Ratings71
Average rating4
I didn't particularly care for this book. The book had a lot of potential. Solomon made a bold attempt at tackling complex topics concerning gender, race, and sexuality. The book thus could have been a thoughtful journey for the reader. But, in this respect, the book did not deliver. The discussion of race lacked originality. Many, many novels about the Antebellum South have the same message (“racism is bad”). Aster's struggles with racism did not feel much different from classic YA novels like [b:Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry 310459 Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry (Logans, #4) Mildred D. Taylor https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1388345167s/310459.jpg 1165554]. The issues of gender and sexuality felt like a sidebar. Moreover, the plot itself was too thin to support the weight of these topics. It was never clear what was driving the plot forward. There were many unbelievable aspects of the plot, which further distracted. Why would the leader of an entire colony ship care about one low-class person, singling her out for abuse? Why does everyone seem to know everyone if the ship is so large? All of this said, I think that Solomon has tremendous potential as an author and I would be interested in reading their work in the future.