Sometimes a little too relatable but also really cute and hopeful. I really liked it!

This book was awesome???

What a wonderful shabbat read

“We are not broken things. Neither of us. We are cracked pottery, mended with lacquer and flecks of gold, whole as we are, complete unto each other. Complete, and worthy, and so very loved.”

Honestly, this might be my new favorite book. More in depth review to come!

I mean so one of the main romantic relationships in this book was between cousins, and there is a Dead Lesbian but also, what an amazing and affirming book. Dense but good read. I should write more but this is it for now: read this book if you're Jewish and queer and interested in what that could have looked like 100 years ago.

Dang. It was pretty slow at first and I was disappointed, but midway through it became an incredible, profound experience reading this. This book is, at its core, about what escapism as a material thing, and about toxic masculinity, and about what it means to live as yourself. What a beautiful, sexy, heart-wrenching book. There are definitely explorations of transphobia and, to a lesser extent, homophobia, but I think it makes a huuuuuge difference that this book is #ownvoices. And it has a happy ending ;)

I wasn’t actually in the best mental health place to read this book (didn’t quite understand what it was) but it definitely reminded me of what there is to fight against and to fight for, and broke my heart, and nudged me a bit closer to hope. The naturally diverse cast of characters was one of the best parts of this book.

Oh SHIT also what a good book but WOW what an ending and wow.

Shit, that was a good book. Haunting, horrifying, disturbing, dark, but so, so good. The character's voices were so specific and clear, the relationships so clearly affected by circumstance and yet loving in the ways they could be. I was wondering how this book would end, and I liked the note of bittersweet, grieving hope it leaves us with. I have not read/watched any "all of humanity lives on a spaceship now" media except for Wall-e... this was not Wall-e. I didn't always follow, or really, honestly, try that hard to follow the structure of how Matilda worked, its layout, the way that decks would be connected to each other, but was interested in how that affected culture and life on the ship. The descriptions of the way languages developed deck by deck, the ways that gender and deck played into access and opportunity and how even some middle deck people seemed to be enslaved... I don't know that I fully understood all about the system of this world and definitely want to reread this book at some point.

I loved that none of the characters in this book, except maybe for Flix for whom this does not work out, were hopeful idealists. Lots, if not most, of the actions of dissent they take are nonsensical, dangerous, and ill advised. Giselle especially is clearly acting not from a reasonable, sane mind, but from one which has been so traumatized and affected that while what she does is not good, or helpful, or reasonable, it makes sense that she would do that. This book paints a picture of an ugly world, whose characters still have to live, and still each have their own small reasons to keep on trying.

Gender, and queerness, becomes just one part of the tapestry of Matilda and our characters existences, but one that rings so true. Astra would be called intersex in our time, Theo nonbinary, genderqueer, transfeminine. They know only the slurs used against them, and the ways they adapt to make life bearable, to live a bit as themselves as they survive and sneak and make it to the next day, make what space they can for themselves. The slow, slow journey they take towards consummation of romantic feelings makes total sense, not for any rom-com reason but because of who they are, their relationships with trust and their own bodies and others interaction with them. Theo seems to have OCD, Astra seems to be autistic, Giselle experiences psychosis, everyone seems to be traumatized, many have physical disabilities. These are not portrayed in the ways I've been seeing diversity in YA (desperately needed! Amazing! Beautiful!) of 'big happy family of differing people are loved for who they are and find ways to find joy because of, and within their differences' but in the ways that each of these divergences from identities or statuses holding power puts our characters in danger. Astra's autism constantly endangers her when she doesn't answer the guards in the ways that they want. It's scary and real and relevant to our world.

I don't know, I want to get so many of my thoughts down because I have a feeling I will keep rereading this one, that it will continue informing me, and that I will want to remember some of my thoughts from my first read-through. Also because people should read it, but it's got almost every trigger imaginable, so read carefully.