Scan barcode
A review by ihateprozac
Do You Dream of Terra-Two? by Temi Oh
3.0
I'm in two minds about this one. I loooooooved the writing style and I absolutely flew through it, but I fucking hated the characters and it felt like we only got half the story.
I like flawed characters but I legit hated every fucking one of these teenagers. I'm not sure if it was the author's intent, but I began the book only hating Harry and then slowly grew to loathe each one over the course of the novel! By page 400 I just didn't care whether any of these teens lived or died.
I'm also so mad about how mental illness is handled in this story. Mental illness is rife amongst the crew and it goes mostly unchecked, which is bonkers to me considering they were rigorously tested to qualify for the trip and there's a psychiatrist on board the ship! One character's predisposition to cruelty should have disqualified them from the trip completely, one severely depressed character is doused with ice cold water and basically just told to "get over it", another character's eating disorder is afforded 1 page in the entire book, and another character has vivid hallucinations for 400 pages without anybody noticing or treating them.
What?????
The author does offer a few lines of commentary about whether teens could really consent to a project of this magnitude, but it wasn't enough. Instead of critiquing power imbalances, consent, and corruption, the story just felt exploitative and uncomfortable to read.
I really struggled to suspend my disbelief and engage in the story because I just couldn't fathom how this crew was so underprepared. They're basically yeeted into space to colonise a planet with no rules or frameworks for how their society should work, and given nothing beyond technical support. It's legit just "make it up as you go along and try not to kill each other for the next 40 years, also make sure you grow some potatoes". What???
And don't even get me started on the pacing and where it ended. I love a deliberately ambiguous ending in speculative fiction but this one just left me feeling like I wasted my time. I felt like there was so much emotional build up toward setting foot on Terra-Two and then the author just goes "lol bye". The book is 500+ damn pages and then it's hurriedly tied up in the final 20.
There's so much about this book that irritated me and yet I'd pick up another sci-fi from Temi Oh in a heartbeat. Her writing is compulsively readable, the characters were distinct, and she shows so much promise as a speculative fiction writer. This story just didn't work for me and probably could've been magnificent with a few more books/years of experience under her belt.
*sigh*
I like flawed characters but I legit hated every fucking one of these teenagers. I'm not sure if it was the author's intent, but I began the book only hating Harry and then slowly grew to loathe each one over the course of the novel! By page 400 I just didn't care whether any of these teens lived or died.
I'm also so mad about how mental illness is handled in this story. Mental illness is rife amongst the crew and it goes mostly unchecked, which is bonkers to me considering they were rigorously tested to qualify for the trip and there's a psychiatrist on board the ship! One character's predisposition to cruelty should have disqualified them from the trip completely, one severely depressed character is doused with ice cold water and basically just told to "get over it", another character's eating disorder is afforded 1 page in the entire book, and another character has vivid hallucinations for 400 pages without anybody noticing or treating them.
What?????
The author does offer a few lines of commentary about whether teens could really consent to a project of this magnitude, but it wasn't enough. Instead of critiquing power imbalances, consent, and corruption, the story just felt exploitative and uncomfortable to read.
I really struggled to suspend my disbelief and engage in the story because I just couldn't fathom how this crew was so underprepared. They're basically yeeted into space to colonise a planet with no rules or frameworks for how their society should work, and given nothing beyond technical support. It's legit just "make it up as you go along and try not to kill each other for the next 40 years, also make sure you grow some potatoes". What???
And don't even get me started on the pacing and where it ended. I love a deliberately ambiguous ending in speculative fiction but this one just left me feeling like I wasted my time. I felt like there was so much emotional build up toward setting foot on Terra-Two and then the author just goes "lol bye". The book is 500+ damn pages and then it's hurriedly tied up in the final 20.
There's so much about this book that irritated me and yet I'd pick up another sci-fi from Temi Oh in a heartbeat. Her writing is compulsively readable, the characters were distinct, and she shows so much promise as a speculative fiction writer. This story just didn't work for me and probably could've been magnificent with a few more books/years of experience under her belt.
*sigh*