Wow, wow, wow, I loved this book so much on a re-read. 

First of all, there is nothing at all about this book that is standalone. One of the things that I love *most* about this book is the way it pulls in so many threads from all of the books that came before it, both in terms of characters that we've seen before, but also references to things Murderbot experienced and learned from past adventures. I don't see how you could possibly read this without having read the rest of the series first, so it is strange to me that it was ever pitched as a standalone.

Beyond that though, I loved the novel format of this book SO much. I was a little bit nervous about digging into this because I expected it to just be a longer version of one of the novella romps, but it wasn't that AT ALL. The bigger format gave space for so much more, with flashbacks to build context, richer relationship building, and a more intricate story that had all of the elements that I love best in this series. Murderbot grappling with its emotions as it contemplates its relationships with bots and humans alike just pulls right at my heartstrings and I full on cried at the end, a thing I exceptionally rarely do while reading.

My previous opinion on this book after having read the audiobook version was "it was good but I don't understand why it won the Hugo in 2021 against so many other good books" but after re-reading it with my eyes, I'm like "okay Piranesi still would have edged this book out for me personally, but indeed it is either the first or close second best book on that list of excellent books." Five stars all around, loved this so much.