Bizarre, fascinating, and terrifying

Finished The Hematophages by Stephen Kozeniewski and man, oh man, I loved it. Perfect pacing. Immersive and efficient world-building. Deliciously intimate and grotesque horror. 5 stars

The book was okay at first. It took really long to actually get to the action. When I finally was at the horror parts, they honestly sounded ridiculous to me. I couldn't take it seriously and it made me feel like I was watching a B-movie.
Aside of that, I also didn't think this book was really gross, I mean, it tried to be but it didn't have any of that effect on me.
I thought the ideas were not great at all. From the first real action on I just wanted to read the rest as fast as possible so I could be done with this book.
I also feel like it's obvious that this book was written by a man.
Overall in the book, a lot of everything didn't make sense.
I thought this book would be great but it was nothing like I expected.
I guess this simply just isn't my taste.

Also, the combination of Sci-Fi/horror is probably my favourite genre and I love the Alien movies. I don't get why anyone would think this is similar to Alien and would even compare it, but apparently people do.

Unnerving Magazine Review
The Hematophages by Stephen Kozeniewski is a sci-fi thriller with a fairly weighty horror bent.
This tale works in three distinct parts. Firstly, the reader settles in, getting comfy with all the science fiction lingo and future changes to our species. Then the mystery settles and there’s not much new added by way of universal norms to draw away from the mounting tension. The third part is, obviously, the kablooey stage where playtime is over and where, if it were a movie, the hero might say something sarcastic and clever when it finally rounded out.
On a salvage mission in deep space, a crew, this including our hero, finds itself in the midst of something beyond their understanding. There is a living world, a flesh world, and just like our personal, individual flesh worlds, this one has buggers feeding on its leavings. Blood covers this planet and the creepers are swimmers. The scenery described invoked images of Fallout bunkers, mixing current day objects and comparatives with futuristic changes. There are moments where humor shines through the bleak and forceful situations. There are minor mysteries here and there, really stringing the arc along in what feels like a rapid pace from the opening pages.
There’s easy love between characters and most often I’d moan a little over that (which maybe I did temporarily), but the payoff is too much fun when it finally hits. And when times get tough in this story, they really get tough, and nasty in all the right ways.
This one is ooey and gooey sometimes. It gets tense. It’s fast. It’s wildly imaginative. It’s a whole lotta fun.

I couldn't tell you the last time I read a sci fi horror. It's 2020 and I'm trying to expand my reading. At least this one was a bloody good mess of a sci-fi read.
At first I was overwhelmed by the futuristic jargon and space stuff. A quarter into the book, I was digging it. At the end, I wished it wasn't over.
Let's recap this story. In an all female future, Paige, a historian, is taking her first trip in space. The mission is to find a space shipwreck and salvage it.
Along the way there are space pirates. When they get to their destination, there's even worse dangers.
Paige was a kick butt main character that I grew to love. I absolutely loved the end of the book. I don't want to give away any spoilers, but my eyes kinda ache right now.
I want to thank the author for a free review copy of this book.

After spending her whole life on a space station, doctoral student Paige Ambroziak takes a job on a ship heading to a far distant almost mythological fleshworld to recover the ruins of The Manifest Destiny, a ship that crashed two hundred years ago. When the crew departs on their mission they meet more than they bargained for including skin-wrappers, descendants of the crew that wrecked The Manifest Destiny, and horrible parasites.

This was such a fun time to read. I previously was given a copy of the Skin-Wrappers short and that made me super want to read this. I loved it. Only gripe is that I wish some of the world building had a bit more clarification (exclusively because I just want more info on this world and stories set in it...somehow.). Highly recommend.