since this, so I could be wrong). I think her prose is quite strong, but her character writing could use some improvement.

Overall, a book with promise, but just felt a little flat. I usually enjoy reading books with more likeable characters than the ones in this book, so it just might have not been to my taste. I can enjoy unlikeable characters, but I would want a bit more depth from them to at least feel more invested in them, regardless as to whether I like them as a person, which I think this book was lacking. I think it would have benefitted from spending more quality time in each character's head, but this very much could be improved in the next book.