This was one of my first Goodreads ARC wins that I was looking forward to, and 
Baril's look into a very niche topic-the human artifacts found in melting perennial ice patches-was a wonderful dive into a small but fascinating aspect of anthropology and climatology. One thing I greatly appreciated Baril's writing was how she always wished and worked to humanize and bring to life the people behind each discovery; from the murder of Otzi to the caribou hunters who knew the herd better than the species itself. This extended sometimes into an almost fantastical degree, but I think making these "anicent people" more human is so important, especially because they had the sme brains and bodies as us, and we can't forget that.

For me, the story that stayed embedded in my brain the longest was about the hunting blinds found-or more accurately: rediscovered-in the Yukon and how, 9000 years later, the people who built them outsmarted us. It's always so humbling and fascinating to learn just how well people used to know their lands; the animals, the climates, the ebb and flow of herds and glaciers.

My only major complaint was that the story felt... A bit repetitive. I suppose there's only so many ways you can write about old arrows being discovered in ice patches, and it did dip more into a travelogue than a scientific writing, but I still learned a lot about ice coring (who knew they had to melt the ice to analyze it?) and Baril's expressive stroytelling made this for a compelling read.

This is one the most YA YA sci-fi books I've read. Is this a good book? Not really. 
Did I have fun? A bit.  Does Wells need like three consecutive lifetime sentences of therapy? 
Absolutely.  I am a massive fan of the CW show 'The 100' and have watched it through multiple times. The characters and the writing of the show are infectious and powerful, and I said to myself, "Man, I wonder what the books must be like!" Oh boy howdy was it mediocre as all get out. But there were some interesting aspect to Kass Morgan's 'The 100'.

She especially focused on the extremely stratified class system that had formed on the Colony, the last harbor for human life after a nuclear winter wiped out all known life on the surface. Seeing how resources and respect are allocated for those in certain space stations is interesting as I would think that a class divide would either dissolve or be exacerbated by the extenuating circumstance of a human civilization trapped in space for hundreds of years. This is added to the fact that all things must be recycled; clothes, books, air. Morgan's approach to this, while juvenile, was intriguing, and I hope she contains to expound on that issue throughout the series.

Clarke as a character was also well written, and I thoroughly enjoyed her chapters. The same can be said for Bellamy. Maybe another reason I enjoyed them so much was because their personalities and movations are very close to what they are in the show and I adore those two traumatized kids, but they were both very strong in their own ways. Wells was... Jesus Christ. My final note of the book was "is Wells actually psychopathic or just exceedingly stupid?" and I think that sums him up pretty well.

One of my other favorite notes I think sums up the book as a whole pretty well was: "Well, that was fast, easy, and conveniently off-screen." Again, most YA YA book I've memorably read. If you like the show, it's better in every way, but if you want a kinda silly stupid sci-fi to fill an afternoon? Yeah it does that fine.

2.75/5

I surprisingly enjoyed this book, despite my list of cons seemingly being longer than the list of pros.

My pros are that the characters are quite realistic, and Taylor Jenkins Reid does a phenomenal job of bringing old Hollywood to life. Her writing sucks you in very easily and the pacing was perfect at least for me.

My cons were that everyone in the story was just awful. Except for Harry, he's cool, but I genuinely wasn't rooting for the rest of the characters in this story. It was like watching an episode of Real Housewives: I'm thoroughly entertained, but good god everyone in this show is just kind of a shitty person. My other REALLY major con that will firmly keep this book at 4 stars is the "modern-day" plotline was... So unnecessary and distracting. The fact I genuinely cannot remember the writer's name who is working with Evelyn should be point enough to how unimportant that plot was.

The "twist" at the end with said writer was equally baffling and frankly stupid. If those 50 pages of the modern-day plot could be removed, I do think it would improve the book as a whole. But, if only 50 out of 400 pages were not so great, that is still a pretty good ratio. So, a solid 4 stars, but for sure not more.