3.5 stars.
I love codependency to a toxic degree!! Tied up with environmental horror and I’m sold. I did enjoy the concepts here, but as I feel with many a novella, I could use more. Loved Vinh and Amara being absolutely awful for each other, recognizing that, and committing to each other even harder. Hot and cool, I’m not even mad at it. Jesse being the aroace addition to round out their group made for a fascinating dynamic. I kind of want more science stuff. I know the author is an actual genius scientist, but constructing an entirely new fictional ecosystem and biohazard undoubtedly makes it hard to flesh out 100%, but I’m SO interested in the aftermath. Will keep an eye out for more of her releases in the future regardless, as this hit so many things I crave in my reading.

Thank you to Tor and Netgalley for the advanced look at this amazing novella.
I really enjoyed this. It reads like an episode of Black Mirror.
On a newly colonized planet, with two settlements on it, there is an organism called The Gray that moves along removing things it deems toxic to the environment. But we are reassured! It is not sentient.
A married couple are put to the test when a catastrophe forces a policy change that no one is comfortable with. There are several layers of horror packed into this tiny, propulsive read. It manages to raise some serious questions while scaring the heck out of you.
Full cover love on this one as well.

I'd heard so many things about this
Book as there was a lot of hype around it. It did .lt let me down either. It's definitely a page turner.

Space horror, toxic polycule, and a hostile planet that will kill them? Lets gooooo. Vinh and Amara are wives who have moved together on a colonization project, new Belaforme, along with their childhood friend, Jesse. The planet is beautiful and dangerous, having produced something known as "the Gray" a mechanism that attacks invasive organisms and consumes them.... yet something is awakening within the Gay. That's not the only danger in this planet, the council has enforced individuals to enter into arranged marriages in order to produce new heirs... and despite the fact that Vinh and Amara are married to one another they are both forced to take up partners... and thus jealousy and dark feelings emerge in their own relationship. Vinh, Jesse, and Amara are all connected... but the planet and their own relationships with one another will test them to the brink of their survival... and sometimes the only thing to do is be eaten alive. This was such an interesting read and I loved getting to know the relationship dynamics between the three individuals and the dark feelings within each of them. While battling their own survival on a deadly planet they are navigating complex relationships and betrayals. I had fun reading this and would absolutely recommend it!

*Thanks Netgalley and Tor Publishing Group | Tor Nightfire for sending me an arc in exchange for an honest review*

This book was such an interesting premise, and an absolutely stunning and vivid world with a couple of flaws and execution for my personal taste.

As far as the things that I loved about this book, it was extremely well written. The prose was lush and rich, and gave wonderful imagery for the planet and the characters. I love that the characters were flawed from the beginning, and their flaws played a major part in the storyline. I feel like a whole lot was accomplished within this shorter story and I feel like, this could definitely have been made into a longer book and I still would've read it. I was very interested in the Gray and I wish we had gotten more explanation of what that was.


I stuck through this book simply because the characters in the story were so well done that I had to know what happened at the end. But getting through it was difficult due to the numerous POV changes with literally no warning and the flashbacks to different points in time within the book that were just thrown in there with absolutely no warning as well. It made it very hard Whose point of view was from as well as whether or not I was reading the current timeline or in an alternate.

I was also surprised by some of the content that was in the book that was not depicted in the synopsis. I had no idea it was a forced poly relationship that was against the wants of the characters. I kind of wish that had been described better in the synopsis it made it sound like it was consensual. Overall, I was able to get past that, but it was kind of surprising.

Despite these inconsistencies within the writing, I really enjoyed the story and the characters and easily finished novel. I'd read more by the author.