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Personally, I think this book was extremely well executed. It’s a science fiction, I guess, but it doesn’t feel like it. It’s not all technologically weird with aliens and bionic people (I’m not a SciFi fan). Despite it being science fiction-y, it reads like a contemporary.

This is my first Justin A. Reynolds book, so I’m not sure if this is his usual style of writing, but I loved it. This book was written as a conversation between Jamal and the reader. Jamal breaks the fourth wall often and speaks directly to you, but it doesn’t distract from the novel in any way. It’s also poetic. It’s like if prose and poetry had a baby.

I do have a few problems with it, but they’re small nit-picky items. Early Departures gets very cheesy. There are several scenes that made me cringe, if I’m being honest. Maybe I’m just super unsentimental, but I didn’t like some of the heart-to-heart scenes, which is not normal for me. I love sappy stuff and I’m a big romance fan. However, these scenes seemed awkward to me.

In addition to the cringe, I also had problems with the ending. The entire book leads up to a certain moment (I won’t spoil it) and that moment fell flat. To make it worse, it was combined with more awkward cheese. The last chapter of the book felt off to me, too.

Overall, I loved this book and I think it would be a good book to start with if you like contemporaries, but want a science fiction feel that’s not too science fiction-y.