An intriguing start to the series. While it follows a fairly classic pattern for a YA dystopian fantasy, there's enough uniqueness to the premise that I definitely found myself absorbed. Ruby is not my favourite main character at this point in time, but Clancy, Zu and Chubs are strong side characters and have piqued my interest. Will happily continue the series and have already checked the second e-book out of my library.

Interesting and more in-depth than your average popular science book, with the exception of the last few chapters which amount to a very brief introduction to human evolution, evo-devo, evolutionary psychology, and epigenetics. Thoroughly enjoyed this though wanted those last few chapters to be significantly extended - do not consider this book an in depth resource on the aforementioned areas, despite it being a good resource on domestication and the basic evolutionary principles behind this. Based on other reviews, its reading probably benefits from a Bachelor's degree in biological sciences or extensive past reading in biology, genetics and evolution.

I think my experience of this book was impacted by listening to it on audio - there was nothing wrong with the narration, but it was long and I found it hard to really be engrossed, hence it taking me months and months to get through. Learned a lot about the structure of the airforce/NASA interactions at the time of the development of the space shuttle program, and some of the key figures involved. Worth the time, but would read the physical book over the audiobook - I struggle with audiobooks in general though, typically preferring podcasts.

I'm not sure I would ever be able to give this book a fair review, having seen the movie so many times and loved it for the shining example of a chick flick that it is, and sure enough it was impossible to read it without thinking of all the ways it deviates from the movie (and sometimes, in the most truly bizarre ways). While this book is probably not getting a fair, objective reading from me, I strongly suspect it's one of those times where the movie is genuinely better than the book.