I was super hyped for this book thanks to some of my friends reading it recently and loving it, but I went in without knowing a lot about it. I heard the twists were fantastic, so I purposely avoided rereading the synopsis right before starting. In the end, I think this was a good choice!

The build up of this book is absolutely fantastic. Right from the beginning you see the threads that will come together later, though you're not sure yet how. There's enough of these hints at more coming to keep you fully invested, and I found it really difficult to slow my reading down to match my book club schedule (in the end, I still finished a week early). This is the perfect book to read in one sitting. Hopefully soon I can reread it all in one shot, though I still loved it a lot, reading it spread out.

In general, I haven't read that much environmental sci-fi because it reminds me so much of the disaster we're currently living out (and it breaks my hurt just as much as it fills me with anger to think about). However, I have read a few that either just touched on the subject or dealt with it in more depth, and this has got to be one of the better ones. I love how well environmental issues are weaved into the plot and characters, and how it still feels like contemporary issues are being discussed even though the book seems to take place a bit farther in the future. I also loved the discussions of humanity in combination with the environment, and how it analyzed human greed and sacrifice, and the imbalance that exists within society regarding those two terms. It is never the ones who pay that get rewarded, and the ones that forcefully take never pay.

I can't discuss the plot too much without giving the twist away (and trust me, it's best to go in knowing as little as possible!), but I love how it was delivered to us in alternating point of views, and how all the themes of this book came perfectly together in the actual plot of the story. It's a story that involves sisterhood, family, loss and grief and how this shapes the living, humanity as a whole, ethics, the environment, and so much more. In some books, it might almost feel like too much, but Joan He was able to masterfully weave all these elements together into a cohesive story. It didn't feel like certain side-plots/discussions detracted from others, but rather they all built together to a strong story.

I seriously loved this so much, and I'll definitely be picking up Joan He's other book soon too!