The Diabolic

I really enjoyed this book. There were twists I absolutely did not see coming, and Nemesis's confusion over whether she is truly human or not is an absorbing part of the plotline.

The book opens on Nemesis, an artificially created humanoid, as a child, being bonded to her charge, Sidonia Impyrean. The chemically-induced bonding creates an artificial love from Nemesis towards Sidonia - a love so strong she will kill and die to protect her. Many years later, Diabolics - what Nemesis is - are outlawed. Rather than kill Nemesis, Sidonia's family fakes her death, and eventually sends Nemesis to court masquerading as Sidonia. No one has seen Sidonia before, so the masquerade is fairly easy, other than hiding Nemesis' real abilities as one of the last Diabolics. Thrown into a world of conspiracies and courtly intrigue, Nemesis flails a little bit, but eventually finds her footing, and I can't say anymore than that because that's when the plot twists start!

This is one of the most surprising YA books I've read. I only anticipated one or two of the twists; many of the events revealed themselves to the reader at the same time that Nemesis uncovers them, which makes sense, as the book is told from her point of view.

The bond between Sidonia and Nemesis is strong and intriguing, even across star systems. I wish their relationship had been explored more. Sidonia always believed Nemesis was truly human, even when Nemesis did not. The book did not delve deeply into the actual creation of Diabolics; I'm hoping the sequel does. I'm curious if they are actually created, or if they are genetically modified humans and that's just a closely guarded secret. (Even if they are created, they're human in every way except their strength and endurance - I'm sure they're simply modified in the womb. Or test tube. Whichever. I really hope the sequel gets into that.)

I have the sequel, The Empress, requested from the library, but it's supposed to be a trilogy. I don't know when the third is due out.

This is a fantastic, surprising YA book with interesting politics and world building. I really want to learn more about the history of this world, and hopefully the rest of the trilogy will cover that.

You can find all my reviews at Goddess in the Stacks.

PSA: so, I've decided to take a much cooler, relaxed stance when it comes to reviewing. which is to say that my opinions (from now on) might come off as less ... coherent? mhm, so yeah, just wanted to give everyone a word of warning before diving straight into this whole “lemme-review-stuff” thing

well, I thought The Diabolic was fairly okay. it was a sci-fi novel though, so I wasn't suuuuper into it, but I did not actually hate it !! which is a very good thing imo

I mean, for one, I've always been a sucker for the whole “emotionless robot discovers she actually has a heart and, like, Feelings ensue” trope. it's super cute & I love the way it explores the lines between humanity, technology & the way these two things intersect. like ?? idk how can you not be passionate about the main character, a creature who was once Nemesis but is now kind of ... something else, learning not only how to be human, but how to be someone that's uniquely her & what it's like to be an actual contributing member of society w/o having your thoughts & actions dictated for you + the constant push-and-pull between what she wanted for herself & what she wanted for Sidonia (someone she loved more than she loved herself rip) like??? yes, I was so Down for that. (also, I forgot to mention that she was also a total badass female protagonist #yay)

but also, I did not like Tyrus. I was hoping with all my heart, mind & soul that she would end up with Sidonia & we'd get an f/f relationship w/ cool pygmalion-esque commentary, as we saw how they planned to navigate their relationship with each other despite the original “master-servant” sort of dynamic, but obviously that did not happen. although, in hindsight, the original pygmalion couple did not actually Work Out, so I shouldn't have gotten my hopes up about it //sighs

in conclusion, I did not ship the Main Ship, which severely hindered my enjoyment of the book because it's pretty romance-centered. thus, the 3-star rating.