Okay I have no idea how to review this book appropriately, because it's super entertaining but also full of action.

The characters were all really well developed, even as this parasite attempts to take over. I was quite impressed at how the author managed to make me care so deeply for characters who weren't even themselves half the time, but she did! I think that was the key, too. As dark and exciting as the story is, it goes from good to great because of how invested I was in its outcome.

Bottom Line: Exciting, thrilling, and full of characters whose fates impacted me greatly, Salvaged was unputdownable.

Rosalyn Devar is a talented bioengineer who has recently had a total breakdown in both her personal and professional lives, and spirals into drinking and erratic behavior that make holding a job almost obsolete. It seems that no matter how far Rosalyn runs from her famous family and messy past, she can’t seem to escape who she is.

Now, she has no choice but to take a job as a salvager—a glorified space janitor who cleans up bodies. She gets assigned to a research ship named Brigantine, which is the latest in a series of vessels whose crew have are all thought to be dead under mysterious circumstances.

When Rosalyn arrives on the research vessel Brigantine, she discovers the crew are alive, but have been injected by a blue fungus named Foxfire that creates a sort of hive mind with the goal of taking over humanity. Is the fungus somehow sentient?

Captain Edison Aries seems to be the most himself despite the fungus, but he is fighting a losing battle to maintain control of himself and the crew. Meanwhile Rosalyn is dealing with the brutal, crazed security detail, Piero, and another biochemists Rayan. Both are completely under the control of Foxfire.

Rosalyn works with Edison trying to stave off Foxfire from completely taking over the crew and themselves. But it turns out there is a link to a conspiracy that may involve Rosalyn’s very own family. Can they stop the fungus before it takes over the entire human race?

I must admit this isn’t my usual genre, but I did enjoy parts of it and others less so. One problem for me with science fiction is that I like character-driven books and science fiction often struggles to develop compelling characters in the midst of the broader world building and technical explanations required. Salvaged fell into this camp for me, and I found the characters to be under-developed and a bit bland.

The setting is a show-stopper, though I don’t know if that’s because I just don’t read many things set in space? But I could feel the vast dark bleakness of how isolated they were and that certainly heightened the tension.

As a final note, the idea of a parasite trying to infect all of humankind hits different in a post-COVID world. Terrifying!

I really enjoyed all the layers to this book, and it was much more than I really expected. The prose at times is just gorgeous and I highlighted left and right, it was beautifully crafted. I loved how dark and gritty the plot turned out to be, it was better than I expected overall, and really had a wonderful message about striving for things without giving up your goals, and hope!

Salvaged by Madeleine Roux is a good example of fast-paced, diverting science fiction. It does have its faults, but that does not mean one cannot enjoy a good, old-fashioned space drama. After all, humankind does not change no matter how far from Earth we might voyage.

Bethia makes for a solid main character. Her determination and unwillingness to give up offset her faults. The trauma in her past may trigger some readers, but Ms. Roux does not go into explicit details about the event. Instead, she focuses on Bethia's fear, shock, and outrage at what occurred. As Bethia wrestles with her past and the messy events she faces, you cannot but help admire her resilience and intelligence.

And yet, the mysterious fungus threatening Bethia and all of mankind is a bit too similar to the protomolecule from The Expanse for comfort. It not only shines as a blue filament but it also grows and corrupts everything it contacts. It even creates a hive mind, much like how the protomolecule operates.

In addition, it feels as if Ms. Roux resolves one-half of Bethia's problems too soon and too easily. On the one hand, I can see why she did that because to continue that aspect of the story would bring nothing but repetition. However, the resolution she uses seems so obvious and so easy that it is unsatisfying. Maybe my thoughts on this show influence by The Expanse series, which is nothing but one creative and shocking event to another. In that series, even easy answers are complex and unusual. So, to obtain a resolution to a problem that is as simple as the push of a button feels unfinished.

Another niggling issue I have with Salvaged is that we never receive an adequate understanding of the connections between corporations involved in the event. Ms. Roux fails to thoroughly explain each organization and how it fits with the others, nor do we understand the levels of involvement of each, including the company for which Bethia works. While a clear-cut picture of the relationships and aims of each organization may not be essential for the story's resolution, it does help clarify motive and execution in such a way that it, in turn, clarifies Bethia's place within the events.

For all its faults and similarities to other beloved books, however, I did enjoy Salvaged. For a short while, it took me away from the drama of the pending inauguration and helped me forget my own problems. The issues I had with the story were annoying but not enough to detract from my overall enjoyment of the story.

This space thriller kept me on the edge of my seat from start to finish with its eerie, largely psychological horror. Marginally predictable but pulls off its aims. Good readalike for Illuminae Files.

The premise was awesome and I was sucked in by the stor. Madeleine Roux has done it again. Unputdownable!

This was such a good book, and I was taken aback by how much it read like a horror flick. There’s something weird going on with the company that Rosalyn Devar works for, more and more ships are going dark and she has to clean them up. But a ship that shows it has gone dark, shows that there are possible crew members alive, Rosalyn does what Rosalyn does; she goes into the ship, trying to figure out what has happened and what she can do to rescue the crew that is still there.

Once on board though, things take a dark turn for the worst, a parasitic alien has taken hold and has started to murmur into the crew’s minds, to make them think of the parasite as “Mother.” As each member of the crew starts to succumb to “Mother’s” enticings, you can see that Rosalyn knows some of what she is about. She starts to recognize that the parasite is more than what it seems, that there is something more to what it is trying to do in this ship that has gone dark.

As Rosalyn and the few crew members that seem to retain their human sides, their human memories, work together to find out what and where this mess started, Rosalyn starts to realize that there is more here that deals with her previous life than she would like to work with.

Salvaged follows the story of Rosalyn Devar, a woman on the run from her famous family. Her job is essentially a space janitor. She goes into different ships and cleans up bio-hazardous waste. When a job goes wrong, Rosalyn comes face to face with an alien life-form taking over the bodies of various space crew members in order to take over the human race.

The story reminded me of Aliens a lot. The descriptions of the space stations and alien life-forms just kept me thinking of those facehuggers from Aliens for some reason. Rosalyn was a smart and clever character. I loved the way she interacted with the other characters throughout the book.

The pacing felt off for me. Action portions were told rather than shown and, at times, I found myself confused on exactly where everyone was in a given moment. Otherwise, it was a fun read.

Salvaged is the story of fighting for ones' humanity when the pull from the other side is too powerful. It is about finding the one thing that is so precious to us that it grounds us to our deepest selves and our memories, while we are floating away in space. This is a thriller, horror, science fiction with a dark atmosphere that will linger with me for a while… the best part being, I WANT TO go back and read it again.

With powerful characters that question themselves and each other at every move and are somehow working together towards one mission, I loved the writing and plot of this book. Dark science fiction is a realm that I had not explored before and now was my time. Salvaged is a wonderful introduction to the genre. Absolutely loved it!

This was initially a hard audiobook for me to get into and that's partly because of the atmosphere that lingers throughout this whole read. Emily Woo Zeller does an amazing job of portraying the different characters as well as expressing the gravity of the situation that they are wrestling with. This is the first time in my years of listening to audiobooks when I can confidently say the audiobook was way better than how I would have read this book in my mind. I could not have done justice to that.

Many thanks to Penguin Random House Canada for a physical review copy of this book as well as a digital copy via NetGalley that I did not download.

This sci-fi thriller was exciting and suspenseful. It also hit a lot more romance notes, and more satisfyingly, than I was expecting it to!

What an interesting story! I read one of Roux's zombie books years ago and wasn't quite sure what to expect, It turned out to be a really enjoyable story, even when it got a little gross.

I am a member of the American Library Association Reading List Award Committee. This title was suggested for the 2020 list. It was not nominated for the award. The complete list of winners and shortlisted titles is at <a href="https://rusaupdate.org/2020/01/2020-reading-list-years-best-in-genre-fiction-for-adult-readers/">

Salvaged is a science fiction novel that features more biology than physics, with a touch of romance. Author Madeleine Roux is new to me, but I was interested in this book because I’m always looking for stories that explore the implications of biotech or biochemistry in fictional setups. I received this book from Net Galley in exchange for an honest review.

Rosalyn Devar has fled her family and her problems and has found a new life working for a salvage company in space. But when her excess drinking is reported, she is given one last chance before being cut loose from employment.

Strange deaths have been reported on a couple of ships recently and now another ship, the Brigantine, has seemingly gone down. Rosalyn is sent to investigate and salvage the vessel, but things are not exactly as expected.

The crew on board the Brigantine has been infected with a strange parasite that has put them into some sort of suspended animation as it tries to control their minds. Rosalyn struggles to discover the source of the parasite while staying alive and uninfected herself.

This was a fun book to read, but the basic plot reminded me a lot of Julie Mao from The Expanse. I’ve only seen the show, so that is what my comparison is based on. This isn’t really a criticism because the plot takes the characters in a different direction that The Expanse story.

I enjoyed this book and read it pretty fast. It also functions well as a stand-alone novel and the ending kept me guessing with how it would end. There aren’t any devastatingly new science ideas here, but it was still a nice exploration of how biology can play a role as a speculative element in fiction.

OK to be fair this is not my usual genre dark sci fi horror. But I have to admit I was thoroughly entertained by the story. Occasionally grossed out, but entertained nonetheless. I do not see working as a space janitor in my future. Roslyn is trying to escape her wealthy family. Leaves the family business and takes a job cleaning up space messes. When she takes on a job to clean up a “dark“ ship where there is believed to be no survivors she is faced with the unexpected. What transpires is a tense, claustrophobic, gruesome survival story. If you like books set in space with a dark edgy vibe and a little gore this is the book for you!

This book in emojis. 🛸 👽 🧹 🧽 🪐

*** Big thanks to Berkley for my copy of this book ***

A Fantastic and Interesting Sci-Fi Read

I've been eyeing this one up for a while - I didn't read too much about it, I just knew based on the cover that it was something I wanted to check out.   So, having not read anything into it, the book was fascinating to me feeling similar enough to other books I've read while also being completely new and unique in its own way.

Salvaged is one of those books that feels like we've been here before.  It tells of an 'alien' lifeform, but not the type of aliens that we're expecting. It tells of a takeover but not like any takeover you're used to reading. Roux wrote an insanely complex and interesting story.  The story of salvage recovery could have been its own story to itself. Throw in the substance abuse and story (that we hear much later in the book) from Rosalyn and that could have been its own story, too.  But then throw in the third and most interesting part of the book - mix it with the two others I mentioned and you have an insanely deep book that covers a lot of ground in 12 hours.

I liked this book a lot.  It was a book that made my skin crawl one moment and the next it was lulling me into a false sense of security.  Roux was able to build up such suspense that by the end I honestly couldn't have guessed the ending if I'd tried.  Twists and turns throughout really helped bring the suspense home.

Overall, a fantastic and interesting sci-fi read. One that'll intrigue me for days to come.

Madeleine Roux’s Salvaged is the ideal example of a dark science fiction novel. It hits all the right tones, while being disturbing and graphic and oh so enthralling.
Rosalyn Devar is a woman with a big secret – namely her family’s history. In an attempt to run from all of that, she’s found herself in deep space doing the most inglorious of all jobs – she’s a glorified waste disposal janitor. And more often than not that means she’s the one cleaning up the bodies on wrecked spaceships.
But all of that is about to change, with the latest mission she’s been assigned to. The ship has been dark for months – but what she ends up finding is nothing like what she expected. And so the fight for her life begins.

“Rosalyn had endured disappointing birthdays before, but never one in ankle-deep corpse sludge.”

Warnings: Madeline Roux is not afraid to touch on some seriously heavy tones in Salvaged. Inside this book, you’re going to find lots of graphic descriptions involving human bodies (in various states of decay), as well as an animal death or two (again as part of her cleanup job). There’s also some sexual assault moments that occur – but they’re all set in the past.

Salvaged was perhaps one of the darkest science fiction novels I’ve read this year. It was gory and intense, and yet at the same time, it was brilliant. I was captivated by Rosalyn’s tale, the depth, and tragedy of it all.
There was a lot to enjoy about this novel. For one thing, the writing style and tones alone are simply divine. I loved the way Roux established her story and her main character. Her writing is beautiful and yet unavoidably tragic.
Then there’s the plot, which does not shy away from the graphic nature. It was a fascinating story, and not at all what I expected. It’s also not like anything I’ve ever seen before, despite some of the familiar threads Roux clearly picked up.
And lastly, there are the characters. Salvaged may be focused mainly on Rosalyn, but there’s actually a variety of other characters to be found within these pages. Roux’s study on human nature is a poignant one, heartwarming at times, and chilling at others. It was the icing on the cake in this novel. I honestly don’t think it would have had nearly the same impact without such powerful characters to follow.
Salvaged is the first novel I’ve ever read written by Madeline Roux, and I’m kind of regretting that now. As I made clear above, I really enjoyed a lot about Salvaged. And thus I’m going to have to keep an eye out for Roux’s next book, while also adding all of her backlog to my ever growing TBR list (worth it).

Salvaged is the perfect novel for fans of The Expanse. Following a deeply flawed character, the novel has an evenly paced story, albeit a slow beginning. It is not clear the direction of the novel as it begins by drawing allusions to the character's past in brief snippets. While slow, the snippets do allow the reader to connect to Roslin. Her biggest flaw is her alcoholism, which is the catalyst for why she is on this salvage mission. It is her last chance to prove to her employer that she can get clean and do the job. What she does not expect is to get caught up in a power struggle between humans and an alien parasite.


Once the direction of the novel becomes clear, the pacing of the story and the tension rise, this leads to an engaging narrative and intriguing character dynamics. Roslin may be the main protagonist, but her perspective is not the only one explored. By giving insight into other perspectives, the author creates a well rounded and diverse cast. The author ensures that these characters resonate off the pages. She makes it easy to follow the progression of the story through the eyes of these characters.


As a Sci-Fi adventure, the novel is quite successful. It has not only incredible tension but also has superb character development. Salvaged is exceptionally paced and thoroughly engaging.

It took me awhile to finish. Interesting plot but the story meandered and I found it difficult to be hooked. It seems that the new YA theme is space so it will be difficult for authors to stand out.

This is not the most original sci-fi story: there's too much reminiscent of the Alien film series for that. And much of the prelude before the heroine Rosalyn encounters the stranded ship infected with an alien parasite is almost irrelevant (although some of it becomes important in the end, especially her relationships with her father and her friend Angela). This is especially true of her struggles with the pilot of the salvage ship: a lot is made of it, and then suddenly he's gone. Yet the core struggle between Rosalyn and the crew of the Brigantine (who have been infected by the alien parasite) is totally engaging, all the way to the end. There is a battle, followed by a brief period of peace, and then a big battle as the ship arrives at what was hoped to be a respite. The (relatively) happy ending was far from guaranteed. Thanks to NetGalley for an advance copy.

While this novel has a good setup, it never really seemed to go anywhere. I know the author was trying to convey a sense of terror and being cooped up in a spaceship with horrible possessed humans, it was very well done. The relationships and bonds that the main character had with the others on the ship didn't feel earned at the end.