I've been procrastinating on this review because this book has been highly anticipated after I loved this author's first book, If, Then.

If I had realized this was intended to be Jane Eyre meets The Martian I may have gone in with more caution. It's just a taste thing - I overwhelmingly dislike retellings. They often force the author to make the characters do things that don't make sense for them in honor of the larger form, and that might explain some of the choices here. To me there were too many unbelievable things in what felt practically present day (but couldn't be) and a strange lack of intelligence and oversight by those I would expect to have it while the child who shouldn't be that smart seems to have no limits.

Such a good cover though.

I think I must have seen the queer and LGBTQ tags on Goodreads and built this up as some great sapphic space story, but I was severely incorrect. This is a generally short book, but a slow story. The sci-fi aspect of it felt like it drifted in the background while June's life and memories were forefronted. Which I don't really mind, but it almost felt like every sci-fi element was crammed into the last 20% of the book and I couldn't really make sense of what was happening or what I was supposed to take away from it. I didn't like James and June's relationship at all, and the queer rep was basically two women looking at each other for a couple of pages in the background. I think I just had completely different expectations of what this book was going to be like and I wasn't very happy with what it actually ended up being. Still, the sections with June's adolescent life were really lovely, and I'm glad I got to read them.

Author Kate Hope Day returns with her sophomore release, IN THE QUICK, a brilliantly imagined novel about a female astronaut and the mission that consumes her.

At 12 years old, June is an inquisitive but moody child. She lives with her aunt and uncle, the latter of whom provides her with the emotional and intellectual support she craves. A celebrated and beloved rocket scientist, Peter Reed encourages her curiosities, whether that means answering countless questions about how and why things work, or accepting her donations of household items she has taken apart to learn more about their insides. But even more important, Peter includes June on his own research studies, allowing her to see highly classified and groundbreaking materials on the production of fuel cells that will power explorers to the farthest edges of the solar system. When he dies, June’s obsession with physics and mechanics intensifies, and her focus on space sharpens. June’s aunt Regina, never a close companion, decides that she can no longer care for June and ships her off to begin astronaut training at the National Space Program in the school named for her uncle.

June is younger than her peers by two years, but easily equal to them in intellect. Unfortunately for June, she struggles with phrasing her ideas and approaching her classmates with them, a fact that, combined with her age and connection to Peter Reed, makes her an outsider. But the school is drawn together when news that the Inquiry, the revolutionary spacecraft powered by Peter’s last project, has disappeared. The astronauts on board were trained in the Peter Reed School for Space Preparation, and their disappearance draws into sharp relief the dangers to which the students are exposing themselves, should their training succeed. Desperate to preserve her uncle’s legacy and unravel the mystery at the heart of the Inquiry’s failure, June becomes obsessed with listening to satellite streams from where it last pinged --- and she hears a rhythmic tapping too obvious to ignore.

Years later, June is embarking on her own space mission, led by two of her uncle’s former students, both of whom worked closely with him on fuel cells and were in the running to join the fated crew of the Inquiry. Although everyone else at the National Space Program has stopped talking about it, June’s interest in the mysterious spaceship is reignited when she hears the same tapping sound on her own ship. When she tracks down the source of it, the urine filtration system, she realizes that she alone has proof that the crew is still alive. But how? And where?

After a tragic accident on her ship, June joins the iconic Pink Planet space station, where she joins forces with another of Peter’s former students, James. James is a perfect match for June in both intelligence and stubborn moodiness, and their relationship morphs from enemies to intellectual partners to something far more passionate --- and volatile. As they experiment with fuel cells to try to figure out what went wrong on the Inquiry, the mystery deepens and the stakes of bringing the crew home --- if they are indeed alive --- grow sky-high.

When I read IF, THEN, Day quickly became an instant-buy author for me. I am not typically drawn to science fiction, but her books immerse you in the science and then bowl you over with the fiction, constantly emphasizing and challenging the limits of human abilities and emotions. IN THE QUICK is no exception. June is a standout protagonist --- one part child, one part adult --- and I suspect that readers will be quickly drawn to her intense but sorely-lacking-in-people-skills demeanor. Her brilliance, which might turn readers away, is perfectly foiled by her loneliness and feelings of being misunderstood, and Day takes careful steps to develop her character and push her forward.

But what really makes June --- and this gorgeous, haunting book --- shine are Day’s stunning descriptions of the mind and how creativity and innovation are fostered and championed by humans. There are so many instances in which June stumbles upon a groundbreaking technique or discovery simply by asking herself what a thing does or how it needs to adapt, and then standing back and looking at the big picture. Without ever weighing down the narrative with complex mathematical or scientific formulas or definitions, Day makes the science of space and exploration accessible, visceral and deliciously dramatic, an art form in and of itself.

The allure of the mystery here goes without saying. Who among us is not fascinated by ill-fated explorations of any kind? But rather than focus on (and overwrite) the doom and gloom of the situation, Day keeps the suspense simmering on every page, so quiet and sneaky that you just might miss it until you are reminded of the very high stakes of June’s mission. With echoes of JANE EYRE and THE YELLOW WALLPAPER, the mystery at the heart of the book succeeds elegantly against its more science-fiction background.

Deeply enthralling and fiercely feminist, IN THE QUICK is yet another success from Kate Hope Day. Perfect for readers of THE MARTIAN and THE NEED, this stunning exploration of the potential of humans and their inventions will challenge everything you thought you knew about good science fiction.

Thanks to NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review

In the Quick was a bit of a hot mess. While my overall feelings were very positive, I have a lot of critiques with the story. First and foremost, the description describes an astronaut who gets entangled in a love affair that complicates her job. That is in the story, but it consists of maybe the final ~1/4th of the book. It is much more than that, but what exactly it was is part of why it's a mess. I can’t say exactly what the point was.

It starts as a coming of age story. It was very effective at getting me interested in the story and our main character, but as it progresses, the direction of the plot isn't quite clear. The world that we're in is fascinating. The way the authors ties science and engineering into the narrative is engrossing and pretty realistic, but still accessible. However, the story at large was a bit confusing. This weird pink planet that is at the center of the story (and the cover) confused me; I did not understand how it fit into the world building. The greater conflict over the over the arc of the story is never clear to me. While I recognize there was some resolution at the end, I didn't quite understand how we got there or what the point was.

The problem is, I'm so conflicted with my feelings. I still enjoyed the process of reading it. I enjoyed the our main character and while the world was confusing it also felt immersive. I’m able to overlook some of the big flaws of the story, and I may just reread the book to see if I can make sense of the bits that didn’t come together. Luckily, I think it would still be an enjoyable reread regardless.

Would I recommend this book? That is a hard to say because I feel like my enjoyment is so niche to my own particular interest. The promo compares this to Station Eleven and the Martian. I think the latter works, but the former is a bit of a stretch. Hopefully that will give you some idea of if this is something you would enjoy.

Enjoyable read and it was refreshing to have such a strong female protagonist. Enough twists and turns to keep me reading. Only reason I didn't give this title 5 stars was the ending was not as satisfying as I had hoped, but then I personally am a fan of wrapping things up at the finish.

Looking forward to reading more from this author.

This book never quite lived up to the synopsis on the back of the book for me. While it’s true, it never reads as exciting or urgent as the description.

Our main character, June starts out as a 12 year old girl, mourning her astronaut uncle’s death and mesmerized by the latest space mission that has lost all communication. The crew is believed to be dead and it’s blamed on the faulty fuel cells that her uncle invented. She knows in her gut they are still alive and makes proving this her underlying goal as she grows up.

My favorite part of the book was probably the first third. June gets early admittance to an astronaut boarding school. YES. Think Space Camp meets private school, so basically the best book setting ever.

After the school section finishes, it jumps ahead to her on her first space mission. I figured things were really about to go down, but it never really did. No matter how much the book would describe something or actions taken in the space station, they never made any sense to me. Plus, they never seemed to report back to anyone back at Earth. I’m like, don’t y’all have a NASA or something?

Another thing that made it hard was that there are no quotation marks. That’s usually not a deal breaker for me, but there were several times I had to reread conversations to figure out who was who or even what was dialogue or narrative.

It’s a super unique premise with a stunning cover, but the plot never wowed me like I hoped it would.

4.5 stars

When someone asks me what my favorite genres are, I usually don’t include science fiction -- but lately, each time I sit down to read a science fiction book, I always enjoy it more than I think I’m going, and this one is no exception.

Sometime in the future of our planet, June is an absolutely brilliant young girl who dreams of becoming an astronaut like her uncle, whom she lives with after the death of her parents. After her uncle’s untimely death, her aunt sends June away to the astronaut training program at the boarding school named for her uncle, where she is the youngest student by far. While she’s there, struggling to make friends, the spacecraft, Inquiry, disappears, possibly because of problems with the fuel cells that her uncle invented but hadn’t quite perfected before he died.

Six years later, June is an astronaut in her own right, but she is still haunted by the missing crew of the Inquiry, and she’s convinced that they’re still alive. Even when no one else believes her, she fights to figure out how to fix her uncle’s fuel cells and bring them home.

I loved how the author of this book places the reader right into June’s head. Everything she thinks, you think. Everything she feels, you feel -- her loss when her uncle dies, her awkwardness with her new classmates at school, her intellectual superiority to those around her, her frustration when no one listens to her because they see her as a little kid, even when she can see the problems in ways no one else can.

I also really liked the writing style. Others may find the lack of quotation marks confusing -- I know it’s a pet peeve of several readers -- but I felt like I was more in tune with June’s feelings because of the immersive nature of so much of the dialogue. Yes, it takes a few beats to get used to it, but once you get into it, for the most part I stopped noticing that the quotations were missing.

The time jump between June at school and June as an astronaut was a bit abrupt, and it was a bit confusing to figure out how much time had passed and to really see and accept June's character as an adult instead of a child, but I think it was smart of the author to not bog down the reader with all the in-between. She wrote about the important pieces and left out the rest. I also didn’t love June’s romance later in the book. Yes, it humanized her a bit, but it did seem out of place for her character with her singular focus all the rest of the way through the book.

Overall, this was a book that I looked forward to reading every evening, and I highly recommend it.

Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book from NetGalley and Random House in exchange for my honest review. It has not influenced my opinion.

The first line of the Goodreads synopsis for this book mentions a "fiery love affair" so I waited, and waited, and waited for this love affair to occur. Finally at about the 3/4 mark I got a glimpse of the brief love affair. So I'm going to say this, if you thought this would be a space romance it's not. Instead this book shows the romance of being in love with space, science and preserving a legacy.

It's a really great story and I did enjoy reading it. It's a quick read too at only 272 pages. If you're a fan of The Martian by Andy Weir you'll definitely like this story and will already be familiar with a lot of the terms and space jargon.

Thanks to NetGalley & Random for the advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

In In The Quick by Kate Hope Day, we meet the book’s main character, June, at 12 years old. She is a prodigy living with her aunt and uncle. Her uncle is a high-ranking aerospace engineer working for the National Space Program. June is allowed into the NSP training academy. When June is 14, a crew that has traveled into space has lost all communication and are presumed to be dead. No team is ever sent to rescue them. We meet June again several years later when she has her first voyage into space. The remainder of the novel covers this journey to the Pink Planet.

I really wanted to like this one, but the plot fell short. It reads quickly with short chapters, but I kept losing interest, so this took me a little while to finish. Much of the middle part is very slow with little action. It does give me a good idea of the tedium that must be present when in space and how inhospitable space and other plants/moons are to human life. Some parts are incredibly atmospheric. I loved the descriptions of the Pink Planet. The reader has a great sense of what daily life is like and how hard basic survival can be in such a remote setting, when machines and parts break and have to be fixed. While on the Pink Planet, she meets James, who she knew as a child at the training program. He is highly intelligent, brooding, and arrogant. They begin a romance about 3/4 into the book. The plotting was a bit slow in the middle but speeds up a bit for the last 1/4. More is discovered about the crew that was lost in space several years before, but many questions remain unanswered.

Thank you Random House and NetGalley for providing this ARC.

A brilliant young girl’s obsession with space becomes a fascinating coming of age story. Part romance, suspense and science, June’s obsession with a lost ship and her becomes ours. I would love to read more of June’s adventures.

I'm so glad I read this one, it was a lovely surprise from beginning to end. I didn't know what to expect but I fell in love with the cover and I'm so glad I picked up the book. From the blurb, I expected sci-fi, but this is a book about being human, not about aliens. This book will get a lot of flack for an "unlikeable" heroine (see also: most books that genre in any way but feature female protags) which is making me mad in advance. Liking her is not the point, but getting inside her head was a fascinating experience. I'm not much of a re-reader, but I'll probably read this again.

This book rides a strange line between Young Adult and Adult. The writing and pacing are very YA, but the theme and cover are Adult. Honestly, I love sci-fi and could not get into this book, so I will not be purchasing it for my collection.

Wow, this book is stunning! I truly could barely put it down from the first chapter until I finished it. The description of being in space -- the physicality of it -- were just described in such a visceral way. And I liked being in June's mind, understanding how she problem solved -- it was so foreign but compelling. If you liked The Martian or The Queen's Gambit, I found this to be a bit of a mix of the two. Not that there was any chess involved but the way a young girl thought in a way that blew everyone out of the water against the odds.

In The Quick came out earlier this month on March 2, 2021, you can purchase HERE! I really loved this one and definitely recommend it -- I am still thinking about it!

Space is cruel to the human body. We aren't machines, rockets with metal skin and polymer bones, rovers with microchips for guts. Our bodies are full of fluid and soft tissue. We aren't built for space. Our thoughts, the things we know, are sturdier in zero gravity, but they originate in gray matter. They change shape, even disappear in the face of disorientation, dehydration, oxygen deprivation. Because ideas require bodies too, hands, lips, a tongue, ears. Otherwise they're about as useful as dust motes drifting in the air.

Can we just talk about how gorgeous the cover is? I give mad props to the design team because this cover is so gorgeous, I want to hang it up on my wall! The premise of this book was also stellar. The execution was just okay for me. I think it was way too far fetched to have the scientific smarts that June had when she was twelve years old. It just didn't sit right with me for most of the book thinking back on it. The book had been advertised as similar to The Martian, and I feel like it was far from it. I think if you enjoy contemporary coming of age stories and want to dabble in the world of science fiction, this book is for you.

QUICK TAKE: I enjoyed this cinematic take on a female astronaut story, though I preferred the first half of the book (the MC's time at an elite space training school) much more than the back half (the MC, now an adult, trying to convince others that a missing space crew is still alive). I found myself losing interest once the relationship drama kicked in, and would have liked a better integration of the MC's classmates into the bigger story. That being said, if you're a fan of the genre or books like THE MARTIAN, might be worth checking out!

I loved this book. I LOVED this book! So much so that I could hardly think of anything else while I was reading it. I even had dreams about it — that's how engrossed I was!

This book follows June, a mechanical engineering prodigy, as she is sent away to astronaut training at the school named after her brilliant uncle that invented a fuel cell that was supposed to take mankind further into the galaxy than ever before. But, disaster strikes and the fuel cells fail, leaving the crew of the Inquiry explorer stranded and eventually forgotten. As June navigates school and building relationships with her peers, eventually becoming an astronaut, she's haunted by the Inquiry and her uncle's failed legacy. And when she discovers what she believes is proof that the Inquiry crew is still alive, it's up to her and her uncle's former proteges to fix the cell before it's too late.

While the plot itself sounds action packed -- and there WAS plenty of tense moments that made my palms sweat -- it's definitely more of an introspective novel that follows a brilliant, but misunderstood girl as she navigates a school of people much older than her, then the perils of astronaut work, and eventually an intense, destructive relationship that threatens everything. Following June's perspective so closely from when she's 12 to the age of 18, I really got a wonderful sense of who she is and how her mind and emotions work. I felt so close to her it was almost claustrophobic, but in the best way possible. It made each moment that more intense and impactful.

The plot was also interesting. As someone who enjoys Sci-Fi, it had just enough science fiction to scratch that itch, without being too focused on the science. At every moment, there was something June was trying to figure out, and something in June's way that built tension and kept me turning the pages. And there were so many twists and turns! I was newly amazed at every turn. For such a short book, it really felt jam-packed with plot and substance, so Kate Hope Day really used her real estate well and I can tell she's a super talented storyteller.

The reason that this book only got 4 stars instead of the 5 I wanted to give it, is because the relationship in the last act of the book was not believable to me at all. I understand why the author put the characters together — they were so similar and were working on a very important project together for a long period — but knowing June's character; it seemed so strange that she would suddenly value a relationship more than her work, which had always been the center of her life up to that point.

I also think that the blurb of the book puts too much importance on this relationship, as it really doesn't appear until the last act of the book, and this is something I fear will make people review it poorly because they're expecting more of a relationship element that just isn't there.

Overall, this book is really amazing and I definitely plan on buying a physical copy to add to my shelf of favorites. I'm excited to see what Kate Hope Day does next!

I would recommend this to anyone that enjoys Sci-Fi, or character-driven stories. And maybe for fans of The Martian. I haven't read that one, but from what I know of it, this book definitely seems similar.

In the Quick, by Kate Hope Day, is a quick and beautiful novel centering on the education and career of a young astronaut in the near future. This is book that combines genres, including science fiction, mystery, romance, and a touch of thriller. Mostly, it is a coming-of-age story. The protagonist, June, is a brilliant mechanical visionary, but somewhat flawed in her ability to interact with others. Although my mind is not geared to the science of space, I loved June’s tenacity and her ability to marshal all of her education in order to solve a problem.

This novel is beautifully written. Nonetheless, the ending left me confused and unsatisfied. I hope that it was me who missed something, and it will work for others. Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing for the opportunity to read a digital ARC.

DNF at 46%. I was drawn in by that gorgeous cover. Then I read the synopsis and was even more intrigued - “a young ambitious female astronaut’s life is upended by a fiery love affair that threatens the rescue of a lost crew in this brilliantly imagined novel in the tradition of Station Eleven and The Martian.”

Wow! With that synopsis I can’t wait to dive in! I love both of those books! This sounds great! Unfortunately I think it also led me to come to the story with some incorrect expectations. When the book starts, June is only 12. I thought okay - we will get a little backstory and then get into the heart of the story!! Well - at almost halfway through I’m still waiting for it to pick up and realizing I’m not drawn in enough to continue.

I’m going to stop here - this is a case of being the wrong reader for this book and coming in with the wrong expectations. Thank you to Random House and Netgalley for the advance reading copy.

Do you ever read a book and just want it to be the best book you’ve ever read because of the cover alone? Because this book was a totaly Netgalley request based on the cover alone. I read If, Then by Kate Hope Day and didn’t really enjoy it; In the Quick was much better for me, but still left me frustrated.

The things that worked for me: I loved a strong female lead in a role that’s traditionally held by males (June is an astronaut), I loved how smart June was (she could figure out scientific problems that baffled everyone else), and I loved the atmosphere of the Pink Planet, it read quickly (but also felt a little YA-ish).

What I didn’t like: there was a lot of confusion of how all the pieces fit together in the whole picture (and none of that was really cleared up by the time the book ended), there were random parts of the story that were totally unnecessary and felt like they were there to simply fill the pages, the relationship that appears about 80% of the way into the book, and the ending that abruptly came to a halt (if you hate loose endings, this is not for you!)

Overall, this was ok. I got a lot of The Martian vibes (a book I surprisingly loved!), but it left me feeling like the book was unfinished.

Overall, it could have been an interesting story; however the plot was slow to develop and then once into the bulk of the story it was fragmented without much character or storyline development.