After memorably reading (and being wildly confused by) Kate Hope Day's last book, I was concerned that this space odyssey would be equally as twisty-turny. Instead, I was pleasantly surprised by a realistic saga of one brilliant young girl's journey to deal with loss and grief, while nurturing her clear intelligence and skills. The niece of a well-known aeronautical engineer, June lives with her aunt and uncle after the death of her parents. When her uncle dies on the day a rocket takes off carrying the technology he developed, June makes it her life's focus to follow in his footsteps. The rocket, missing in space, becomes her obsession, powering her through grueling astronaut training and eventually as one of the youngest engineers in space.

I couldn't put In The Quick down. The scenes were riveting and the characters were well-developed and compelling. I felt for and with June throughout the novel and her passion, perhaps even obsession, for the technology her uncle worked on was realistically portrayed as she often dealt far better with machinery than she did the humans in her life. The scenes in space were gripping and I finished the book wishing I could watch it also play out on the big screen.

I've been waiting for another good book set in space since devouring Andy Weir's The Martian in 1 or 2 days.. The beginning of the novel involves setting up the background and the conflict, but by the time I reached the halfway point of the book when the action hits high gear, I was "all in". The main character June is well developed, and the author allows the reader into June's head as a fascinating 12-year-old, then as an older but not necessarily more mature 18-year-old. The short chapters propelled me into the next and wouldn't let me put the book down. However, the dialogue without quotation marks does take a bit of getting used to. My recommendation would be not to read the synopsis because I believe it concentrates on the wrong aspects of the storyline, Instead, go in not knowing too much about this book, other than it's got a definite "The Martian" vibe without it being as science-y. Thank you #IntheQuick #NetGalley and #RandomHouse for providing me with an ARC of this book.

There are two really good things about In the Quick, the gorgeous cover and the summary/synopsis/blub. For me, that's were the good parts end.

The first part of the book is following 12-year-old June. I wasn't loving it but I was excited for it to jump ahead to a grown-up version going to space. When it does jump ahead, it's a freshly turned 18-year-old June who hasn't really done a ton of growing up but gets to go to space because sending a barely adult to space is a great idea. The character is so single minded, so focused on one goal that she screws over more than one person to get to that goal and has no repercussion for her actions. I enjoy an unlikeable character. I don't think the author was trying to make her unlikeable though.

There is also parts of this book that seem to breeze by certain aspects and then really focus on the mundane. Something big would happen and I wasn't even sure how we got there, I would go back and re-read the pages leading up to it...nope nothing it just jumped right to the big issue/event. BUT it would then really focus on something that didn't actually mean anything to the overall story (i.e. her working out and getting fit....that's focused on more than once). It's like it's trying to do what The Martian did but completely failing.

I also had MAJOR issues with the "romance". They synopsis makes it seem like some big epic love story, they don't even get together until almost 80% into the book, there was no inklings of feelings between them before that. I also did not like the huge age difference between June and James. James knew her when she was 12, he was a grad student so at least a good 10 years older than her. So 18-year-old June is "having a relationship" with 28 to 30 year old James...Yeah, creepy.

This book is also getting shelved as LGBTQ but it is not that. There is one moment where two women are touching each other's faces, that's it. Nothing is explicitly said on page. So, I'm not sure why it's getting shelved as Queer.

I've read a few of the four and five star reviews for this book and I feel like I read a completely different book than those reviewers. I'm glad that some people enjoyed it. I'm just not seeing it.

*Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing for the eARC of In the Quick in exchange for an honest review.

I will preface my review by saying that I am not the biggest sci-fi fan, and I think this books just wasnt for me. I did enjoy the character building of the main character as a child genius of sorts and found all of the inner workings of her mind incredibly interesting and entertaining, until she got to space. Something fell flat for me or maybe i didnt understand everything that happened. I was left feeling like, maybe the almost romance derailed the mission and distracted me just enough to allow for a disappointing ending. For me, I still much enjoyed the writing and the main character, and want to go back and read this author's earlier book - If, Then - which i have on my tbr bookshelf. Decent premise; but the ending. I just wasnt as excited as i shouldve been.

This book made very little sense pretty much from the beginning. On the plus side, it was very short with short chapters and snappy prose, making it easy to read quickly.

June, at 12 years old, is a math and physics savant. Which would be fine if she was the only one. Instead, she joins a school of them (though she's about 2 years younger than everyone else). Basically, this school is churning out astronauts in their teens. But also their classes are being taught by older teenage astronauts? I don't know, I just couldn't help but be like "they put the fate of space exploration in the hands of a bunch of teenagers?"

Also, apparently this book was supposed to have queer rep. As someone who is used to using a magnifying glass to make out queer rep, I was expecting not to have to. And yet, there's no direct on-page queerness. No labels, no attraction, no discussion. Instead there are two side characters of the same gender who are occasionally seen in close proximity. Is this queer rep??

The fiery "romance" that takes up the whole synopsis doesn't come in until about 80% into the book and that point everyone is certifiably insane (especially the love interest - who is at times a petulant child, a genius inventor, and a cold and potentially murderous psychopath - I don't think those are good "love interest" traits!)

There's almost no oversight over what they're doing - both in school and in space. Y'all. I don't think you understand how EXPENSIVE space is. How much energy it takes per unit volume to send something to space, to create components that will hold up to heat, cold, velocity, vibration, exposure to vacuum, impact, etc etc. You don't send teenagers up in space without oversight; they can't just wander around and shirk their maintenance tasks for weeks at a time. They would literally die.

Also, the ending was unsatisfactory.

Okay, this has a lot going for it. It has a smart, ambitious female lead character who is an astronaut! But is also a love story, and an adventure! It is so much. It is multi-faceted. I think the main character can be hard to like because at times she is very self-centered and reckless but maybe that is because she kind of has to be in order to get where she wants. It is worth a read due to the sypnosis alone and the rarity of a book about women in space!

Thank you @netgalley for this #freebook in exchange for an honest review. I absolutely loved this book. I think folks who enjoy Emily St. John's writing style would absolutely love Kate Hope Day. I read her book If, Then last year and enjoyed it, but this one was so much more interesting to me! I have never been interested in space or space travel, but this book got me. We have a young, brilliant female protagonist with a troubled family history and a tumultuous love story all set against training for and eventually going to space. There is also a bit of a mystery regarding a disappeared space screw. This book is out 3/2/21.

I think I would have liked this book if it was written differently. There weren't any quotations for the dialogue and it was confusing and annoying at points. Also, if you think the main relationship is LGBT because Goodreads has it marked that way and the synopsis makes it seem like it is, it isn't. And the relationship doesn't happen until over 50% through. If those things don't bother you, then you might like this.

Wow!! This was such a fun read. Its really difficult for me to grasp science fiction most of the time, but this book was just the right amount for me. It was fun and heartwarming.
I really love the main character June and am so sad it is all over. June is determined and endearing and i just loved her so much!!
I read the last page and was so sad that it was done!!
I will be buying this for my dad for Father's Day!! :)

If you are looking for a science fiction book that isn't too technical, you should definitely pick this up!

Thank you Random House and Netgalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you very much Netgalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Wow, I was blown away by this book. I highly recommend it for any sci-fi fan. Especially if you liked The Martian or the film Interstellar, you would definitely like this book. I am a big sci-fi fan and this book had everything I loved about a good sci-fi: thrilling parts that show how dangerous space really is, the camaraderie built among people working together in space, and creative and vividly described planets. I adored the Pink Planet in this book.

We follow an interesting and well-crafted protagonist, June, from her childhood living with her Aunt and Uncle through her life as a student in an academy that trains future astronauts, and when she makes trips into space. I felt she was very realistic and I'm very glad a strong female character was at the forefront of this science fiction novel. The other characters were also realistic in the ways they interacted with June. The twists and turns, along with the problem-solving in this book, were both shocking and realistic in terms of how the harshness of space can turn on an astronaut in an instant.

Some readers may be bothered by the fact that there aren't any quotation marks, but I didn't have a problem with it. I felt it added to the feeling that we were in June's head and seeing everything from June's perspective.

All in all, I'd LOVE to read more sci-fi novels like this one. It brings you into space and keeps you so engaged that you can't put it down. It's a fast read; I finished this in about a day and a half.

Kate Hope Day's In the Quick follows June, a precocious child with a brilliant mind for how things work, who finds herself going to astronaut school early after her uncle's death makes life at her home untenable. From there, we watch June grow into an adult who's brain might be exactly what is needed to save a crew stranded in Mars's orbit following a fuel cell malfunction.

I flew through this story. Day's easy prose made binge reading wholly possible, and for the entire novel I was invested in finding out how June might save her fellow astronauts. The characters, including June, are not easy to like, which I found realistic given their level of intelligence and ambition, but all the same I wanted to see them succeed.

The narrative occasionally diverged off into tangents, but I thought they were interesting even if not necessary. I also loved Day's depiction of astronaut training; it's clear she did her research. I definitely recommend this novel for fans of space survival stories.

16 / review: in the quick by kate hope day
📆 PUB DATE: March 2, 2021

💬 ”The feed crackles on and on.”
📚 The orphaned niece of a space engineer fixates on a space craft that is lost in space, its crew members presumed dead. June is an ambitious and precocious protagonist who always seems to take an unconventional approach to problem solving. After her uncle’s death, her aunt sends her to a boarding school of aspiring astronauts. The missing space craft and their crew is constant background noise in this novel that follows June through school and to her quest to solve a problem with the space craft’s fuel cells. There’s a love story in here that seems to dominate the jacket copy of this book but honestly, it’s the weakest part of the novel.
👍 This novel has a really interesting atmosphere. It seems to exist out of time in a world that alternated between feeling futuristic and contemporary. The first half of the story, when June is a child, moves quickly and establishes an interesting premise that, unfortunately, fades into the background pretty quickly.
👎 Oh boy. The book looses all momentum in the middle when it turns into ‘here is what it’s like to live in space and how the character is adjusting.’ It’s not in any way different from any other fiction that takes place in space. I’ve seen the Martian. I didn’t need this. Additionally the description of this novel focuses on a love story between June and her Uncle’s student that doesn’t even come into play until about 60% of the novel and their relationship feels so shoehorned into the story that I cannot imagine Day wrote this knowing someone would write jacket copy that focuses almost exclusively on their romance. And last but not least, since we are always on Queer Watch, this book is labeled LGBT and spoiler alert the queer characters are two women who maybe hold hands once in their sleep in two separate bunks. The fact that Goodreads has this listed as LGBT fiction is WILD. Oh! And there are also no quotation marks for no reason. This is a stylistic choice that usually doesn’t bother me because it’s always pretty clear what is dialogue and what isn’t. But there were parts where it was difficult to figure out and that did not do any favors for the pacing of the book.

VERDICT:
⭐️⭐️—I initially gave this a 3 but talked myself down as I wrote the review. There is a lot to love in the first half of this novel but it’s all down hill after about 40%.
📚Alternate Recs: The Prey of the Gods by Nicky Drayden and An Unkindness of Ghosts by Rivers Solomon
⚠️Content Warning: Emotional abuse, gore, loss of a limb, child abuse (via @the.storygraph)

Thank you to @netgalley and @randomhouse for providing me with a #reviewcopy

As a space nerd who watched the Netflix series Away twice in one week last year, I feel like this book was written just for me.

In the Quick by Kate Hope Day is the story of June, a young woman who dreams of becoming an astronaut. The story initially follows her as a young teen, from the loss of her beloved uncle, a pioneer in the space program, to her education at the school her uncle founded. It then jumps forward in time several years to the point when she has graduated and is going into space.

Throughout the book the plot follows two threads - a young man in the space program who June has feelings for, and the disappearance of a previously launched space craft.

This book is very strange and wonderful. Almost clinical, and yet I had a lot of strong feelings about the characters who all felt well developed. I read it in one sitting and as soon as I finished reading it I began to hope for a sequel.

I would recommend this book to anyone with an interest in space or science, but I will warn that the lack of quotation marks may make this a technically tricky read for some folks.

This is like the YA version of The Martian. June Reed is super-smart and she can take things apart and put them back together in her mind. She’s not so good at relationships, friendships and social interaction in general. The lack of quotation marks for dialogues made it more challenging than it should have been, and June’s inner monologue is more important than the action. This is a short novel with plenty going on, but it was still a slow burner for me. It took me longer to read than it should have because most of the action takes place in June’s head. I didn’t connect with the characters and I wasn’t as invested in the plot as I should have been. I wish I’d liked this book as much as I thought I would.
I chose to read this book and all opinions in this review are my own and completely unbiased. Thank you, NetGalley/Random House!

Thanks to Penguin Random House and NetGalley for an advanced copy of this title.

I really wanted to like this, but I feel like the synopsis sold me a different book than I read. June, our main character, is really unlikeable - she repeatedly doesn't listen to others and forges her own way even when it puts her life and the lives/reputations of others in danger, and seemingly never learns. There's a precociousness and arrogance to the way her character is introduced (a 12-year-old that's mechanically gifted and smart beyond her years) that doesn't feel believable, and a lot of telling instead of showing happens, which makes it really hard to root for this character. The book also has a tendency to go into a TON of detail on the science, then completely yadda yaddas over the personal relationships between June and other characters - it's hard to feel conflict between people when they feel paper-thin in their makeup as little more than exposition devices.

The timing in the book also feels off - action would be slow, but then a few time jumps happen that threw me completely off as a reader, and there's an introduction of a romantic subplot in the last third of the book that given the poor character development came completely out of nowhere for me and felt tacked-on. The ending of the book is messy and very quickly resolves about three open plotlines out of nowhere with only a few pages to go. There's some good ideas happening here, but too many plot elements appear and disappear at random for this to feel compelling.

I was so excited to receive this ARC and in love with the premise — yay for women in STEM! I wanted to love the story of June’s adventures in astronaut school.
Unfortunately this was a very slow read for me and I ultimately called it around 30 percent mark. If I don’t love a book, I won’t finish it.
I do not plan to knock the book on good reads, Instagram or amazon. I am simply letting you know why. Thank you for the ARC and I’d love to work together in the future.

*I received a copy via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review*

I was finding my self in the mood for a Sci-Fi which doesn't happen very often and I was let down. Ultimately, this was boring. I disliked June, she was a self absorbed child and adult. It wasn't a great reading experience either given there were no quotation marks for any dialogue. I would not consider this a Sci-Fi and would not recommend to any of my Sci-Fi reading friends.

I had been hearing a lot about this book so I was excited to read it. In the Quick was an enjoyable read. I love a female who breaks gender barriers and becomes an astronaut. The synopsis is a bit misleading about what this book is about but I enjoyed it none the less!

At an unspecified point in the probably-not-too-distant future, humanity has a solid start at space exploration, with bases on distant moons and regular liftoffs of supply rockets. It looks a little different from what we might expect; for one thing, rocket launches take place somewhere that's very cold. For another thing, the whole program seems to be organized around the protégées of Peter Reed, who invented a new kind of fuel cell that makes long-distance space exploration possible. This fictional space program also seems a rather down-and-dirty affair, not the gleaming high-tech of NASA.

When the fuel cells on the first long-distance mission malfunction, though, all long-distance exploration is on the verge of being scrapped. Everyone assumes the crew is dead, except for June Reed, Peter's niece, a young and difficult genius in her own right. Only twelve at the time of the malfunction, she must bide her time training for space before she can set her plan to save the crew in motion. It is six long years before she is assigned to the moon that was meant to the be the gateway for supply runs. Here she is able to collaborate with one of her uncle's students, and together they try to reconfigure the fuel cell so that they can mount a rescue mission, and reopen deep space to humanity.

The harshness of space is not new to the science fiction reader. In Kate Hope Day's hands, that harshness feels very immediate, as June trains for, and then tries to work in space. Giving equal measure to the human and the science is the mark of the best science fiction, and Day is more than up to the challenge. June is the only character to get full authorial treatment, but seeing the universe through June's eyes, and walking with her as she struggles to see her vision realized is a treat for the reader. She's a character who won't soon be forgotten, and her dream is one to build on.

Thank you Random House for a complimentary copy. I voluntarily reviewed this book. All opinions expressed are my own.

In The Quick
By: Kate Hope Day

REVIEW ☆☆☆☆

Synopsis
A young, ambitious female astronaut’s life is upended by a love affair that threatens the rescue of a lost crew in this brilliantly imagined novel, in the tradition of Station Eleven and The Martian.

*****
I loved Kate Hope Day's previous novel, If, Then, so my expectations for In The Quick were high indeed.

First of all, I seriously love the cover. I mean, it's all about space, and it's pink. What's not to love?

As for the story, you should know the synopsis doesn't really match what the book is because it is neither a romance nor a rescue mission.

The heroine, June, possesses a brilliant mind for mechanics, etc., but she is sorely lacking in people skills. Misunderstood by everyone except her intellectually gifted uncle, he alone encourages June, and she, in his shadow, often, covertly, learns about spacecraft engineering. Specifically, the Inquiry, a spacecraft powered by fuel cells designed by her uncle that, regrettably, goes missing when June is twelve. The first part of the book addresses June's childhood. You get a sense of her thought process, personality and the origin of her desire to work in outer space.

June begins astronaut training. This is a difficult program, made more so by being two years younger than her peers. Intellectually, however, June is already beyond them. Six years on, June is finally, as she always dreamed, a space station engineer. Here, after years of hard work, June finds true commonality and belonging. Imagine always feeling outcast, then, finally, finding your people. June does well at her job, but the missing Inquiry lingers at the back of her mind. After years gone, everyone has forgotten it, except June. While working, June makes a discovery, reaffirming her belief that the Inquiry crew are, in fact, alive. June's time on the space station is the most engaging fast paced part of the book. With witty dialogue, meaningful interactions and complex problems, the story progresses quickly.

Circumstances lead June to James, a guy who studied under her uncle. James has been trying to understand why the Inquiry's fuel cells, designed by June's uncle, failed. He and June are well matched intellectually and might be able to solve this mystery together. June cannot ignore her gut feeling about the missing spacecraft. She intuitively knows her life's direction, and with every turn of a new corner, June's resolve further hardens into a quickly approaching reality.

June and James are odd ones with an equally strange and evolving relationship. Additionally, the environment surrounding June and James is eerily weird. Everything here feels dark, bleak, harsh and lonely. Atmospherically speaking, the set up is perfect with slower pacing that subsequently matches both mood and tone.

I won't disclose the various twists giving chase to the last page. My biggest issue is the abrupt inconclusive end. The story is going in this direction, and now, it is going in that direction. In the meantime, I am aimlessly floating away into deep space....

Overall, I found In The Quick quintessentially inspiring, defiantely feminist and quietly terrifying. It was also reminiscent of The Martian in some ways. Both project a vast sense of nothingness, yet encompass everything at once. The feelings of utter despair and fledgling hope continually battle for dominance of an abstraction that neither can ever claim-the human mind scape. As long as horizons exist, despair will not triumph over the human spirit of ingenuity and progress. Hope will ignite, given even the tiniest pinprick of light, from a fragile spark into an unextinguishable flame.