The different worlds are fascinating, and I enjoyed the race to find evidence of innocence. The main characters go from hate to love a little quickly to be believable, in my opinion. The science explanations were informative without being overly complicated.

The murder of a famous scientist within a laboratory at the most prestigious institute in the universe forces Aryl and Ver, scientific apprentices, and Jaha, the lab manager, to either team up or rat each other out to save their own skin. This murder mystery marries science, friendship, queerness, classism and racism in an epic story that crosses many moons as Aryl and Ver discover secrets they were never meant to learn.

I found the only drawback to be the middle lagged for me. I would have liked to pace from the beginning and end to match the middle section better! Once I got to the last quarter of the book, I was dialed in. I really enjoyed the theme of people from different backgrounds trying to find a place in a world that wouldn’t support them. I think it was a really well written story with a very intricate world built into it.

I honestly tried getting into this book but it really wasn’t for me. I thought based on the description that I would really like this book but I struggled connecting to the characters. I think there is a good story here and that a lot of people will enjoy it and connect but unfortunately I am not one of them.