Shaun David Hutchinson writes characters that I feel like anyone can relate to regardless of who they are. His characters are fallible, hot messes and I love that about them. They’re real. The character development is what always draws me into his books, and I love the element of being lost in space with this one. Well done!

Here's my very short review since I forgot to write anything when I rated it on Goodreads: It was cute, but predictable. Having said that, my students loved it way more than I did.

Exploring space is always an adventure and in this novel it’s no different. Teenagers are thrusted into a complicated situation by appearing in space and needing to save each others lives. But it’s not all fun and games when they realize they aren’t alone on the space ship. Love, panic, fear and chaos in this wonder SDH novel!

This book was a lot of fun and I like to think I'm good about knowing where a story is taking me . . . but Shaun David Hutchinson, you have outdone yourself because this book took me all over the place! It's hard to say too much without spoiling it, but I will say it's good to be back in the sci-fi stylings of Hutchinson and the characters in this one were well crafted, the pacing was just right, and while the plot of the story wasn't necessarily new, it still felt fresh and had me turning pages. Definitely worth adding to YA collections and I think this is definitely a title that teens will be on board with.

I will say this was a fun romp in outer space, however, without giving away spoilers, I figured it out in the first third of the book. Noa was a kick, DJ was a bit of a simp, which I guess goes with the storyline, which I won’t spoil. Jenny was my favorite, no filter, balls out kick ass female. I believe this can be put into the hands of a HS who likes this type of genre. Can be genrefied as either Humor or Sci-Fi, depending upon how you look at it.

The base set-up here, a couple of guys and a girl in a survival situation, is pretty standard. It's just that this story is sort of weird. There's a pervasive sense of unreality that was difficult for me to reconcile. Complications came out of nowhere, often with little to no explanation. Certainly quirky, though the characters are somewhat underdeveloped, making those quirks harder to swallow.

ABSOLUTELY STUNNING
Hutchinson brings his amazing writing to a completely sci-fi ya story
Great Mix if We Are The Ants, just without the sluggers this time, and now there’s other people in space but anyways; this book is my favorite read of the year so far. With its charming characters and deeply emotional relationships, it’s sure to make an impact on anyone!

Adored this book! I switched between the audiobook and physical book, and loved both. I highly recommend the audiobook in fact! Just a fun, quirky, hilarious story with an awesome sci-fi touch. I'm all here for it to become a movie! The romance was adorable and not obsessive. This book is literally #goals!

The State of Us was my first Shaun David Hutchinson book, and it made me fall in love with his writing and his incredible characters, and now my goal for the year is to devour the rest of his books, beginning with this one, which just completely blew me away and made me fall in love and die and cry and feel all the feels.

Noa North wakes up in space, no memory of how he got there or what's going on. Then a voice in his helmet lets him know there's someone else on board and their spaceship is about to explode. Working together, the two of them fix things and then have to figure out what's happened to them. Along with the third member of their memory lost crew, Jenny, they must work together to get back home, but are faced with obstacle after obstacle, and it begins to seem impossible they could ever return to the lives they lived before.

This book has a romance that completely destroyed me, friendship that burns through the stars, history that broke my heart, plot twists I never saw coming, and writing and a plot that drew me in and never let me go. I just really loved everything about this book. It was incredible.

Thank you netgalley and Simon and Schuster for providing an ARC of A Complicated Love story set in Space by Shaun David Hutchinson for an honest review.

This book had everything. Action, mystery, love and friendship. It even caught me off guard and went in a place I never seen coming and things happen that I never seen coming. Shaun David Hutchinson is a wonderful writer with wonderful stories. This story is diffently one I would have to reread to catch the things I've missed or to see how I missed what was going to happen.

I originally fell in love with Hutchinson's writing while reading *We Are the Ants*. It was the first time I had read a book that I would classify as scifi-realism (it's like magical realism but with aliens, spaceships, or the theoretical underpinnings of time travel instead of magic systems, fairies, and dragons) and I loved every. single. heart-wrenching. second.

I guess the reference to "heart-wrenching" warrants a mention of the trauma, existential angst, and emotional rollercoasters that Hutchinson's main characters struggle with in his novels. Hutchinson's books may just be more about so thoroughly inhabiting the headspace of his main characters than anything else; yet, there is still ample room for a generally well-paced plot with a satisfying amount of twists and turns.

All of these things are hallmarks of a Hutchinson novel and they are present in abundance in *A Complicated Love Story Set in Space*. It could be argued, though, that having our main characters wake up on a spaceship (or at least spaceship-adjacent) in the first few pages may lean this book a little more into pure science fiction than Hutchinson's typical scifi-realism; however, it is solidly grounded in the humanity of our main character. I think that you could love this book if you love other works by Hutchinson, even if you don't think of yourself as a sci-fi reader.

Watching the relationship between Noa and DJ play out over the course of *A Complicated Love Story Set in Space* was both agonizing and glorious. Pleasure and pain are available in equal measure as we explore Noa's mental and emotional landscapes. Throughout my read, I cried both happy and sad tears, with a good dose of frustrated fist shaking and chest tightening on the side.

Oh, yeah. There's also some plot about three teens (Noa, DJ, and the kick-ass Jenny) waking up in space with no idea how they got there. We follow them as they grapple with the implications of the situation they find themselves in and try to figure out the why and the how and the who and if it even really matters. The plot has mystery. It has thrills. It even has Nutreesh! It was at least as enjoyable as getting to know our characters and it kept me engaged and intrigued from beginning to end.

*A Complicated Love Story Set in Space* is a Hutchinson novel through and through, which is to say that I loved it. My inner teenage queer nerd self really wishes I had had his books during my formative years. If you know someone like me or you are like me (and maybe even if you're not), give this book a read.

I'm not sure how I feel about this book. The characters are very well developed and are perfectly, humanly flawed. However, as I read the book, the plot felt disjointed as if it was a series of short stories, but once I got to the end, the plotting issues made sense and actually added to the story. This may be one of those books that need to be read multiple times to fully appreciate.

I received an advanced copy of A Complicated Love Story Set in Space through Netgalley so I could share my review with you!

Content Warning: A Complicated Love Story Set in Space contains a scene of rape.

When Noa fell asleep on Earth one night, he certainly wasn’t expecting to wake up in space outside a spaceship on the brink of exploding. To be fair, that is not the sort of thing people generally expect to happen, and Noa is no exception. This must be a trick; people don’t just wake up in space out of nowhere. And yet, somehow, he really is stranded in space with only two other similarly-confused teens for company. They are DJ, a sweet boy who seems to care too much about the whole world, and Jenny, a witty girl determined to unlock exactly how they got trapped in space. Despite the danger, DJ, Jenny, and Noa have to find a way home, wherever home may be.

You can get your copy of A Complicated Love Story Set in Space on January 19th from Simon Pulse!

There is really nothing else like Shaun David Hutchinson’s books when it comes to surreal complexity and sci-fi realism. He effortlessly remakes reality in a way that forces readers to contemplate the story while grappling with life itself. I’ve adored each and every one of his books that I’ve read so far, and when I heard that his next book would be about “gays in space” it instantly became my most anticipated book for early 2021! Though I had high expectations, I was still somehow blown away by Hutchinson’s latest piece of work! A Complicated Love Story Set in Space explores romance, identity, and authenticity against the backdrop of space, which (in my opinion) is the perfect place to address such issues.

My Recommendation-
I would recommend A Complicated Love Story Set in Space for people who love books that ask deeper questions within a seemingly simple context. Though the story is over 400 pages long, I read it in just a couple of days because it was so engaging! This book is perfect for those who love their reality with a dash of the beyond!

This is a such a quirky but emotional book, all while still being adventurous and entertaining! Noa wakes up in space, with no idea how he got there. We, the reader, also have no idea why Noa is in space. Seems sketchy, right? Well, it is. Especially since one of the first things he finds himself tasked with is saving it from exploding. Soon, he finds DJ, who talks him through the whole "not blowing up thing", and things get... more bananas from there, really.

What I Loved:

►Oh this was just fun. The other spaceshipmate, Jenny, is so beyond funny. But DJ and Noa also have their own brands of humor that are delightful. Basically, if you have to be trapped in space, this is the trio you'd like to accompany you. There's also a wacky AI named Jenny Perez (and yes, that confused me a bit but alas) who was so completely glib and infuriating to the characters that I could not help but enjoy her because of it. She was apparently a failed actress at some point, and the only entertainment on board was starring or made by... you guessed it, Jenny Perez. Cracked me up, frankly.

►I was so confused! I mean- this probably will go in the negatives section a wee bit too, but as a reader, we're clearly supposed to be confused. Noa is lost, and as such, so are we! I liked it in the sense that it was definitely a trip- and the more we learned, the more we realized we had no idea, same as Noa. I appreciated that approach.

►The relationships of the characters were really compelling. Obviously, they're stuck on this ship together trying to figure out how to get home, they're probably going to become important to each other. DJ and Noa of course fall in love. Jenny is a great friend to them both. But tugging at Noa's brain is his memories of his past relationship, which was incredibly troubling and horrific. I don't want to go into too much detail in a review for fear of spoiling other aspects, but be aware that there is talk of past sexual violence.

►Tons of great commentary throughout the book. Again, I don't want to give much away, and a lot of the points I'd love to discuss I worry would spoil stuff as they happen later in the book, but just be aware that it is there, so you look for it!

►It's a great mix of action and character development, of fun and seriousness. The bits of humor and general wackiness are fabulous, but the book is also really heartfelt and emotive, so you really get the best of both worlds.

What I Didn't:

►Back to the confusing bits! So again, this isn't anything terrible, I just thought the ending was kind of quick- in fact, I wondered if there was a possibility of a sequel because of it (from what I can tell, there doesn't seem to be). For such a complex story (and one in which bits are revealed piece by piece), I wanted a little more closure, perhaps. But that could also just be a "me" thing, so take it for what it's worth.

Bottom Line: A perfect balance between fun and emotive, I was hooked on finding out both why the characters were in space, and what would happen to them next.

Shaun David Hutchinson is reliably readable, interesting, comforting, exciting, romantic, and extremely weird. This latest book does not disappoint!

WOOWOWOW, this was creepy in all of the best ways! Kept me on the edge of my seat until literally the last page. Sci-Fi is not usually my cup of tea but this was wonderful!

Shaun David Hutchinson does it again! I've loved all of his books, and A Complicated Love Story Set in Space is no exception. It has all the wry comedy, painful darkness, and beautiful sincerity that characterizes Hutchinson's work.

The structure is more episodic than a typical novel, but it never feels disjointed. It keeps the pacing brisk without losing the plot's through line or the characters' emotional arcs. The three main characters are believable, sympathetic, and well-developed. Noa is excruciatingly frustrating in that way that teenagers are, but you understand and love him anyway. DJ is someone you just want to hug, and Jenny is a perfect blend of hilarious and heartfelt. I also love the Jenny Perez character, a child actor turned B-list celebrity who fills in the characters (and the reader) about the essential expository details and provides many of the book's strongest comedic moments.

I have only two complaints, and they're minor. One is that the final chunk of the story feels a touch lengthy and brings the denouement to a sudden halt. But the emotional sincerity makes up for it. My other complaint is that I want more Noa, DJ, and Jenny! I fell in love with the characters with all their flaws, and I can offer no higher praise than that.

Look...I'll read anything Shaun David Hutchinson writes. Contemporary, romance, sci-fi, a grocery list...anything. And while this wasn't one of my favorites from him, it was still an enjoyable little romp through space.

My favorite Hutchinson books usually border on Sci-Fi in a is-it-or-isn't-it kind of way (At the Edge of the Universe, We Are the Ants), but this one is full-blown sci-fi. Our narrator, Noa, wakes up in space...with no idea how he got there and no idea how to stop the space ship he's attached to from exploding. There's a cute boy to keep him company--and other surprises await him--but Noa struggles to adapt to his new normal.

Here's the thing. I LOVE crazy sci-fi. I loved the mystery of the ship, the time loop, the quirky character banter...but once we get to a weird high school in a space bubble things went a little sideways. I honestly didn't love the explanation for Noa's new life on the ship, which maybe kept me from enjoying the latter part of the book as much as I might have.

Overall, though, this was in turn emotional and funny and wacky--things I've come to love from Hutchinson.

This book was everything I needed at the moment. I have to admit I was not expecting to like it as much as I did. Such a light and easy read and I absolutely loved the MC's. Definitely recommend this one.

Read for Booklist magazine review. Not allowed to post text of the review here as it will appear in an issue of Booklist. But I loved this book!