This. Book. Blew. My. Mind.

The premise, the plot, the characters, all of it fits together in this super intricate way. It's easy to follow but it's not easy to anticipate what's coming next.

I can't pinpoint the exact moment when I was reading that I went "Oh, this is what good writing is," but I can tell you I knew it. The whole time, I was engaged with the plot, I was invested in the characters and their journey, and I was intrigued by all of the challenges. Every time I put it down to take a break or go for a walk or get a snack, I couldn't stop thinking about it. To me, that's a sign of good book. And this? This was definitely a good book.

Although there is some worldbuilding that I felt could have been expanded to make this a duology, Micaiah Johnson crafted a world that feels eerily realistic and having a simple standalone definitely worked out.

While this does contain a romance, it's not the main plot of the book, and only serves to further character development of everyone involved. That being said, though, I was invested in the romance and was rooting for it to work

so I'm glad it did

. Bonus points: the romance is sapphic and the main character is an unlabeled (in the book) queer woman (most likely bisexual). 

I will let you know: This isn't a YA novel. Although it doesn't contain any graphic scenes, the messaging and the divide between good and evil are incredibly subtle, though very power. I think younger readers could pick this up and would absolutely enjoy it, but marketing it as anything other than an adult sci-fi would be disingenuous to Micaiah Johnson's writing.

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