1.5 - Oh how do I write this without sounding disrespectful?
It was so interesting and could have been amazing... UNTIL IT GOT HOMOPHOBIC AND TRANSPHOBIC WITHOUT EVEN REALISING IT WAS DOING SO.

Honestly, for the first half of this book, I was really hyped. I was reading about Jack, a female-pharmaceutical-robin-hood and Paladin, a robot who is starting to question autonomy when you're a robot and autonomy when you're human. I couldn't wait for the amazingness that was to come...

Did it come? Well... in some parts, maybe... Jack's chapters were often flashbacks and although half of them were great, the other half I didn't care much about. The whole pharmaceutical/medical elements was super interesting though! And not too complicated that I couldn't follow. The writer works in scientific fields and it shows.

Then Paladin was develping feelings for Eliasz, a human who was on the same mission, and questioning if the feelings are from the robot-programming or autonomously created. I was SO HYPED - this could have been SO INTERESTING.

And yet... Something happened. To explain why I ended up hating this book after so much hype, I have to tell you about an element of the story which some of you will consider a spoiler, so be warned. Also, be warned that it deals with homophobia and transphobia.

Robots in this world don't have a gender, but they are assigned one at they creation, based on their looks. Paladin, our MC here, displays very masculine features so has always been spoken to/about with masculine pronouns, and Paladin has always been fine with that.
Then comes Eliasz. A human dude who, clearly, is attracted to Paladin. However he doesn't want to act on it because he sees Paladin as male. Slurs are thrown, along the lines of "i'm not a faggot".
HOWEVER at one point we learn that a member of Paladin's body belonged to a female before she died. That is when Eliasz says that Paladin must therefore be a female robot. He suggests using female pronouns for Paladin and considering her a woman. Paladin, to make Eliasz happy, accepts.
YUP. There is a genderchange simply and only because the guy is too homophobic to want to be in a relationship unless Paladin is a woman.
HOW MESSED UP IS THAT?

I continued reading, thinking it would be called out or spoken against, or that something would change, but, SPOILERS: it's never questioned. Paladin is happy with her gender change because it makes that homophobic guy happy. End of story. It's NOT because she wants to use female pronouns or questions her gender in any way.
I had to go to the end of the book to check if the genderchange was still in play by the end and it was. From then on, I couldn't feel many more emotions other outrage and disgust towards this book.
I would love to know of transgender people, or non-binary people have read this, and what their thoughts on it are so feel free to link me to reviews of that kind if you know of any.

Another main character has a healthy same-sex relationship which was brilliantly dealt with, with no questioning whatsoever. That must mean the author clearly didn't realise how insulting Paladin and Eliasz's development could be to some people... Or is it me who missed out on something and messed up?

I bought this book... I spent money on this without reading an excerpt of it before because it sounded SOOO brilliant.
I am still completely confused at how something with such an amazing premise turned out to be my worst-rated book ever.

I'm ripping the pages out of thi book to make origami