The science fiction book, Babylon Twins, is a strange little tale of human survival amidst a machine-created apocalypse.

El and Clo are twin girls. They and their younger brother, Dyre, avoid the machine takeover when their mom escapes with them into the forest. Ten years later, the children are grown. They must return to the city to find their mother. On the way they battle unique creatures within the surreal environment created by AI.

Babylon Twins has an original take on a post-apocalyptic world. The world-building was my favorite part. Robotic Santa Clauses wandering in the forest trying to capture stray humans? Yes, please. The plot was good and seemingly followed what two teenage girls would do in each situation. However, is that enough to recommend this book to you? Unfortunately, not really.

The characterizations were paper-thin. Clo is the sentimental and boy-crazy twin. El’s main characteristic is her ability to calmly problem solve, which usually just involves shooting something. Both girls are extremely violent, as is this new post-apocalyptic world. But the author clearly points out this was their style even before the machine takeover—as eight-year-olds. The lesson appears to be that society may lock you up now but just wait until the end times when your skills will be highly sought after.

For these reasons, Babylon Twins receives 2.5 stars rounded up to 3 stars from me. If you like to read for the plot and not the characters, you may enjoy the author’s inventiveness. Otherwise, it’s probably not a good choice.

Thanks to Girl Friday Books and NetGalley for a copy in exchange for my honest review.

I received this arc via NetGalley for an honest review. The description of this book instantly hooked me. Two badass sisters in an apocalyptic world taking on the big bad, while set in Northern California (where I’m from) yes please!!

In the end I had a hard time connecting with the characters and the writing style really though me off. I know that the characters explained why they were telling the story this way but I just couldn’t seem to get past it.

I was disappointed because there was so much there that I wanted to love. Both Chloe and El were funny and seemed like they would be so likable but it just fell flat for me.

Babylon Twins vibes give me Christopher Moore meets the zombie genre. Only this time the zombie's are addicted to their phones, witch is fine because I'm addicted to my phone.

El and Clo the twins in question out run the first wave of the zombie's thanks to their mom. Who had a hand in the downfall of humanity. Family trip into the woods forever! Even that doesn't last long. Mom heads into the wild world after a zombie Santa ruins the peaceful life they made for themselves.

After sometime, El and Clo along with their brother Drye decide they must find Mom.

For me I give this book a 3/5,

2.5 stars, rounded down. Babylon Twins is quite a ride—incomprehensible and incoherent at times, but still wildly entertaining and fun. eARC provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

The premise: Half-feral twins emerge from the woods to save their family from the AI apocalypse that they've been hiding from for ten years.

The characters:
- Clo and El are inseparable twins that speak their own language constantly. They don't grow throughout the story, but they are interesting to read it. Not people that I connected to, but definitely entertaining.
- Dyre is their younger brother, who is only slightly less feral than CloEl.
- Mama helped create Yerba City, the AI who drugged the whole world. Oops. She was super-prepared for something bad to happen and has lots of survival skills, which she passed on to her kids.
- Yerba City is set up to be the villain, at least in the beginning. I couldn't take her/it seriously because Yerba is the fictional country in which Tori and friends from Victorious get put in prison.

What I liked:
- The story is told through Clo and El's collective POV. I've never read a book purely in first person plural, and it was a really cool format.
- The beginning is fascinating, with lots of cool images of their camp in Northern California.
- Deaf character rep.

What I didn't like:
- As soon as they journey into what's left of civilization, the whole thing spirals out of control. It was pretty hard to follow the plot, as there are a lot of technical terms to keep track of, and CloEl don't understand them either.
- Lots of plot conveniences.
- The girls' attitude towards sex and consent makes me ~uncomfortable~. The author tries to make the reader think about the importance of consent, but it doesn't really work.
- None of the characters are realistic, like at all. An interesting and fun read, but this sort of book should make me think more, and probably be scared of AI. Instead, I was just confused.

posted to Goodreads, wouldn't let me link to it

I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

DNF'd around 25%. I was really interested in the whole "sociopath apocalypse twins" concept but I struggled too much with the writing to push through. The whole dual narrator thing was just...a lot. I would be interested in finding out what happens though, if anyone wants to message me!

Ten years ago, a powerful machine intelligence unleashed a nanoengineered superdrug on humanity. Civilization is now a collection of mindless addicts confined to automated treatment centers that tower over drone-dominated cityscapes. Having escaped and grown up in the forests of Northern California alongside their younger brother and brilliant scientist/survivalist mother, Clo and El stayed safe while society collapsed around them.

But when a mysterious stranger and a demonic woodland creature appear and threaten their family, the twins are drawn back to a disintegrating, drug-addled San Francisco. There, biomechanical gods and monsters vie for control of what’s left of humanity’s consciousness. Armed with only a knife, an old hunting rifle, and their secret, cryptophasic twin language, Clo and El realize that surviving the apocalypse was just the beginning—now they’ve got to face it head-on.

This was an interesting read and had some great elements throughout: the characters were exciting and different, the setting was detailed and descriptive and the whole concept of the AI takeover was one which had me hooked from the start.

Nevertheless, this story fell a little short for me. The plot was a little convoluted and difficult to follow at times (partly I think because Gibson tried to put too much into it which left me confused). I was also annoyed because the ending left me disappointed after slogging through the entire journey with the Yetti sisters, for me there were so many questions left unanswered which was extremely frustrating.

These issues were such a shame because, as I said, there were elements of good writing and a great plot throughout the novel but unfortunately they were either not fully thought out or were too inconsistent.

#bookreviewsbymrsc #babylontwins #mfgibson

Love the cover and absolutely had to give it a go. It wasn’t as chaotic as I thought it would be and reminded me a lot of the violent zombie book Dust. Sadly not as fantastic. The beginning didn’t hock me in and I had to work at continuing the book, the characters just weren’t very likeable and it felt like there was too much info dump in the beginning and a lot of gore fest throughout which didn’t really feel justified. I liked the more futurist elements though, but this didn’t really work for me.