Reviews

Man I hate it when you're reading a series, and book 1 finishes and the characters in that story clearly have unfinished business and you're expecting their story to continue in book 2 but then you pick book 2 up and it's 2 entirely separate people in entirely separate situations.

That's not to say I didn't enjoy Hanna and Nik's (and Ella's) story... It just wasn't where I was expecting this book to go and I hate it when I get thrown curve balls like this.

Anyway, I think I have a list of good and bad things about this book.

Let's start with the good:

1. The story's just as engaging as book 1. Once you get past the 20% mark or so. Once we get clever, badass Hanna and not ditzy pretty lil rich girl Hanna. I love me a strong female lead. I love that she knows Krav Maga. I love that she's trained and doesn't hesitate to knock a bitch out. Go her.

I also enjoy that we got more interaction with the bad guys. We get to understand a bit more about what's going on, about who the bad people are and what their motives are. I like that, despite the fact that this story is entirely new, there are ties that connect it to book 1.

2. Hanna's journal. The little drawings and comic strips were very cute. And some of the scenes that were drawn out gave us a pretty good sense of what the characters looked like and who they were.

3. The inclusion of the song--and someone actually singing it on the audiobook is low-key hilarious. I cannot state enough how utterly well-done this production is.

4. We get another hacker/computer extraordinaire in this book--though I suppose for the plot to work, such a character is necessary. It could have felt repetitive, but it didn't. I really enjoyed the banter between Ella and her Cousin (Nik) and Hanna. I had some issues connecting to Ezra and Kady in book 1 because they mostly communicate via instant messenger, but in this book it felt different. I felt closer to the characters.

5. The plot just keeps <i>giving</i>. There's a downside to this, but the good stuff first--I was never 100% certain where this story was going or what was going to happen next. Just when you think you have things figured out, there's an enemy fleet bearing down on the Hypatia AND Heimdall set to destroy everybody. But wait! There's more! Enter Alien-esque face-hugging slimy brain-eaters. Okay, cool. Now we're fighting bad guys AND alien creatures. OH WAIT, there's a multiverse situation going on too???? Sure... everybody saw THAT coming.... NOT. You're on the edge of your seat from start to finish. The stakes just keep getting higher and higher. The danger's always lurking around the corner (or in the air vents). There's not a ton of 'down time' once the bad stuff starts.

Okay, every coin has 2 sides, right? The not so great stuff:

1. This book sort of took a while to get going. It was a lot of secret drug dealing and prissy girls talking about a party. (Granted, the drug/gang (mafia???) stuff was interesting but I could have done without most of Hanna's bits early on.) It made it difficult for me to give a crap about Hanna in particular. I don't do well with prissy, air-headed party girl tropes. Yes. She turns out to be WAY more than that...but for the first quarter of the book, we're reading about Spaceship Barbie.

1.5. Listen. None of the characters (except perhaps Ella) really tweaked my gourd in this one. Even after Hanna ditches the prissy crap, she's not nearly as interesting as Kady was. And Nik is sort of a tatted up ex-con carbon copy of Ezra from book 1. They're like, literally almost the same person, personality wise.

They even share similar climactic events. Nik's "death" is a copy/paste from book 1. I'd have expected there to be bigger differences--why are we repeating the same big events forcing our FMCs to be the heroines solo? What's wrong with the pair working together? It's starting to feel like an agenda, rather than a legitimately unique plot point.

2. Nik kind of gave me the ick in the beginning of this book. And I don't really enjoy his romance with Hanna. In the beginning of the book, Hanna's with <s>Ken Doll #1</s> Jackson Merrick. Who's supposedly the most handsome, hottest man who ever handsomed and hotted. They are #PowerCoupleGoals. Nik is just Hanna's drug dealer. And they have this banter that sometimes crossed a line for me into sexual harassment. He's constantly propositioning her, constantly asking her out, thinking about her body, yadda yadda. It's not cute. I think their banter was supposed to be read as not serious and funny--but it sometimes just...wasn't.

And when they meet up in person for the first time after the hostile take over and share a kiss, I had to wonder...fuckin' why? Where did the change of heart take place? Why is Hanna kissing some dude she's been putting off for (presumably) years all of a sudden out of the blue? Just because people are dead? She's still got feelings for Merrick at this point, but just making out with someone else. Okay.

I'm not sure the evolution of the friendship/relationship ever satisfied me enough to be okay with it. I don't really think there needed to be a romance in this book, it felt forced.

3. Listen. When characters 'die', sometimes they should really stay dead. The constant faking of deaths that happens in this book is WILD. Literally every single one of our main characters perish, some of them MULTIPLE TIMES, only to be told oh wait, nah. Here's some mostly unintelligible science jargon that means they're not really dead. PSYCHE! It happened so often (and after it happening in Book 1, too) I quit believing it and it lost its impact.

4. For everything that went on in this book, I REALLY don't think it needed to be as long as it is. In fact, I think there was maybe a little too much junk tossed in. The bad guys who take over the station. Okay. Makes sense. The enemy fleet bearing down on the station and the Hypatia with the goal of destroying both, excellent. The brain-eating eels? Ehhhhh... this was an odd addition, but okay fine. The multiverse???? C'mon now. When is enough enough? It felt like someone threw a fist full of spaghetti at a wall and wrote about what stuck, you know? Like pick a plotline and stick with it--quit adding in all this weird random stuff out no god's blue nowhere.

--

I'll give this book one thing--the audiobook narration is God-tier. I said it about Book 1, and I'm restating the same here. This book's dramatization is so, SO GOOD. I think that may be why it's getting away with some of the things it is. And why, despite my dislikes, I'm still giving it 4 stars.

astro_1018's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous funny mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

amcurban's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous emotional funny tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

More...