Originally posted to I Should Read That

I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. This review is spoiler-free.


There are times when a book comes into your life that you think you won’t like, but you somehow end up loving. That book for me was The Diabolic. It has so many elements that I usually dislike: an overpowered heroine, a cocky-on-the-outside-but-soft-and-squishy-on-the-inside hero, the ‘this could all be resolved if we actually sat down and talked about our feelings’ romantic subplot. However, everything came together really well and just works.

Nemesis is a Diabolic. Created to protect a galactic Senator’s daughter, Sidonia. There’s no one Nemesis wouldn’t kill to keep her safe. But when the power-mad Emperor summons Sidonia to the galactic court as a hostage, there is only one way for Nemesis to protect Sidonia.

She must become her.

Now one of the galaxy’s most dangerous weapons is masquerading in a world of corruption and Nemesis has to hide her true abilities or risk everything. As the Empire begins to fracture and rebellion looms closer, Nemesis learns that there is something stronger than her deadly force: the one thing she’s been told she doesn’t have – humanity. And, amidst all the danger, action and intrigue, her humanity might be the only thing that can save her, Sidonia and the entire Empire…*

The world that Kincaid creates is astonishing. It’s not the kind of gritty sci-fi dystopian world that we are so well acquainted with these days — it is a very different kind of dystopia. The upper classes live on fantastically opulent spacecraft and rule from among the stars. Lesser humans are planet-bound and rely upon the nobility for literally everything — they can never be self-sufficient and therefore can never rebel against the ruling classes.

The best bit for me was the religion and the halt on scientific progress. Study of the sciences is completely banned. So how did they get these ships and the space-faring technology that allows them to rule from above? They’re using the technology left behind by their ancestors — technology that they don’t know how to repair or replicate. These factors come together to create an empire on the brink of collapse and a commentary and warning on certain segments of our own society.

Although the world is interesting and well-written, this novel would have sunk without Nemesis. When the novel opens, we are introduced to the Diabolic, genetically engineered bodyguards that protect only the highest of the nobility. Nemesis is a Diabolic who has been bonded to Sidona, the daughter of a galactic senator. The plot revolves around Nemesis taking Sidonia’s place as a hostage at the emperor’s court. Nemesis is the key that holds the book together. The book is told in first person, so we get her inner thoughts as she struggles to suppress everything she has been created to do. She isn’t the Terminator, running around completely stone-faced and killing everyone in sight. Nor is she hiding a fluffy conscience underneath her hard exterior. She’s a character who struggles with the humanity she was always told she never had. As Sidonia’s double, she is finally treated as an equal rather than an object. She sees the treatment of other genetically manipulated beings under the aristocracy’s control and wants to change things for the better. Nemesis could easily have been a one-dimensional character, but Kincaid makes her so much more.

There is so much more to discover in The Diabolic. From romance, to political back handedness, to betrayal, this book is a fun, fast-paced read that hooked me from the beginning. It is a ridiculous roller coaster of a book that hides a surprising level of humanity and social commentary. It’s an easy story to fall into for anyone looking to begin reading science fiction, but will still please established readers of the genre.

Originally posted to I Should Read That

I was sent a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. This does not influence my opinion on the book at all. This review is spoiler-free.

I had never read anything by Marie Lu before Warcrosscame out, but I was always interested. When the opportunity to read this book arose, I knew I had to give her a shot. I wasn’t sure what to expect and I hadn’t read many gaming books.

For the millions who log in every day, Warcross isn’t just a game—it’s a way of life. The obsession started ten years ago and its fan base now spans the globe, some eager to escape from reality and others hoping to make a profit. Struggling to make ends meet, teenage hacker Emika Chen works as a bounty hunter, tracking down players who bet on the game illegally. But the bounty hunting world is a competitive one, and survival has not been easy. Needing to make some quick cash, Emika takes a risk and hacks into the opening game of the international Warcross Championships—only to accidentally glitch herself into the action and become an overnight sensation.

Convinced she’s going to be arrested, Emika is shocked when instead she gets a call from the game’s creator, the elusive young billionaire Hideo Tanaka, with an irresistible offer. He needs a spy on the inside of this year’s tournament in order to uncover a security problem . . . and he wants Emika for the job. With no time to lose, Emika’s whisked off to Tokyo and thrust into a world of fame and fortune that she’s only dreamed of. But soon her investigation uncovers a sinister plot, with major consequences for the entire Warcross empire.

I really loved Lu’s vision of the not-so-distant future. It’s a shiny world, particularly when we get to Tokyo, but it still feels incredibly grounded in reality. This is a world that I can imagine living in one day. I liked how integrated Warcross and virtual reality were – nearly everyone has access to it through the generosity of Hideo Tanaka, the game’s creator. For me, it almost reflected the madness that was Pokemon Go, except that Warcross actually lasts and makes a lasting global impact (yikes).

When it comes to virtual reality plots, the author’s imagination is truly the limit. Lu did such a great job with imaginative descriptions of the game’s landscape. You can really see her background as a video game artist shine through. The technology was easy to understand — again, making it feel very realistic — and still managed to be so incredibly cool.

I will say that I wish there was more descriptions of Emika’s hacking in the book. We get things like ‘I ran a hacking program’, but no description of the actual process. I’m no expert, but surely it’s more complicated than just running a program. How did she get access to these programs? It felt a character in a hacking TV show mashing the keyboard and suddenly getting access to The Pentagon. I would have loved more details here, but that may just be my background as a sci-fi reader.

I thought the Warcross game itself was…just okay. It is pretty basic: there are two teams of five or six players. The main objective is to steal the other team’s artifact, which is a gem that floats above the head of a selected player. It’s so simple! It’s great in terms of simplifying it for the sake of the story, but I am not convinced that this would draw in billions of viewers and become a global sensation. I would have absolutely loved to have seen Warcross as an MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game — think World of Warcraft). The world she describes within Warcross would have been so perfect for this! I think this is just my casual gaming bias coming through.

Finally, I am not sure Emika really needed to be involved in the game in order to work for Hideo. She hacked the game from dingy New York City apartment — why is it necessary for her to become a wildcard in the game? It works for the plot, but I wish this was strengthened a little more.

We really have two main characters in Warcross: Emika and Hideo. It’s true that we have a few others, such as Emika’s Warcross team, but these two are the most important. Emika was awesome — I really liked her. The book is told through her point of view, and her voice is very strong. She’s a very no-nonsense heroine. She knows what she needs to get done and she does it. She is essentially on her own when the book starts, and she manages to build a life for herself through technology. She’s rightfully suspicious when she’s swept off the Tokyo following her Warcross hack, but she knows a good thing when she sees it. She’s incredibly sensible, which is a trait I haven’t’ often seen in YA heroines.

Hideo is the perfect mysterious and broody love interest. I wont say much about him because you learn more and more as the book progresses, but I really enjoyed his public persona versus his private self. I was worried he’d go a little Christian Grey in the sense that he was too messed up to function and would pull the annoying ‘I cannot be with you because I am too ____!’ But I found their relationship not only believable, but enjoyable to read.



Overall, Warcross is an incredibly fun, wild ride. I am absolutely going to pick up her other books — her writing is top-notch! Warcross was easily the most fun book I’ve read in a long time. It’s the perfect thing to snuggle down with on a chilly Saturday — you’ll be whisked away to a world where anything can happen!

See the full review on I Should Read That

I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. This review is spoiler-free.

I recently read and loved Matt Haig’s Reasons to Stay Alive, a moving memoir about living with depression, but had never read any of his fiction. How to Stop Time immediately caught my eye because it combined two of my favourite things: historical fiction and science fiction. I was hoping it was just as poignant and funny and moving as his memoir, and he once again blew me away with his skills as a writer.

I am old. That is the first thing to tell you. The thing you are least likely to believe. If you saw me you would probably think I was about forty, but you would be very wrong.

Tom Hazard has a dangerous secret.

He may look like an ordinary 41-year-old, but owing to a rare condition, he’s been alive for centuries. From Elizabethan England to Jazz Age Paris, from New York to the South Seas, Tom has seen a lot, and now craves an ordinary life. Always changing his identity to stay alive, Tom has the perfect cover – working as a history teacher at a London comprehensive. Here he can teach the kids about wars and witch hunts as if he’d never witnessed them first-hand. He can try and tame the past that is fast catching up with him.

The only thing Tom mustn’t do is fall in love.

How to Stop Time is a wild and bittersweet story about losing and finding yourself, about the certainty of change and about the lifetimes it can take to really learn how to live.*

Tom is a man who lives a life that many of us would think as a blessing. He is 439 years old. He is not immortal, but he ages incredibly slowly. He is incredibly resistant to disease. He has seen mankind grow and evolve since the Middle Ages, he has worked with Shakespeare, fought in famous battles, drank with the Fitzgeralds, and lived through some of the most fascinating periods of time. Tom suffers from anageria, an extremely rare condition that manifests during puberty and slows the ageing process to a snail’s pace. Haig turns the immortality dream in to a nightmare, dooming Tom to struggle with loneliness and hundreds of years of heartbreak...

*Copy courtesy of Goodreads

Originally posted to I Should Read That

I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. This is a spoiler-free review.


The Underground Railroad has been on my radar since its publication in 2016. It received pretty much all of the good press a book could get – it was one of the titles in Oprah’s book club, won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, the National Book Award, and was named as one of the books Barack Obama read while in office. It’s a departure from a lot of the books I’ve been reading these days, but I knew I had to pick it up.

Cora is a slave on a cotton plantation in Georgia. Life is hellish for all the slaves but especially bad for Cora; an outcast even among her fellow Africans, she is coming into womanhood – where even greater pain awaits. When Caesar, a recent arrival from Virginia, tells her about the Underground Railroad, they decide to take a terrifying risk and escape. Matters do not go as planned and, though they manage to find a station and head north, they are being hunted.

In Whitehead’s ingenious conception, the Underground Railroad is no mere metaphor – engineers and conductors operate a secret network of tracks and tunnels beneath the Southern soil. Cora and Caesar’s first stop is South Carolina, in a city that initially seems like a haven – but the city’s placid surface masks an insidious scheme designed for its black denizens. Even worse: Ridgeway, the relentless slave catcher, is close on their heels. Forced to flee again, Cora embarks on a harrowing flight, state by state, seeking true freedom.

As Whitehead brilliantly re-creates the unique terrors for black people in the pre-Civil War era, his narrative seamlessly weaves the saga of America from the brutal importation of Africans to the unfulfilled promises of the present day. The Underground Railroad is at once a kinetic adventure tale of one woman’s ferocious will to escape the horrors of bondage and a shattering, powerful meditation on the history we all share.*

I don’t want to say too much about the plot, because I do think it’s one of those books in which the story has the greatest effect when you truly discover it on your own. The Underground Railroad follows Cora, who changes and evolves as she follows the literal underground railroad from Georgia, to South Carolina, and beyond. The tone of the book also changes as she sheds her identity as a slave and begins to think and act more like a free woman. The book feels almost impersonal in the beginning, as Cora has walls up to protect herself against the horrors she has experienced and continues to face. There are side characters, but we don’t know much about them. As she makes her way further along the underground railroad, these walls begin to crumble and we get more information about these other characters and form an emotional connection alongside Cora. Her story is sprinkled with interludes that explain the backgrounds and motivations of the people she meets and who either help or hinder her on her journey. This was one of the most brilliant parts of the book for me, as you really get a sense of Cora’s pain and guilt over the course of her journey and character arc. By the end, her walls have come down and Cora’s burden is so tangible.

This is a book that manages to be both gut-wrenching and hopeful. Cora is an incredible character that should be admired for her strength and resolve. The brutality and injustice of American slavery are laid out in The Underground Railroad – not just in the way that slaves were treated but how white citizens turned a blind eye or joined in on the brutality. The Underground Railroad is a book that should be read widely and will prove to be an important work of fiction of our time and political climate. It is easily one of the best books I’ve read this year.

*Copy courtesy of Goodreads