This book says its a sci-fi/fantasy, but it's horror. A very dark horror. It's probably one of the most disturbing things I've read in a long time. I honestly can't put together a coherent sentence to describe how I feel about this book. Read at your own risk!

IIt's a fun, past-paced read that delves into repairing harm (if possible), the cost of justice, class divides and gender. The whole, reverse-sexism was an interesting take on the society as a whole, but I found the alternative family structure of 9 parents for every one child the most interesting world-building aspect (even if I'm still a little fuzzy on every parents' exact role in the family structure). Even the living-fish ship wasn't as interesting as all of that. I feel like the pacing at the end doesn't quite match the speed of the rest of the book, and it sort of feels like So Much happens So Fast and there's not a lot of time to process anything (an epilogue would have fit great here). Also, I felt that many of the secondary characters fell a little flat to me. 

The gist 📚: Surviving inside of space beasts is not easy, especially when you're a member of the working class and risk your life every day to make life on the beast possible in the first place. Seske is the heir to the noble bloodline that rules her people. She has to play her cards carefully if she wants to take over in a few years. When she discovers a fatal secret within the beast, everything changes. 

For readers looking for 💕: Vivid sci-fi worlds, complex friendships, assassination and espionage, creative survivalist societies, something a bit dark, bipoc characters, powerful women, and LGBTQ characters. 

My thoughts 💭: I enjoyed seeing the contrast between the lives of royal Seske and her best friend (and crush) Nyla. The world building in this book is incredibly vivid as well. Maybe not the best read for fairly squeamish people.

"All throughout our history, we sing of two kinds of women... those born into power and those who disrupt power. I intend on being the latter." 

Even more than the space-faring beasts that the people live inside in this science fiction, I was intrigued by the society in this book. They live in ten-person family structures with polyamorous groups of 3 (two women and a man) combined with two other triads and one child shared amongst them all. It's a matriarchal society, and men face similar sexist experiences to the women of our world. But that doesn't mean I wasn't amazed/shook/occasionally grossed out by the living ship as the characters navigate through organs, build homes from organic matter harvested from the beast, and even crawl through sphincters (seems inadvisable but).

The plot centers on a youthful revolution, bringing to mind many issues in our world, but especially environmental concerns regarding how we can preserve/stop destroying our planet for future generations. And that requires a social, economic overhaul because these are the systems that drive us towards a dying home. Our protagonists are Seske, heir to the matriarch of the clan, and Adalla, a lower class but specialized worker in the beast's heart, one of the most important jobs for everyone's survival. They're star-crossed lovers who thrive on curiosity, trouble, and overall pluck. Both have different pieces of the puzzle regarding how their society is collapsing. They will grow in leaps and bounds and separately work at bringing the whole thing down. I flipped back to the beginning to check a few things once I had a real grasp on the society, and I realized that both girls were even more ignorant and at times cruel in the beginning than I first registered. It makes their development that much more impressive.

As a brief but imperative aside, there's a "what does the fox say?" reference buried in a masquerade ball, which A) made me laugh out loud at the delightful absurdity and B) I challenge you NOT to have it stuck in your head somehow again after all these years. In general, the humor here is weird, silly, and greatly appreciated by this reader. 

I look forward to reading more about this world, even when there are specific images brought to mind that I wish I could mentally unsee. This story is over-the-top yet relevant, and I recommend this as an underhyped science fiction with all kinds of strange and majestic on offer. 

This book was fascinating. I love the way that it unfolded. The worldbuilding was imaginative and engaging. My only complaint is that there were some moments where the author did more telling than showing.