I paused it so long I forgot  I was reading it. Really weirdly racist undertones from what I did read, though. "We have to go to this planet to save it's people because they are savage and don't know what to do with the spice. This is why we're invading them, because without us they're just a bunch of idiots!!!"

No words. Actually could not sleep because of how badly I wanted to be reading this instead.

Only read this because it was attatched to my edition of half a soul. It was fine. I really loved seeing a younger, more naive Elias who didn’t know how to lie.

I adored everything about this book from start to finish. 

I was so so happy that Elias never wanted Dora to make herself what others wanted her to be. I was very worried it would go in that direction, but AGGGHHHH I LOVE THEM SO MUCH 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭

This was a very pleasantly surprising read. I think it definitely gets too much shit on most platforms, because it’s honestly a good book. My only huge issues were 
1) the pacing, which felt all over the place. It was very difficult to get a grasp on the passage of time, especially at the beginning. But even that wasn’t too awful towards the end.

2) the dialogue just kind of made me want to die a little inside. 

3) “Violence”

Throughout this entire book I found myself replacing at different times Ivan and Peter in my head with myself and my younger sister. I love her very much, and I used to be very awful to her. This book made me realize that I am incredibly kind to her, actually. 

Anywho, Sally Rooney's books always linger in my mind for very long stretches of time after reading them. I'm probably going to come back and edit this review several times in the next year.

This was magnificent. 

Ahh!! That ending was just wonderful, the final chapter was gorgeous. 

A lot of this book was a complete blur for me, and at times I really did not enjoy it. The ending reminded me of all the good of this series, and all the love that radiates from its pages. I am so excited to continue this series with Mische’s story!!!

I would  recommend this duology as a kind of palette-cleanser, despite the heavier themes. The writing is just a smidge juvenile in a way that really works, considering the main characters are on the younger side. 

Oopsies…

I felt absolutely no connection to any of the characters whatsoever, and had absolutely zero desire to get to know any of them. Maybe Kwang was interesting, but he was only interesting because he challenged the main character’s world view. 

The writing was clunky, and the world building was more of a full chapter of word vomit. I mean seriously, why do we need a whole chapter of our main character in history class. Why don’t we just have like, idk, something in the back of the book? Or footnotes?

This was so much fun. It defied a lot of the expectations I had going in, and I was very glad of it. Oraya’s development in this book alone was cliche, but done well-I always love that “cold-hearted character learning to love” kind of trope. 

The sentence structure felt a tad clunky at times, but a lot of that was my brain not processing a comma or something else. Overall I had a ton of fun reading this, and I bet the author had a ton of fun writing this. Absolutely going to continue on to the next book when I can get my hands on it!!!!