Received as an ARC. 

I wanted a book about space. 

I got homophobia. The author praised Webb’s crusade to get gay men out of the federal government. It was praised and not confined. 

I got sexism. A married inventor pair was described by the author as Mr.XXX and his wife. Minimizing the contribution of the woman in the pair. This happened again when they were reintroduced.

I got abalism. An astronaut in the program was disqualified due to dyslexia. The entire paragraph was gross not specifically he was called “broken” and “unlucky.”

The narrative was scattered and weirdly put together and overall I wasn’t enjoying it - just reading to review. But I’m not putting my effort and time into a book that talks about people this way. 

I tried. There are plot holes. The only LGBTQIA+ rep is a tragic gay troupe. Gender diversity is non existent even amongst aliens. It is partially historical but the prince is made up? There are also a lot of conveniences to move the story along. I wanted to love this so I pushed longer then I normally would have. 

It starts off saying you can’t get offended because what I present is facts. However, research, and the presentation of research is biased (especially in social science) and without an acknowledgment and actively working on your own basis there are no “just facts.” Then he goes and presents gender as an absolute binary which contradicts biological research and says that infants recognize a car as being male but human brains haven’t evolved to recognize tv or grocery stores. Obesity is caused by our predilection for sugar and it is not good (but remember he isn’t judging just presenting facts) and while stereotypes are based on fact they are only problematic if you assign them to an entire group (ten proceeds to do exactly that). So I searched him and find so much controversy. I was not surprised. 

All but a few “greats” were male and all are white. However, the first two were eugenicists which was defined as being “too bad” and nope. I don’t need that in my life. 

Really long sentences. Overdramatic with nothing happening. I tried to keep going but finally gave myself permission to stop. It’s not my vibe - it could very well be yours. 

The writing has so much explanation that you never get to the any conflict. One incessant of an intense stare had an entire paragraph of magician description. I checked reviews of earlier books and it seems this is a style choice, that isn’t resignating with me. 

This book doesn’t acknowledge its own bias. It is written exclusively for romantic relationships, assumes the narcissist is male and the “victim” is female. It doesn’t acknowledge LGBTQIA identities at all - narcissists can also be ace and queer! It is very white middle class based experience and only occasionally acknowledges anything beyond a romantic relationship. If it was branded that way it would be more honest - I also would have never picked it up. 

Good book, just not to my taste. 

Where to begin…as someone who studied neuropsychology the “brain science” is a very bad joke. Most of it isn’t even referenced. 

The book is actually about character building, which could have been good. What is not good was the tone of the author and how she put down every other way of writing a story. She puts down plot in a book - like what? Also, she knocks science fiction several times as well. 

The preferred audience is white, straight people. She uses he or she and never gender neutral terminology. Heterosexuality and sexual attraction was assumed, but where I finally called it quits was when she used the f word to talk about a gay fundamentalist Christian that pretended to be straight so God would love him. 

I mean I should have known when she said 50 Shades of Grey had great characterization. I tried to keep reading because I waisted money on this book. I actually picked it up from the bookstore because I thought it would sit proudly on my writing bookshelf. I finally realized that even if there was some nuggets of wisdom to get from this book they should have shown up in the first 80 pages, and instead all I got was bad science, self importance, and homophobia. 

Too many inconsistencies in the plot and world building.