Well this was a surprisingly delightful (also murder-y) novella 🥰

The characterization of Murderbot was everything—this cynical yet lovable, misanthropic but protective, non-human but deeply human SecUnit. Really, truly excellent character writing!

And the sci-fi setting was so immersive. I loved the way the futuristic stuff (mentally accessing a feed channel or directly comm-ing people in a dialogue, for example) opened up all these possibilities for storytelling. Or even the way Murderbot would watch its interactions with others through nearby security cameras instead of its own eyes (an analogy for neurodivergent peeps who struggle with eye contact perhaps?)—what a cool idea! I just kept pausing the book and reflecting on how uniquely this story was being told, because of the technology present in this world.

I’m really torn between a four and a five star rating here. It was only missing one factor that I look for in a five star read: unputdownableness (in my world, that’s a word). Dangerous stuff was happening but Murderbot was so detached and chill about it that the book overall felt chill too? The mystery never made me sweat and maybe I wanted this book to stress me out more 😅

I highly recommend the audiobook!