This was genuinely fun.

It's an outrageous idea in a lot of ways (a reality show that gets people to Mars, sisters named Rock, Paper, and Scissors), but it somehow works. It starts as silly but becomes something more than that as it goes along, without ever losing the silliness. It has moments that make you genuinely feel in between the laughter, and the dystopian aspects feel like they fit, despite being genuinely dystopian.

If you can't take a dose of silly in your sci-fi, this will probably not work for you at all, but this was a story that managed to talk about what exploration and family mean (and make you genuinely feel the connection between the family members) without getting too intense. Don't get me wrong, it gets exciting and a little touch-and-go in places, but it isn't using these ideas to make you sad, it's using them to explain why they are important to human happiness.

I'll be looking up a few of the author's other books as well--sometimes you need a book that makes you smile, and this managed it well.