I do not have words how I loved this book. The way it was written had me glued to the page from the beginning. And the ending

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brought tears to my eyes.

What is this book? The book is written as a.. journal? report? the astronaut Ariadne makes. One she sends to earth. She, and three other teammates, have been sent on a mission to survey four habitable planets some 30+ light-years away. Ariadne isn't a scientist herself, she's an engineer, but she assists her team in doing whatever they need doing. So the book has a lot of science in it, and scientific explanations, but in a way that I personally found entertaining and understandable.

She decides to tell the story chronologically, but it is clear she doesn't know who she is sending the report to or who will read it. Which adds a little.. mystery to the story.

This was a fairly cozy book for me. The four astronauts have known each other for a long time, they have history, and it's the good kind. They're like family, and they know each other inside and out and take comfort from another. There was no drama, no hurt feelings, no fights, no jealousy or going crazy around eachother. Tho, not every of the four planets was a pleasant time.

I only have one real complaint, and can actually be a little bit of a plothole.. One of the four planets they visited, they encountered these..

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slugs that made nightmarish sounds. This became quite a psychological drain on the crew member, and each had their own reaction to it. Especially since nobody could sleep through the noise. But earlier in the book.. there was headphones specifically mentioned. With music playing in them... how exactly are these slugs making you sleep deprived and causing all of these negative effects if you have headphones you can blast music in? Maybe they were really shitty headphones. Or maybe there was other reasons you couldn't use them when you slept. But it just felt a little Meh. Like the author went "okay this story is a little too cozy, let's add some drama"