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samspencer23's review
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death, Cursing, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, and Eating disorder
wandering_not_lost's review
adventurous
emotional
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
4.5
I really liked this. Like...4.5 stars liked, and I bumped it up to 5 stars because I just had that much fun. This book could have gone a lot of different ways, tone-wise. It could have tried for the weird humor that "there's two of me!" seems to hit sometimes. And at the beginning, it's easy to think that maybe that's what's going to happen, but it very much does not. Because though the protagonist is a good guy who gets through most things with an adorably wry humor, the author plays this situation totally straight, complete with realistic scientific and logical constraints for a resource-poor colony. Which means that yes, there's a few moments of fairly funny "holy shit how do I keep people from knowing there's two of me!", but that is far outweighed with the two Mickeys trying to negotiate who should take the dangerous missions they keep getting handed, and who gets to eat how many calories off their single reduced ration card (which, again, could be played for laughs, but isn't - FYI, anyone with food issues should know, there's a lot of not eating enough throughout the book.)
The author in general does that: deals straight with the scientific and ethical implications of the premise, both in terms of the wonder of it all and also the really terrible things that humans can get up to when they have antimatter and cloning. A lot of this comes through exposition sections throughout the book that give background info when it's pertinent. This makes the actual story a little tighter and shorter, but I didn't mind, because Mickey's voice was fun, and I was really rooting for him throughout.
Would have been nice if it'd passed the Bechdel test, was my only quibble.
The author in general does that: deals straight with the scientific and ethical implications of the premise, both in terms of the wonder of it all and also the really terrible things that humans can get up to when they have antimatter and cloning. A lot of this comes through exposition sections throughout the book that give background info when it's pertinent. This makes the actual story a little tighter and shorter, but I didn't mind, because Mickey's voice was fun, and I was really rooting for him throughout.
Would have been nice if it'd passed the Bechdel test, was my only quibble.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Eating disorder and Toxic friendship
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