A wonderfully gentle read.

In which the world-building gets a bit shakier as it attempts to clarify itself, and the characters develop very little. But world-building isn't everything, and this is still a super fun read that kept me turning the pages. I will definitely read the next book in the series.

Really real characters, living really real lives. Satisfying ending without being too perfect. Historical fiction about a fairly recent time. Really the whole book is great, and even though it's not in any of the genres I typically grab for I'm extremely happy I read it.

Read this book on Netgalley:

This book appears to be written by a straight white cis woman, and contains clunky and outdated language. It says nothing exactly horrible, but that's the best I can say about it. There is only a brief aside about how it's sometimes not safe to come out. In a book aimed at queer teens, that should be first, front, and center! Last thing we need is more queer kids out on the streets. because some straight lady from the comfort of her home told them it would feel good to come out. Phrases such as "revealing your homosexuality is never easy," which appears on the very first page, are cringy and also fail to teach the current nomenclature around queerness. And sentiments such as "Your family will always love you" feel like a slap in the face to those of us who have permanently lost family members over their choosing hate over love.

Tl;dr Do not recommend. If you have a teen in your life who needs a supportive book, please give them anything form this list https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/26180.Non_Fiction_Resources_for_LGBT_Teens_Youth_Families or on second thought don't. Just give them your listening ear, your place to crash should they need it, and your unconditional love. Read the books yourself, offer to share if that seems like the thing. But don't read or purchase this book.

Essentially brilliant. Jewish smartass pacifist joins the military academy of magical land? Yes please! Oh, and also make it super queer? Yes yes YES.

This book is good for multiple rereads, because it's very extremely dense and you can't possibly get all of it in one reading. It's also nice, or at least it was for me, that one can sort of float along and read several pages and then go back and not have understood much of anything but it doesn't matter because the last several pages didn't matter to the plot anyway. If reading a novel as sort of like listening to music and letting your brain float along is your thing, this is great. If that is not your thing, if you want to understand everything, then I do not recommend a text this densely full of extraneous pretty bits.

Space adventure! Friends! Aliens! Art! I adore everything about this very clearly sequenced wordless book.

Solid fun! Love the enthusiasm the kids have. I could kind of summarize hte plot as "hooray! We're in danger!"