A provocative, brutal, beautiful book. It flips the script of many societal issues. The author makes expert use of body horror the invoke visceral reactions from readers to personalize issues of environmentalism and class disparity. The world building is delicious, but leaves you wanting more. (Hopefully the next book capitalizes on the fantastic framework developed here.) The narrative is interesting and compelling, and the characters are multi layered and transform throughout the book. This book allows for surface level enjoyment of the narrative, or deeper interaction when you examine the intricacies and implications of the world and how they reflect our own. 

The ending of the book feels a bit rushed, but everything is wrapped up well before the second book. 

'Escaping Exodus' by Nicky Drayden is a creative science fiction novel that tells of a matriarchal society living aboard a large space beast.
We follow Seske and Adalla, two girls within this society. Seske is air to the matriarchal society while Adalla is a beast worker, who helps excavate and prepare the beast. From two separate stations, they begin to fall in love as they learn more about the truth of their society and their host. 
Drayden has created a fascinating world that hinges on the parasitic relationship between a matriarchal society and the beast that they call home. The world building in this book is fascinating and incredibly unique. Drayden pairs this with a dual perspective that weaves between two very different characters. By following the heir to the throne and a beast worker, we get to see different parts of this world and the inequality that is inherent with it. Through the matriarchal society, Drayden makes the inequalities and harms of our patriarchal society stand out as the society in the book holds many of the same issues, just gender swapped. 
This book is rife with body horror elements and bodily fluids, which I think is crucial to know going in. Drayden balances the more nauseating elements of this world with their evocative prose to create the engaging world. I am fascinated to see where this story goes next and I will definitely be checking out more of Drayden's work. 

Some incredible worldbuilding and intriguing sociopolitical circumstances with a really irritating central character. 

This book was the squishiest of sci fi from the very beginning, and it was great. Such an interesting and well-built out world, my favorite kind of likable characters that make very questionable decisions, and a plot that progresses very rapidly. Definitely a book for those who enjoy sci fi and space travel outside the realm of technology. The ending went from fast to blink-and-you'll-miss-it, and was a little too quickly wrapped up for it to become a new favorite. One of the easiest books I have read to fall into.