I would not recommend this novel to people. To be quite honest, it confused me and even made me uncomfortable a few times. The premise immediately set me on the edge of my seat, and I was very excited to try a E. K. Johnson title for the first time.

I posted a review/video about this book in May of 2021, but I never transferred the content onto NetGalley. I did enjoy this book however, and gave it 4/5 stars!

This was a hard book to read for so many reasons. The warnings at the beginning don't really cover it.

Pendt has a special ability to change the genes of any living thing. To her family, that means she is worthless until they can sell her ability when she is 18. Until then she is treated like garbage, given enough food to survive, but that's it. The ship she is on is run by her family and her aunt is very eager to use her ability to make another captain, as well as whatever the highest bidder wants. This will happen the second she turns 18.

Pendt escapes when they've docked at a station and meets the leader, Ned, who is the only one that can run the station due to his Y chromosome. His twin, Fisher, wants no part in the war, but isn't able to run the station. There is a convoluted mess of stuff that happens in the last 30 pages where you learn about more heinous things Pendt's aunt did and the empire is doing, and then the end you're supposed to be excited about the epilogue that doesn't make sense.

Look it was written well, but the plot doesn't encourage a connection to the characters and between the abuse, forced impregnation, and human trafficking, it was too much in such a short story.

Aetherbound is a short science fiction novel that follows the early life of Pendt, starting with her very difficult childhood onboard the Harland, a ship that shares her family's last name. In the depths of space, survival is everything, and the usefulness of your abilities dictates your treatment and calorie count. While many of her siblings have an affinity for electronics, what her aunt and captain really need is a child with star sense to pilot the ship, and Pendt is at the bottom of the hierarchy with only the ability to change genes. When she realizes her only future purpose will be as an incubator, she sneaks off the ship and ends up striking a deal with the Brannick twins, heirs of the family that owns the station, controlled by the empire.

Overall, the tone of the book is less adventurous than the summary may lead you to believe. Pendt is the core of the book, and worldbuilding comes and goes as it serves her context and journey. A lot of it was hard to hold onto because of the way information was presented in fits and spurts as it became relevant. I don't fully understand what happened with the Aether and mages, I don't know what oglossa (sp?) is for, and the empire and rebellion have very little weight in the story before the final stretch. I think this book had a lot of potential- I wasn't particularly bothered by the themes of food and forced pregnancy as control, but Pendt seemed very quickly okay with tying herself to the Brannicks that way so soon after meeting them when it was the very thing she was attempting to escape. Her bonds with both Fisher and Ned were quick rushed, and besides her, characters didn't have much time to develop enough for me as a reader to care about things that happened to them. It felt like large sprints of development in plot and character happened at 40% and 80% of the way through, and the rest were boring lulls compared to the sudden spikes in action.

I was also slightly disappointed by some of the vagueness. I had to search externally to figure out Fisher is trans, even as a transmasculine reader myself who is usually combing for any sign of representation. I don't think the subtlety was pulled off, especially since one would imagine it would be something to contend with given the themes of forced birth, human trafficking, and lack of autonomy. I also felt that Pendt's powers as a gene mage were not as well explored as I would have liked, though that's simply a personal opinion.

Despite this book being a bit of a letdown, I think I will still try E.K. Johnston's other titles. I enjoyed the prose and the characters that were built up, but I think this one just wasn't for me. If you're a fan of quieter space settings as opposed to exciting rebellion-focused narratives and tense space opera, this might be more to your taste!

DNF’d at 16%. It just wasn’t for me. I liked the Aether magic and it had a lot of promise but the rest of the story fell flat. It was very unrealistic where the main character starts at 5 years old and then they tell her to not use her magic because she’s a waste of space. The amount of times the word calories was said…… it was way too many times. This does have a trigger warning for calorie counting which I thought I was ready for but it was very strange. Also the amount this girl goes through when she’s 5 YEARS OLD is insane. I just was sad the entire time because she’s 5 and being told she’s worthless. So not for me 😂

*2.5

I had really high hopes for this one since it sounded so good from the premise and made me think of a lot of sci-fi movies I have seen. Unfortunately, the book fell very flat for me. I could not form a connection to the main character at all or even really any of the side characters. This in turn made the stakes not seem very important for all of the problems they were facing.

The worldbuilding was interesting and I enjoyed learning about the history of the different colonies and how they became to be as they are present day. There was a big emphasis on calorie counting which was interesting because and it seems pretty realistic for something that would need to be accounted for in the case of long space journeys with limited food. Other books I have read didn't go into too much detail on that but this book heavily focused on it. This might be a trigger warning for some people though and the author does mention it as a trigger in the beginning of the book so that is good.

I really wanted to like it but just couldn't connect with the characters. I'm sure others will like this but it just didn't do it for me.

I wanted to red this one because I am trying to expand what I read for my students. Space adventures are just not in. The wheel house or what I enjoy reading but it is good to have as an option to share with a student

I am not going to read this book due to the trigger warnings. Aetherbound sounds very interesting and I love the sci-fi and adventure genres, but this book just isn't for me. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to read it.

This scifi just did not meld well with what i'm currently looking for. The introduction was an info dump that didnt peak my interest and instead lost it.

I loved aetherbound. The story of an unlikely found family. Space, bonding and finding hope where you least expect it

this...wasn't for me. i've liked books from this author in the past and as a Star Wars fan, i thought this would have been a fun read but it was the complete opposite. i ended up DNFing early on. i felt like the writing was the best and i didn't really feel like i was able to get to know the characters as well as i could have. thank you for the opportunity.

I don’t read Scifi often, usually because it can take so long to get to the plot. And that’s what happened with this book. I struggled to become engaged with the book and stopped reading for weeks. The story didn’t truly pick up until the last six chapters, which was honestly too long for me to wait.
Full review to come on YouTube.

This wasn’t a bad book and it had some unique ideas, but I felt like the “magic”system for lack of a better description wasn’t that developed and the book was too short to have enough time to develop the world or any concepts.

This book immediately captured my attention and created a world that I was ready to be fully immersed in. Learning about Pendt’s life on the Harland was so interesting, you couldn’t help but get hooked. However, once she left to go to the Brannick Station, the book just took a sudden slow turn. While the magic in this story is unlike any I have ever seen which is such a refreshing change, I wish there would have been more conflict in the second half of the book.

Pendt embarks on a journey to try and break away from the life that she was born in to. When she sees an opportunity to escape, she takes it, and in doing so ends up finding her chosen family.

This was such a fun and quick read. Watching Pendt grow as a person, and truly embracing herself and her new friends, made this story easy to love. I wish there had been more conflict, but the world that was created has such potential that I hope to see in future books.

Rating: 4.5

Aetherbound is one of the few young adult books that I’ve read in my time as a book reviewer that I felt unsure about sorting into one age range or another. While the characters certainly fell into the age group that is typical for young adult books, this book read more like an adult coming of age story to me. This might sound contradictory–let me explain.

As Aetherbound starts out, you learn about the main character, Pendt Harland, as a young child growing up on a spaceship travelling through space and you spend time with her as she gets older and older until she becomes a teenager. This doesn’t happen over one chapter like in some other books, but rather what felt like at least a quarter (if not more) of the book–which is why I got more of a coming of age book for adults vibe from it. The pacing, the tone, and some of the subject matter and the way it was handled all had a hand in it.

As I neared the end of Aetherbound, I found myself wishing that it was a little longer because I would’ve liked to spend more time with the characters. Considering the amount devoted to the growing up phase of the main character I think that it would have made sense if the latter part of the story was longer as well. Maybe I expected the same pacing throughout and found too much of a difference between the growing-up years and the passage of time for the grown years?

All that aside, if I really think about it, the way in which E.K. Johnston told the story still worked. I definitely found it entertaining and I think it’s actually a good sign that I wanted Aetherbound to be longer because I would’ve liked more details about the world, the magic system, and the characters (of course). This was my first E.K. Johnston novel and I will say that I was definitely entertained and became attached to the characters rather quickly. I definitely plan on reading more of the author’s past books as well as keeping an eye out for anything new.

Actual rating: 2.5/5 stars

In Aetherbound we follow Pendt who was born to a family that operates a space freighter where survival is the only thing that matters and people are only as valuable as what they can contribute. We start following her at 5 years old and we see her go through many forms of child abuse and restrictive eating because of a genetic magical mutation that was discovered when she was a child. When she is seventeen, she escapes and forms a bond with the Brannick twins, heirs of the family who owns the space station. They conspire to take over the space station.

This book was honestly just too short and not action-packed enough. I also thought that the content wasn't really handled properly for a YA book and it just kind of rubbed me the wrong way. Maybe it just wasn't for me but I really didn't enjoy it and so much could have been explored but wasn't. A lot of it was also told and not shown which hindered my experience as well.

Thank you to Penguin Young Readers Group, E.K. Johnston, and NetGalley for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I think that unfortunately, this being my second read by EK Johnston, I've determined she is not the author for me. I found all of this incredibly lackluster and forgfettable. The only things that have stuck with me are the negative parts, like being triggered by the calorie counting, which was a shame.

This started out really promising. We have a main character that grew up in an isolated environment where she people are treated according to their usefulness and she has a genetic mutation that deems her undesirable. She decides to flee from her family during one of their space-station layover and meets the Brannick twins, heirs of the family that owns the space station. They end up working together towards their goals. As I got towards the middle to the end, I wasn't as invested. The story became confusing and I felt detached from the characters. The ending had really good moments but it overall felt underdeveloped, plot-wise and character-wise.

*Trigger Warnings* (contains spoilers)
Eating Disorder
Forced Implantation/Pregnancies
Human Trafficking
Sexual Content
Confinement
Kidnapping
Medical Content
Child Abuse

I received a copy of Aetherbound in exchange for an honest review.

I went into this book with high hopes. Space Opera and a queer storyline. However, I was a bit disappointed. The storytelling is slow paced and more following the characters personal growth with a sub plot of a rebellion.

I really enjoyed the concept of Magic in this book and how you're born with a specialty. I even enjoyed the characters, Pendt, Ned and Fischer. It was their fates that kept me going through to finish the book. This book has a very YA feel but with very adult themes which was a bit odd and could be uncomfortable to some.

Overall I did enjoy this book and would like to see where the author takes the next book and adventure.

Give me all the space novels! Give me all the chosen family! And characters making their own way! E.K. Johnson’s talent for character-driven novels and her experience writing Star Wars are on display with this compelling space epic.