I loved this a lot.

I think I bought it on a friend's rec, but I ended up enjoying it so much more than I expected. See, giant robots aren't really my jam. But in this book, I loved it. I think it has a lot to do with the fact that the robots are much less important than the characters, and characters are almost always the most important things to me.

I loved loved loved the characters here. Tera and Jaewon are one of the only straight ships I care about (sorry, not sorry?). I loved that we got an unapologetically physically stronger female character. There was a lot of saving each other and thinking it's hot (on both sides). It was just a really good relationship AND it wasn't actually a big romance-y book. There's definitely romance here, but it's subtle and doesn't take over the plot. It was really really lovely.

The side characters are as good as the main ones. I loved Ama and Young, and ended up loving Alex so much more than I thought I would (arrogant rich boy who makes terrible decisions from the very start). I'm super excited about Rogue Heart because he'll be more important in there!

Friendships and family were also very important, and that's definitely My Thing. So you get what I liked the book. Good characters, solid focus on platonic relationship, excellent romance that isn't the main subplot. It was just. Really great.

The plot and wolrdbuilding were a lot of fun too! It had a lot of classic dystopian-ish "rebellion against an authoritarian regime" premises and beats, but it managed to be really original in the execution.

Honestly, my only problems were: some cisnormative language & the fact that I guessed a lot of the twists. It didn't make the book any less enjoyable, though.

TW: cisnormativity, violence/blood/death, human experiments, child abuse, mention of parental death, gang violence, alcohol, drugs.