I kind of love the whole ‘humans as alien pets’ trope? It’s not a sex thing. It’s a… sci-fi reimagining of extreme social inequality thing. How aliens with better technology might view humans as naturally inferior, thing. It’s weird. And it tickles my brain.

This series promises to be an especially good version of the humans as pets premise because… okay, hear me out—because of the role ideology played in this alien culture.

Basically, these aliens physically needed affection and formed incredibly close and loyal bonds—to the point that it was their Achilles heel as a civilization. So, of course, they viewed affection and close bonds as taboo, told themselves they were strong independent non-affection-needing baddies, and projected the need for affection onto weak little humans.

It was just really well done. These alien love interest didn’t go from viewing humans as pets to viewing them as equals overnight and I can see how this culture is going to get majorly disrupted by a push for human freedom (it’s all about the social ethics of co-constitutive identities, thank you Hegel).

The setup for the series is perfect. But I gave this book four stars--just because there was a feelings reveal that could have been deliciously awkward but was helped along by some high-on-space-drugs declarations instead (I want awkward).