A review by micheala
An Unnatural Life by Erin K. Wagner

dark sad slow-paced
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

This was described as Murderbot (which I adore) meets To Kill a Mockingbird (which I hated when I had to read it in 10th grade). I can see the TKaM vibes, however while it has sentient robots like in Murderbot, this lacks the relatable charm that Murderbot has. Maybe that's because we spend all of Murderbot in it's head, where as in An Unnatural Life we are following the human in the situation. Maybe it's due to the fact that this book is about prejudices and how hateful humans are to anyone who isn't just like them as a group. Either way, this was not a fun or particularly enjoyable read for me. 

I was super excited for this premise, but I think that the tone lacked the hopeful/idealistic quality I was looking for. Our main character Aiya doesn't even want to help 812-3 with their appeal for a fair court hearing and only does it out of spite because everyone tells her not to.  

I'm discovering that I need at least one of the characters to be likable for me to feel fully invested in a book. All the characters in this novella are kinda awful in a realistic sense, but in a way that made it hard for me to care about any of them.

Overall this is a book that left me feeling bleak and like humanity all sucks and will continue to suck for as long as we exist. Clearly, this is not my type of science fiction, but it's not a bad book, just too hopeless for my taste. 
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