I would have been shocked if I didn't love this book. Hand me a speculative fiction book by a woman any day and I'm ready to roll. This book lived completely up to my expectations in terms of I totally loved it, but I hadn't too much idea of what it was going to be about, so there were unexpected components there. It's this post-apocalyptic story that unfolds fairly quietly, the characters are not trying to figure out what's happening and save the world, they're just trying to survive with honestly not that many challenges. The way Ma has envisioned the fevered they don't pose any danger to the survivors, the challenge is simply the complete collapse of all societal infrastructure. I loved this quieter story, half delving into Candace's backstory and half the survivors slow progress towards their safehouse destination.

I had so many thoughts while reading this novel. The main one was about the fragile line between society and its absence, our consumerist lives contrasted against the speed to which it can all crumble to nothing. I also found the depiction of the survivors' collective to be a touch point for thinking about this microcosm of how society acts, treat and mistreat each other under trying circumstances. And all the toxic masculinity! Ma does not pull any punches with depicting the worst of the survival leader trope figure. Everything about the road to the facility felt like so accurately the worst of humanity.

This book was so good! Space Opera forever :D Westerfeld is so creative and brilliant here, with this fantastically paced plot woven from rich and varied characters.

I'm so glad I read this book, and I have much to think about and process. McKenzie challenges readers to not just acknowledge their privilege (whether based in race, gender, sexuality, ability, McKenzie deftly calls attention to many systems of inequality) but to push back against it. She calls for an understanding of allyship not as an identity but as ongoing action. This is a collection I plan to reread, to continue to learn from and digest how to work fighting racism and all forms of inequality, rather than furthering their strength in our world. This book was published going on five years ago and sadly the topics are not remotely dated. Highly highly recommend.

At just over 200 pages, this slim book packs in a lot of story. Several times I flipped backwards to reread some piece of backstory only to realize it was provided just a few pages earlier, despite the feeling that a lot had happened since then. While Easy ultimately works everything out I was left somewhat confused, although I think I'm likely to blame for the fuzzily connected dots in my understanding.

I'm pretty sure I'd read this complaint going in, but I found the women in this book to be difficult to believe characters. It's somewhat of a personal pet peeve when every woman a male protagonist encounters wants to sleep with him 🤷 The women had some strong moments that I really appreciated and others that left me baffled and frustrated.

Unsurprisingly, a lot of the book deals with race and racism. It is interesting to read with the triple perspectives of now, the time it was written, and the time it was set. I'm not very good with history so I feel like I have a lot to still learn to better understand the world this book was written in and into. I love a book that teaches me about a piece of history while also sparking interest in learning more, and this book did all that while being an engaging mystery that I didn't want to put down! For that alone I certainly recommend this book.

The majority of these stories fall under the speculative fiction umbrella, also known as my favorite thing to read, which I hadn't quite realized going in. They are overtly tackling real world issues alongside the premises which stretch from the fantastical to the crushingly close to home. "Oh sweet this story has a Mecha-suit" quickly becomes "and we're talking about racism and racially charged violence and more!" These stories hit your heart, they give you pause to think and learn. I'm going to be thinking about The Finkelstein 5, The Era, Lark Street, The Hospital Where, Zimmer Land, Friday Black, Light Spitter, In Retail, and Through The Flash for a long time to come. And yes, I did think it was necessary apparently to list nearly all the stories. This collection has no misses for me and is dominated by life changers.

I was really intrigued by the premise of Rap Dad, Juan Vidal's memoir about fatherhood and a generation of parents, like himself, who grew up enmeshed in hip-hop culture. Unfortunately for me it fell a little short. ⁣
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The memoir begins with Vidal's childhood, and explores his relationship/lack thereof with his own father. As he grows up he becomes involved in a missionary driven rap group, and travels the world. I wished that his feelings on Christianity were discussed in greater length, because though he becomes involved in the church it's not clear what place religion has in his life. I also wanted more about his wife and their relationship, it's clear she's so important to him but she was very absent from his narrative. ⁣
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Eventually fatherhood arrives, and the story turns more towards where I'd expected. Yet the focus seems often on how he decided to write this book. I was disinterested in this, and wanted to actually read the book instead of about why he wanted to write the book. Even as the story develops more it seemed he wrote more about how he was conducting research and learning about “rap dads” rather than actually sharing what he learned. ⁣
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I think there is some really interesting stuff being explored with this book, but wish it went deeper. Since it wasn't able to springboard me forward into relating to my own life I didn't come away with as rich an experience as I think a reader with more history with rap and/or fatherhood probably would.

I kinda wish I had read this book rather than listening.

This novel begins with immediate intrigue, but I got a bit lost in the backstory as the novel’s narrator began to weave her story at the beginning. Quickly though I caught on, and soon found myself captivated by this wonderful character. Lilliet Berne, as may be appropriate to call her, is one of the most kick ass protagonists I’ve fallen in love with in a while. She has big dreams, hates to be told what to do, and tenaciously chases each opportunity with everything she has.

I’m generally cold on a lot of romances, and the driving romance in this book was not an exception to that, I did not think it made much of any sense. Fortunately this rarely detracted from the book for me. Lilliet has a somewhat conflicted view of love as well, sometimes being caught up by it and other times quite cynical about the whole thing. I loved her for her profound sense of self, and enjoyed her self-reflective voice in my ear.

The conclusion to this novel is truly beautiful, and upon finishing I am already planning to revisit this book at some point. As someone who is almost never a re-reader, that is quite the feat.

I think I would have completely loved this book if it had been an adult SF book instead of YA, because some of the YA tropes were, while not objectively bad, not so much to my tastes. It's definitely a dark YA book though, and a great alien invasion premise well implemented. I wish I hadn't listened to the first portion on audio though, I think I would have preferred to be able to flip back and forth through the book as revelations were made. I wasn't really expecting it but I'm really looking forward to finishing the series!

For what it's worth, I read this book not because I'm planning to become polyamorous, but in the interest of discussing with a friend who at the time was in a polyamorous relationship. I also don't have any problem with the concept of polyamory, so this book didn't need to convince me past that bias.

All that said, this book got off on the wrong foot for me. Something that often happens when you read a book that touches on gender and sexuality topics from 10+ years ago is that the language can be dated and provoke a negative reaction. The words and phrases that were intentionally used by the authors didn't resonate right with me. And on top of that I was dealing with, as expected, reading a book that promotes polyamory as the "enlightened" way to be, as a happily monogamous person 🤷

I was settling in expecting this book to be a complete slog when it took a turn for the better. Most of the chapters focusing on relationship skills for the poly person apply to readers in any kind of relationship. Topics such as navigating jealousy and communicating boundaries may be especially relevant in a polyamorous situation, but are vital also to monogamous couples, single people dating, and even to friendships. I found these chapters full of insight I could apply to my own life and was naturally more interested. As the book progresses the topics delve more into poly specific topics, which was what I was most interested in going in, and I found lived up to my curious expectations.

Y’all this book is a love story about a biromantic asexual black woman and I just love that so much. Books! Like this! We need more of them!⁣⁣
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My reaction after reading is a little mixed. I struggled some to stay invested in the middle of this book. There was a lot of conflict which I hated reading, although I think ultimately the resolutions were handled well. Surprisingly, at times I wasn't really feeling the chemistry between Alice and Takumi, so their arc fell a little flat even though I was rooting for them. I super loved the ending though! It was pretty much everything I wanted.⁣⁣
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I’m so delighted this book exists, and I’m definitely reading more of Kann’s work.