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

I am SO happy to have received this ARC and happy to report that I LOVED this book, one of my most anticipated book releases of 2021. It has everything I could ever want: a sci-fi setting that has the vibes of Pacific Rim, a found family aspect a-la Firefly, and two girls falling in love.
This book is YA but it does NOT shy away from anything, especially not the horrors of war. There are very bloody and violent scenes. These characters are ruthless - I've seen them described as feral, which I agree with. But you love them all the same.

The amazing writing pulled me in from the very first chapter, and the two perspectives of Sona and Eris were each written very differently, so the two characters felt like they had very different personalities from the start. I feel like sometimes dual POVs tend to sound the same, but this book masterfully differentiates from them. All the characters in this book feel lifelike.

My only complaint is that it could get a little bit info-dumpy at times; there was a passage at the beginning that info-dumped about a war, which I feel could have been conveyed to the reader just by weaving it into the story and character's conversations. Despite this, Gearbreakers was an incredibly impressive debut novel, and I can't wait to read more by Zoe Hana Mikuta.

Two girls on opposite sides of a war discover they're fighting for a common purpose--and falling for each other

I went into this book with my hopes and expectations incredibly high. And somehow, still it managed to exceed them. Here is a list of out of context reasons I loved it:

CHARACTERS. Messy, witty, beautiful characters.
Found family!!
Sapphics that tattoo and flirt at the same time.
CYBERPUNK SAPPHICS DID I MENTION
Slow-burn enemies to allies to…
Brilliantly described mecha-windups
Badass action scenes!!!