Thank you so much to the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review!

There's a lot of great things about this book -- the concept of mecha fights and rebels bold enough to climb inside them and shut them down was really cool. I liked both of the main characters, Sona and Eris, and there's a lovely found family aspect to this book as well. This is also a great choice if you're looking for a sci-fi sapphic read! Reading this overall was a really enjoyable experience.

However, there were a few things that kept me from giving this a higher rating, and I want to give my honest opinion. Sometimes I got a bit disoriented by the writing, not understanding exactly what was happening or feeling like I missed something that I guess I was supposed to assume happened. The sequential movement of time could have been a little easier to follow. It also took me a long time to get through the first part of this book, but once I did I read it pretty quickly and was very curious to know what would happen.

And the ending ... let's just say I would really like book 2 in my hands right now but I guess that'll be over a year from now, sadly. If you like betrayal and suspense and a good cliffhanger, Gearbreakers will supply you with all of that.

Gearbreaks is a nice antidote to many YA books in that our heroines are much more nuanced than simple 'good person fighting bad guys.' The author does not shy away from the young women killing masses and messily nor being casual in sex. In this way, the dystopian genre gets a nice reboot. At the same time, it does feel very much like a debut effort with some clunky writing and flow issues affecting the reading experience. But I think most will find this an exuberant and action-packed read with some truly kick-butt heroines.

Sona is a mecha pilot - the elite of the elite protecting Godolia interests. She has gone through cyborg-like surgery, body parts replaced with machinery, in order to pilot the god-like mechas. Rebel Eris scrabbles for existence in the outlands. Her mission is simple: destroy the mechas and kill the pilots or die trying. But Sona has a secret - she is from the outlandes originally and saw her family destroyed by Godolia. Now, all she wants is revenge. She's going to find it with Eris - if she can survive the rebels first.

Right from the start, when one of our main characters casually gets out of bed after a night of meaningless sex, you know you are going to be in a harder-hitting YA novel than most. Combine that with the merciless nature in which both heroines slaughter individuals and this hits the right notes for a more grounded and truer dystopian society than most.

Sona is a more broken character, having lost everything early in her life and now enduring more than living. Her mission is to destroy Godolia from within - she just doesn't know how she is going to accomplish that yet. Eris, on the other hand, is all spark and fire; she knows she will die young and have to watch her teammates/friends die one by one. She is a product of the tyranny of Godolia and the environment. When both meet, one personality is cold efficiency and one is fiery ambition. Yet ironically ice wields fire and fire wields ice as weapons.

The worldbuilding is established enough but told in rather simplistic terms. Sona's mecha pilot teammates are your prototypical 'imperialistic' soldiers, assured of their power and righteousness. The rebels are rag tag and lacking organization; a fatalistic and loosely held together group. Eris' group in particular is a 'bad bunch' rejected by other teams and fiercely loyal to her. Both groups were well established and had a variety of personalities; and yet, those personalities felt somewhat shallow and cliche. more prototypes than people.

There is a subplot of a jealous teammate of Eris' that was tedious and one note. And at times, I had to reread several times to understand what was happening in both action and downtime scenes. The book ends on a clear cliffhanger but does complete an arc of sorts in that things come back around to the starting point neatly. The romance is nicely understated (it never overshadows the dangerous situation they are in) and does evolve organically. As well, this is a character driven piece with a nice mix of action sequences.

In all, an enjoyable read with a lot of twists, action, anarchy, and with two very strong heroines. Reviewed from an advance reader copy provided by the publisher.

I may have had too high an expectation for 'Gearbreakers', to the point where I’m left feeling disappointed after reading. Despite this, there are a lot of things that I enjoyed in this book, especially the found family.

'Gearbreakers' is told through a dual POV and the main characters are two young girls named Eris and Sona.

Eris is a Gearbreaker and one of the youngest captains. She leads their crews on missions to take down Godolia’s mechas. She’s intelligent, tough, and incredibly brave. One would describe her crew as the rejects, but she fights to give them a family with a place to call home. Eris fights with her heart on her sleeve and I admired her character so much.

Sona is a newly enhanced Windup Pilot and a product of Godolia. The government has taken her apart and replaced her with parts that no longer make her physically human. She’s fierce, strong, and underneath her hard exterior, she’s a kindhearted person who just wants to be seen.

These two characters may seem like they are polar opposites, and in some ways they are. Despite being a weapon for Godolia, Sona shares the same goal as Eris, though. They both want nothing more than to see Godolia torn to shreds. This is how the two eventually end up on the same team instead of fighting one another after their paths cross.

I really enjoyed both Eris and Sona. In fact, I loved all of the characters in 'Gearbreakers'. There were a lot of them to keep track of, especially in the beginning when names were just being thrown around. Once the story hit the middle mark their individual personalities began to stand out on their own, though. I was able to enjoy them all more and they were the saving grace of this book.

The plot held a lot of promises, especially after reading the blurb, but overall it was very confusing. I had a hard time following along because of the writing. The pacing was off and I was left with more questions than anything else. Zoe Hana Mikuta had a great vision for this story and the writing held promise. There were vivid descriptions and well-thought-out plans, but unfortunately at times it felt like there was too much telling rather than showing. Usually, I find it hard to connect with books with this writing style and that may be why I didn’t enjoy my reading experience as much as others.

When Eris and Sona begin working together the plot feels a lot smoother. The world is more fleshed out at this point and it was easier to follow along with. There were still moments where I was left confused, though. It just made me want more from this book than what I got.

Overall, 'Gearbreakers' fell short for me. There are a lot of fun aspects to this story, especially for readers who love sci-fi and mecha stories. The characters are fantastic and the splash of romance we see from two Asian female characters is lovable when it’s so rare to see in YA. But the plot is extremely confusing at times and probably needed to give readers fewer descriptions.

If you’re a fan of sci-fi then I would still recommend checking out 'Gearbreakers' to give it a try! This may just be a case of this book wasn’t for me but others will love it.

Thank you to Feiwel & Friends and Netgalley for providing me with this ARC.

Trigger warnings: blood, body horror, child death, death, death of a parent, emotional abuse, gore, grief, gun violence, kidnapping, medical content, murder, pyshical abuse, torture, violence, and vomit.

I’m not much of a sci-fi reader, but even still, Gearbreakers found its way onto my anticipated reads of 2021 list. After all, how could I not be interested, after hearing “Two girls on opposite sides of a war discover they're fighting for a common purpose--and falling for each other”?

Admittedly, I’m still not entirely sure how I stand with Gearbreakers — I’d picked up and put back down Gearbreakers maybe four or five times until I finally got into it. I never really made it past the first ten pages each time, until one night when I turned off my electronics, and told myself that I’d be finishing this book that evening no matter what. I’d read a couple reviews prior to starting Gearbreakers that said it picked up around 25% in, and I’m inclined to agree. I’m unsure if the slow start to Gearbreakers is typical for sci-fi stories, or if it’s just the book itself.
I’ll start with what I liked about Gearbreakers — I enjoyed the yearning, and the soft moments between Sona and Eris, the found family, and for the most part, most of the characters. Eris and Sona — as well as the rest of the Gearbreakers — were messy and flawed, and I loved how chaotic and feral they could be. I loved Jenny’s protective nature, and her fierce loyalty. What I enjoyed most of all, was the anger, grief, rage, and hope that the Gearbreakers were allowed to feel. The way Gearbreakers explores identity is one of my favorite things about it. It’s character-driven, and quite fast paced too — once I got past the initial 20% that I kept getting stuck on!

I also really appreciated that it’s told from a dual perspective; being able to read from both Sona and Eris’ different points-of-view really highlighted their differences and experiences. I found them to have very distinct voices, with Sona being a little more emotionally detached, and Eris being a lot more warm. Unfortunately, I found that at times I struggled to keep track of what was going on, and I’m not sure if that was due to structure, or if I was simply reading too fast.

While I’m struggling to distinctly identify aspects that stood out to me, I did tab a lot of quotes, and enjoyed the way Zoe writes. I think overall, Gearbreakers is a book that’s based on vibes and the aesthetic, and I admire it for that. On the other hand, I didn’t love the worldbuilding as much, and was left confused a couple times. I’m not sure that I still understand how Godolia works. I also wonder if the majority of this book is really to set us up for the sequel, and I suspect that I’d like it a lot more if I read both Gearbreakers and its sequel in one sitting.

All that being said, while I was a little disappointed by the execution of this story, I’ll probably be thinking about the ending forever — and will definitely be checking out the sequel!

Zoe Hana Mikuta said she likes to write about angry kids. In this debut novel, she does it to perfection.

"Gearbreakers" is a non-stop, intense ride through giant mecha fights and explorations of PTSD and complex grief. Set in a Mad Max-esque, fight-for-survival Badlands ruled over by mega-tech city Godolia, "Gearbreakers" also explores morality and the meaning of revolution.

To make a long story short, this is one of the best rebellion stories I've ever read. You see kids so fervent on their mission they're tipping the scale to fanatical, and using tactics of mass destruction that make them question their morality. Which is something I absolutely loved about this book. Often, there's only one big antagonist; but this is an entire way of life that they're bent on eradicating. And Mikuta makes you wonder if they made the right decision.

I literally cannot say how much I loved Sona and Eris. Two angry girls who are bent on taking down the system that oppressed them, killed their friends and family. Also, the found family trope in this book is explicitly queer and so well-executed.

More than the setting and the themes it explores, "Gearbreakers" is just pure fun. As a fan of giant robots and angry girls who are allowed to be angry, this book was right up my alley. I loved that technology had become similar to gods; that layer was so incredibly poetic and the quotes that came from it are honestly tattoo-worthy.

I actually have no complaints about this book, except that I'll have to wait for the next one.

This book depicts a very interesting dystopian sci-fi world, where the line between the haves and the have-nots is immense. You will be rooting for Eris and her crew the whole time! The battle scenes are very detailed and really entertaining. I will say that I was a bit disappointed there was much less of a relationship between Eris and Sona than I was led to believe. The book is being label as having queer romance, but it doesn’t. Basically towards the end of the book they realize and acknowledge that they have feelings for each other, and that’s it. Nothing happens. My assumption is that it’s being set up for more relationship details in the second book coming out next year. Oh, and I wish that the name of the country was different. Godolia looks way too much like gondola, and that’s how my brain kept reading it. But I was definitely entertained while reading this book and would certainly recommend it.

Thank you to NetGalley & Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group for this advanced reader copy. All opinions expressed in this review are my own.

As always thank you to NetGalley, Zoe Hana Mikuta, and Feiwel Freinds for an advanced copy of this read!

Godolia is merciful, or so they say. Neither Sona or Eris have found it so. As the sole survival of a town destroying even, Sona joined the ranks of the Mechs, aiming for the highest of all giant robots, the Valkyrie. She aims to take down Godolia from the inside. The Gearbreakers do just what their name implies, break down the gears that run these mech-deities. Eris is particularly good at bringing down the giants until she's captured. Sona decides in a split moment that Eris is the key to bringing down Godolia. Will they escape the tyranny of one ruler for another? Or will their vengeance ever be complete?

I loved the concept of this book. Ladies either in giant robots or taking down giant robots in an attempt at rebelling against the system that has done them both dirty, vengeance and sci-fi in spades, as well as a very slow enemies to lovers. I did enjoy this book, but I've got pros and cons.

Pros: LGBTQ representation, giant robots, intensity from the get go, enemies to lovers, so much sass, reasonably well written side characters, found family, interesting plot twists.

Cons: The intensity never stops, there's a weird attraction moment that felt toxic, and the second half just felt... like it was suffering from a little too much filler. We needed x, y, and z to happen but there's going to be a second book. My biggest issue was that even before I knew there was going to be a second book I could feel in the writing. The way plot was left open, the way so many things weren't resolved.

Overall, an enjoyable read but suffers a smidge from filler and sheer intensity.

Read if you like: LGBTQ rep, giant robots, rebellions, and enemies to lovers and kind of back again.

Thank you NetGalley and Feiwel Friends for a digital ARC of Gearbreakers!

CW: violence, torture, death

I have YET AGAIN fallen into the trap of reading an arc of an expected series. But honestly, I don’t care because I enjoyed this book so much. The worldbuilding at the beginning did leave something to be desired, especially in such a complex dystopian/sci-fi society. However, the first chapter had me hooked and the dual POVs allowed the story to pick up quickly. I ended up finishing the book in two sittings.

Sona and Eris are two girls on opposite sides of the war: one a cybernetically enhanced Windup pilot within Godolia, the other a Gearbreaker rebel specializing in taking down said Windups. Naturally, we see some of the hate to love and forced proximity tropes. However, Sona is the biggest reason to stick around because she is such a compelling (and witty) character. Granted, the unhinged side characters and their chaotic found family certainly don’t hurt either.

After THAT ending, I am definitely looking forward to how the next book will play out.

Cyberpunk sapphics. I repeat, cyberpunk sapphics. This is everything I ever wanted rendered in a YA novel. What a phenomenal read.

Gearbreakers was one of my most anticipated reads of 2021 and it definitely did not disappoint! The writing was stunning, and the world immediately drew me in. I loved all the characters and can’t wait for the sequel!

I came for the giant robot dystopia and stayed for the found family. This book checked off a lot of material I love: sci-fi/dystopia, sapphic, found family, stressful ending, interesting world. So, if you’re looking for a sapphic, dystopian robot story with a funny and loveable found family that has an ending leaving you stressed but wanting more, this is the one. Can’t wait to get the physical copy in my hands.

4.5

Okay, let's preface this by saying I typically don't read much sci-fi, but this just drew me in from the description immediately! And it did not disappoint!

Sapphic, found family, violence, Pacific Rim-esque action, this has it all!

The beginning had some pacing issues for me personally, but once it picked up, it picked up fast! I really enjoyed seeing the different POVs and the descriptions and dialogue were top-notch.

Highly recommend! Thank you to NetGalley and MacMillan for the eARC!

What if Transformers or Pacific Rim was told from the point of a view of angry girls on opposite sides of a war? Unexpected, queer, and propulsive with amazing found family vibes, Gearbreakers is set in a post-apocalyptic world where two girls who find something worth fighting for in each other.

Oh, did this fill my Pacific Rim/Transformer heart so well. I loved the world and the characters and felt that this was such an interesting take on story that's well known!

5/5 Stars

I had extremely high expectations coming into this, and I was not let down. The writing truly displays sci-fi and the found family trope at its finest and I was left in awe once I finished reading. Zoe Hana Mikuta has created a stunning debut that is an emotional, captivating, and incredibly fun read. I don’t know how I’m going to be able to survive without the second book in my life, but I can’t wait to see what Mikuta has in store!

The pitch said this book is perfect for fans of Marie Lu's Legend series and hell yeah, I did enjoy this amazing PUNK-SFF debut from Zoe Hana Mikuta.

The worldbuilding is unique in my honest opinion but I can also say, draws inspiration from Madmax and the characters' flaws are centered all throughout the storyline.

Waiting for my physical copy to arrive so I can relive the moments.

ABSOLUTELY STUNNING OMG. Still in shock about how much I loved this so FRTC but this was a PHENOMENAL debut and I’m so excited to see more of Mikuta’s work in the future

it is the sensation of a blanket being drawn around your shoulders, fuzzy with comfort and the faint scenes of memories you can't quite remember flickering through your mind. it is the innate sense of family, not bound by blood, but bound by love, and the warm rush of happiness you receive that comes with both tender care and acceptance.

it is the sound of twigs in a forest snapping under your foot, sensing the vibrations of nearby mechas towering high above your head, and the electrifying relationship two girls have with each other. gearbreakers is all of this, and so much more.

gearbreakers shattered my soul and then managed to stitch it together again. it's a book that i felt so seen in and now takes a special place in my heart reserved just for it. every single thing was pulled together in such a perfect way, and it felt as if everything was as it seemed.

the characters by far were the best part. the chaotic found family, the sapphics, and the villains--all of them painted a wonderful morally grey--made this reading experience so immersive.

sora is a cybernetically enhanced pilot who commands a mecha, one of the few survivors of a past tragic disaster. she submits to the government of godolia, but secretly wants to bring it all down. eris is a gearbreaker, part of a rebel crew that takes down mechas from the inside. she is brash, vengeful, and cunning, and i loved her for it.

although the beginning was a bit slow for my taste, i was thoroughly invested once the pace started to pick up. mikuta's writing is descriptive, but not overly so, and is entwined with a certain lethalness that complements this steampunk world.

overall, i enjoyed this more than i expected, and will eagerly be anticipating the release of the next book!!

Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan/Feiwel and Friends for a free advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

I was drawn to this book from the premise, but the writing style was not quite for me. Although I appreciated the quick back and forth dialogue between characters, and it definitely helped move the story along, there were times I felt we lingered in the POV characters' heads for too long and it didn't feel natural (as in, it helped give exposition, but feels like something the characters wouldn't be thinking about, given their experiences at that point in the story).

Mikuta's writing is vivid and packs a punch, but there were also many times that the prose became flowery in excess.

Overall, Mikuta's writing is solid, but it didn't hit in the way I thought it might. I'm still looking forward to seeing how Mikuta grows as a writer, and I will most likely pick up her future works.

oh my GOODNESS!!

This book has been so hyped up lately, and I was thrilled to receive the arc for it. I am so SO glad that I did, but also sad that I can't talk about it with anyone!!

Zoe has such a way with words, and characters, and relationships. This book FLEW by, and this is some of the best pacing I have ever read.

The action, the relationships, the angst, AH! The ending was also incredible, and thrilling, and leaves me waiting to see what the author writes next!