this type of humour is just not for me! i can see why it's a sci-fi classic but i couldn't get into it.

I knew the forced, uncomfortable, power imbalance romance was coming from the synopsis but I thought "maybe it will be done well!" Unfortunately, I was wrong :( dnf'ed as soon as she called him handsome while having just been kidnapped and lowkey tortured for a while

the level of vulgarity was just not for me, and the narration wasn't particularly interesting. i don't even know if my percentage read is correct, i just quit as soon as ames was lowkey racist. but i can see why the themes of transness and motherhood are important and i understand why it was written this way.

DNF-ed at 9% after taking a closer look at the content warnings, as well as finding that the characters didn't capture my heart like in Konigsberg's other books anyways.

did not finish...

look, I know it came with a warning about being convoluted and fantastical. but while the world was indeed interesting, the alternating POVs frustrated me. the main trio was cool, everyone else not so much. plus, I thought it was going to be long-winded for reasons of worldbuilding, but there was a tad too much repetition for that to be understood as the case. maybe I'll return to this when I have more motivation for a slower pace, but currently I simply do not.

short review: relatable but i thought it dragged a lot, so i ended up DNFing
basically “just because i can see myself in so many parts of this book doesn’t mean it’s exciting”