Space operas are not usually my genre, but I will read anything that Charlie Jane Anders puts out there. Though some of the action got a little confusing closer to the end, I really enjoyed this coming-of-age scifi adventure about a culturally diverse group of human teens in space. The central character, Tina, who is not actually a real human teen (though don't most teens feel like maybe they are not actually human?), is funny, smart and enjoyable as narrator. I hope that later in this series, her best friend Rachael gets to narrate - I was excited to see a fat, introvert, visual arts genius totally in touch with her limitations and psychological needs, and I'd love to read more about her. There were some spots that felt weaker that others, and some characters who were less fully realized than I would have liked, but overall, this was an enjoyable book that I couldn't stop reading.

Charlie Jane Anders brings a refreshing writing style to a YA SciFi book. The pacing is fantastic and the characters (both human and nonhuman) are believable and enjoyable to read. This book will help open conversations about preferred gender and biases people may have. It is a joy to read and I can't wait to include it in my library!

I liked it - the author is a favourite of mine - but something failed to really hit home here. It was quite slow paced and while I liked the MC, I didn't get that sense of connection I've had from the author's other books. I suppose this just didn't feel quite finished, which was exacerbated by the cliffhanger ending. A good book but it just didn't quite work for me.

I am a big fan of Charlie Jane Anders, and I was excited to see that she had a new YA book, so I really expected to like this more than I did. I liked the concept and the overall story arc, but it seemed to drag at times and it felt longer than it needed to be. I think that Tina never really felt like a fully fleshed out main character to me. I liked the struggle over feeling like she's supposed to be Captain Argentian, but I felt like once she (sort of) lets that go, no real sense of self comes in to replace it. And there's a cliffhanger ending that clearly sets up the next book, but there's no real satisfying ending to the story arc in this one.