Gorgeous cover...and that’s about it 🤷‍♀️ ⁣
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I was so excited to get IN THE QUICK on NetGalley last week. A female astronaut trying to solve the mystery to a missing spacecraft sounded so cool but this just didn’t work. ⁣
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The protagonist was so bland I couldn’t decide if I cared about her or not. Unfortunately, it felt like the first 80% of the book was exposition, and by the time things got interesting it was over. ⁣
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In my opinion this was is worth a skip, but curious to hear from others who have read it! Thank you NetGalley and Random House for providing an eARC in exchange for this review. ⁣

3.5 stars, rounded up. This was beautifully written and told from a unique perspective. I liked the story—but hated how there were no quotation marks. Only Sally Rooney can get away with that structural choice in my opinion. This is like a serious version of Weir’s The Martian—I do recommend it if you like space, sci-fi, and interplanetary travel.

Shoutout to NetGalley for this ARC!

Do you ever have those books that you want to pause while reading because it’s so good you just want to savor it? In The Quick was that way for me.

In The Quick follows a female astronaut through her training and life into space. She navigates relationships with her crew as well as her family early on. Spanning years over her life didn’t slow it down; I loved the pace of this book.

I can already tell that some people may not like how this one ended. Without spoiling it, I will say that I enjoyed it. It left me feeling hopeful and seeing adventure yet to come. June matures quickly throughout the book and I really loved her depth of character. The only part I didn’t love was the lack of quote marks during dialogue, tended to make it a little harder to read.

Sci-Fi meets Literary Fiction in a story about June, a brilliant young girl and the niece of genius astronomical engineer, growing up in the astronaut training program. June sets out to find the solutions to the problems her uncle ran out of time to solve. In the Quick takes you through June's life from a young girl, through her years in the training program, to her years post-program and out in space. An engrossing read- June is an absolute whiz at engineering but has a lot of short comings when it comes to working with and connecting with others around her.

*spoiler alert*

This is such a magical and engaging read!! I was so excited to start it and up until the last 20% or so thought it might be a favorite of 2021. But honestly, the romance aspect sort of threw me off there? Did this book really end with our heroine forgiving and loving a cruel man? Still.- such a good read!

I really enjoyed this novel. It was like a mix of The Martian and Jane Eyre, which I didn't expect, but it was definitely interesting. The ending is vague, which I usually dislike, but this time it really has me thinking and has made the story stick with me days after finishing it.

Kate Hope Day's IN THE QUICK is a page turner of a book that brings together space, science, mystery, and challenging personal relationships. I blew through it. We first meet June as a child who is enamored by her scientist uncle and his colleagues who are working on a fuel cell for a craft that will be exploring space. Later, she is devastated when he dies and is further shocked when she finds out the spacecraft has stalled in space and the suspected issue are the very fuel cells her uncle was working on. June is an inquisitive, incredibly smart girl. She is sent to the National Space Program where she is a couple years younger than other students already well-established. She is incredibly stubborn and determined when faced with a challenge. She reencounters her uncle's colleagues she knew when she was younger as they continue to train in the program.

The book then jumps ahead to when June is in space, and she and her uncle's former colleagues are still trying to figure out what is wrong with the fuel cells. There are intense discussions and problem solving between characters and science-inclined readers will enjoys this. There is action and drama as they try and figure out how to fix the issue, as there is still hope that the people on the original ship are still alive. Readers who enjoyed THE MARTIAN will probably also enjoy this one as well as it involves a lot of common elements, especially once June gets to space. It kept me engaged throughout and enjoyed all the characters. The only minor quibble I had was a romance inserted in part of the way through the book which I felt was somewhat unnecessary to the plot- not all intense relationships need to turn physical.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House for providing me with an advance reader copy in exchange for honest review.

In the Quick is a really beautiful book--a mix of hard science (what is a fuel cell, anyway?!) and romance. June is a brilliant and intuitive girl who has lost her parents--she moves in with her astrophysicist/engineer uncle and aunt. and becomes deeply involved in his work--fuel cells for space travel. Her uncle died before he ever went to space, but June will go as an engineer. She goes to astronaut training and joins her uncle's students as a peer instead of as a little girl.

I liked the importance of teamwork and the lost proteges of June's uncle forming a family of their own that sustains them as children into adulthood and as engineers and astronauts. I just watched Queen's Gambit on Netflix and June's preternatural genius reminds me of Beth Harmon and her chess genius. There is a dreamy tone to this book that I like, and the descriptions of the pink planet seem like the manifestation of her childhood image of the Pink Planet.

If you like coming-of-age genius girl stories with a sprinkling of hard science, this one is for you!

Quick, N.
Informally, as by astronauts: the final minute of life before total oxygen deprivation: in the quick.

Radiant, atmospheric and strange.

A coming-of-age story about a determined and intellectual character named, June. Spilt within four parts, as the reader, we follow June’s journey of becoming a qualified astronaut and her perseverance in solving the mystery of a lost crew.

This book was a disappointment for me. And there’s only one thing to blame: the synopsis. I went into this book thinking it would be an adventurous plot with a fiery love story... and warning... none of that happened for me.

My biggest issue is that this book focused so much on what felt like mundane bits and bobs of everyday life and breezed right through what could have been high speed and intense plot points. I was bored through a good chunk of this but kept clinging to the promise of an exciting romantic relationship and... warning #2: was SORELY DISAPPOINTED.

Now for some good bits. I enjoyed the simple approach to the “space theme”. It’s not an in your face WE’RE GOING TO SPACE type of book. It’s much quieter and softer and that was a positive for me. I felt more engaged in the first 50 pages or so when we’re following the main character’s childhood and understanding her mind and love of science, but at the same time, it felt like too much time was spent here versus her adult life where the story really could have taken off (pun intended).

Warning #3: there no quotation marks for dialogue in the writing style. This normally isn’t an issue for me (big Sally Rooney fan over here), but I actually found it hindered the story telling in this case. There were multiples times where I was like “wait who is speaking right now” and was confused where and when the dialogue ended.

I wouldn’t call this offensively bad or 100% boring which is the only thing saving this from a 2⭐️ read. Maybe this will work for some of you better than me. If you like quick, subtle and quiet space stories, perhaps this one will be for you.

Thanks to NetGalley and Random House for a copy of this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Considering I sat down and read this whole book in a matter of hours, I'd have to say it's compelling. It follows the story of June, who is the niece of the man who, with his students, invented a new power cell that advances human space exploration. But something goes wrong on the first flight. Trying to discover and solve and correct that problem haunts June, in a way, as she embarks on her own young career training to become, and then becoming an astronaut.
The first portion of the book occurs when she is 12 and the initial mission goes wrong and she begins her initial schooling at the national space program, but then the book moves forward in time to her first and subsequent missions, and all the while the problem failed first mission drives her forward. I found the character development and plot very satisfyingly.
I really enjoyed the book and how driven (and even somewhat tortured by guilt some of) the characters are. But one thing I didn't like is the choice not to use dialog tags--it made reading the novel feel more exhausting, making sure to parse what is a thought or what is spoken aloud. Perhaps it it is stylistically supposed to make it read more like a transcript? I was able to get past this hang-up but it may be off-putting to some.
I received an eARC of this novel by the publisher via NetGalley and this is my honest review!

Ever since reading The Martian, I feel that science fiction has had to strive harder to impress and this novel does exactly that. The speculative world building about the near future, with technology that doesn’t seem that far fetched in our reality today is always a thrill to read because it seems tenable. It’s a slow but extremely concise and meditative story about an astronaut, June, who has had to live in the shadow of her uncle’s genius, paving her way through training, to find her own place. When her uncle’s fuel cells stop working on a mission she’s the only one who still thinks the crew is alive. She’s the only one who continues to work towards a solution in bringing the lost crew home when everyone else has presumably given up. No spoilers, but the pacing ramps up towards the end.

Like previous reviewers, I really hope they add quotation marks before the final publication. It was difficult to follow in a few parts and I'm not sure I completely understood everything that happened, but I also wasn't interested enough to try and re-read it to figure it out either.

Kindly received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This was a lush, dreamy, hazy feeling book, definitely akin to the vibes of "The Martian" by Andy Weir. First, I will say that I feel the summary description of the book is not accurate. I really didn't find "love" between June and James, I felt a scary, intense, zero-alternative lust born of being alone on another planet in complete isolation with lack of sleep. I felt no love and I felt that the only risk to the mission of figuring out the fuel cells was James' potential death-wish insanity and abuse. The only place that describes their relationship as "love that develops between them as they work to solve the fuel cell’s fatal flaw threatens to destroy everything they’ve worked so hard to create" is the book jacket description. Otherwise, readers are left to feel their feels, as I have, and come to their own conclusions about what was happening there. I actually think that this description is a potential detriment and risk to readers going into the book. This section was the scariest, most intense part of the book.

That being said, the book, on the whole, is a strange combination of an extremely intellectual woman's growth from girlhood to adulthood and how she approaches, analyzes, and interacts with the world, and a quest to rescue a team of astronauts stranded due to failed engineering of their ship's fuel cells - invented by the girl (June's) equally intellectual uncle.

Anyone suggesting June is an unsympathetic character really fails to understand the range of human personality and interpersonal interaction. I would argue that those individuals are more akin to any character in the book who has written June off as awkward and strange, rather than coming to appreciate that her brain is different than yours. I actually found her very sympathetic BECAUSE of her apparent awkwardness and difficulty with human interaction. She yearns to help, but doesn't quite know how, outside of creating what her intellect tells her to create, and doesn't take into account how her actions could hurt feelings or be perceived differently than helpful. Her whole life is her trying to help, despite those around her seeming to decide she isn't needed. Turns out she is essential, and lovable, and there are others who understand and appreciate her. She isn't some robot who only wants acclaim and recognition, she wants to be a part of a team, she wants to rescue lives, she sees when others are treating people poorly or writing them off (see James' treatment of Theresa later in the book), she feels it deeply when her actions have unexpected and painful consequences (see her assumption about how Amelia must feel after the accident). June is incredibly layered, and incredibly fascinating.

The book is set up in about 4 or 5 sort of "stages" of June's life, where we move from her time as a child, to her time at space school, to her time in space, to her time on the Pink Planet. Also, the Pink Planet is this strange place that wasn't immediately real to me, but soon turns out is a planet in this book's galaxy where they are running agricultural experiments and have solar farms and use as a launch point for further space travel, so the book moves forward into a bit of a science fiction realm, but more in the way of "Melancholia" than any hardcore sci fi story.

All in all, I really liked how this book felt - dreamy, lush, strange. I'll admit to skimming some of the more technical engineering talk, but I felt each shift in this book was perfectly placed and timed and I was ready for each change or growth in storyline. Also, I'll mention that dialogue doesn't have quotes (only because some reviews speak to this being too hard for them), but I found this incredibly easy to adapt to. If you've read Jose Saramago, for example, no quotes or line breaks for dialogue, so this is certainly not a revolutionary or singular style. At least there are line breaks in this book, and, like I said, I even forgot about it at some point. I also think it adds to the dreamy quality of the book, as it feels sort of like it's all happening in a different plane of reality, rather than a straightforward style work of fiction.

I have been looking for "something different" as many books seem to have similar plot lines. This book was perfect to fulfill that need! A female astronaut is something I've never read about and I enjoyed the story. It was a little slow and repetitive in some areas but overall I enjoyed it. I am excited to share this book with others once it's published!

Thank you NetGalley and Random House for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Loved this book it was multilayered combined so many topics. Love reading about astronauts family love relationships.Will be recommending handing this book to my book loving friends.Would be excellent book club choice.#netgalley #randomhouse

I enjoyed this one, especially since it didn't get quite as science heavy as The Martian did. And while it wasn't my favorite, I'm glad I read it and would recommend to those who liked her first one, If Then. I hope they make this into a miniseries because it would be a great one to watch!

How could I not fall in love with a book about space, astronauts and family? Beautifully written and just magically told. Loved, loved this.

Five stars.

THIS BOOK. Wowza. The first thing you should know about this book, other than the fact that it has an absolutely gorgeous cover, is that you should almost entirely disregard the synopsis. This fictional book is about June, the niece of famous space engineer Peter Reed. We follow her from age twelve when she is just a smart, curious kid who is fascinated by the failure of the new Ingenuity space mission, through her journey of becoming an astronaut herself whose genius will help solve a flaw in her uncle's fuel cell design. Through it all we learn about what it's like to train underwater, to breathe the salty air on the newly discovered Pink Planet, and to go through the physical challenges of life in outer space.

The synopsis mentions romance and intrigue and mystery, and while there are brief touches of each of these things, the story is more of a study of our main character June and her development over the years. Her daily life is explored in great and careful detail, a feature that might bug readers if they are expecting something vastly different. The narrative is also written without quotation marks.

I love the creativity of this story and the vivid imagery in its pages. I felt like I was there, problem solving alongside June and her friends. Though the end was a little infuriating in its abruptness, I also think that the conclusion achieved what it needed to relevant to June, and I am okay with that.

The best part of this story is the synopsis.

The worst part? The dialogue has no quotation marks. You have to pay attention and filter out action from words and all I'll say is I'm glad this was a short read. But if that's a deal breaker for you, now you know.

This would probably make a great movie as there is some <i>The Martian</i>-esque similarities as far as disaster and thinking on your feet but in space. But where I hear the book THE MARTIAN is as good as the movie, in this case, were this ever to be adapted, the same would not be said.

What I did find interesting were the literary paralells to a beloved classic, which I did not pick up on until quite far into the story, but once I saw I couldn't unsee. It doesn't stick to said plot 100% -- it couldn't -- but where it can, it does. I didn't hate it but it didn't salvage this, either.

This is a story I wish I could've loved because of the interesting plot/themes but the execution, and main character, and lack of punctuation, really dragged down.