Oh this was an exhilarating read! I'm not usually much for heist stories, but this one hit the nail on the head with everything I loved about the heist crew dynamics of Ocean's 8, and the incredibly well-rendered world-building of a Space Station culture of The Expanse. Most of the crew are queer women or genderqueer, the commonly used patois language is Hawaiian Pidgin, and at the heart of it is a second chance love story. Angel and Edie are hard to root for because of the history of hurt between them, and I wish we had Angel's POV as well in the story. But her motivations as a dark horse mastermind makes the heist beats of the story really taut and exciting till the very end. I also adored that this is such a classic found family story, but also weaved into it is a story about a family of immigrants and the community they create in a new world. Not to mention the oodles of delightful banter, excoriating social commentary and the incredibly visual style of writing that that the author effortlessly deploys to make this a positively unputdownable read. I can't remember the last time I felt so satisfied after a sci-fi read that delivered on every front for me.

Thanks muchly to Netgalley for the ebook ARC. Do yourself a favor and pick this up ASAP when it releases in January. Can't wait to read more from the author.

I really wanted to love this book, and I do appreciate what it was trying to do and the representation, but in the end it didn't work for me. I found the characters uninteresting and couldn't root for their romance. I wanted more from the world building, especially the cyberpunk elements. I think this would have worked better as a graphic novel or an animated show than a written book. The best part are the cultural and family portions.

I think a lot of readers, especially those who love con artists, heists, and queer characters, will love this. I'm sad it didn't work for me.

💰ℍ𝕒𝕞𝕞𝕒𝕛𝕒𝕟𝕘 𝕃𝕦𝕔𝕜💰

When I found out this was a queer, Ocean’s Eleven-style sci-fi adventure with a focus on Hawaiian culture, I was immediately intrigued. I love a light-hearted heist, especially when the criminals have Robin Hood ambitions and the target is someone you love to hate. I had high hopes, and I’m happy to say, this story absolutely lived up to the hype I built up in my mind.

The world-building in this book is fantastic. The author creates a future where, despite having colonized the galaxy, humans still hold onto their cultural heritages. I particularly enjoyed the use of Hawaiian pidgin throughout the story, which allowed me to learn more about Hawaiian culture in such an immersive way.

The characters were another highlight. The banter and chemistry between them was wonderful, and I loved the LGBTQ+ representation. Edie, in particular, stole my heart. She’s big-hearted, selfless, and stubborn as a rock. Through Edie, the author does an excellent job of exploring the challenges faced by people trying to rebuild their lives after prison, showing why returning to crime can feel like the only option.

And, of course, the found family trope was the cherry on top. The sense of belonging and loyalty among the characters was so heartwarming. I had so much fun reading this book, and I highly recommend it to anyone looking for a fun, queer read.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

U.S. Pub Date: January 14, 2025

Thank you to NetGalley and Harper Voyager Publishing for the advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

#hammajangluck

4.5 stars! Thank you to NetGalley, Avon, and Harper Voyager for this advanced copy! You can pick up Hammajang Luck on January 14, 2025.

This book sucked me in right away and kept me hooked the whole time! I really have to be in the right mood to read sci-fi, but I feel like the premise and world-building in this story didn't overwhelm you. It eased you in while still keeping the story moving, which I really appreciated. Edie was a fantastic protagonist with flaws and strengths that leapt off the page, I love how Makana Yamamoto wove in a queer, non-binary character and cast so easily into this world. I also loved not only the romantic relationships but the found family vibes evoked with this heist crew.

Angel and Edie's relationship was wonderfully portrayed with just the right amount of angst and tension. I wasn't sure Edie would be able to forgive Angel, but I think the way they went about it made sense for the characters and story.

Overall, this was a super quick and fun read that I highly recommend picking up come January!

This book was not bad, but it was also not for me at all. First, I had zero clue that it was written in a dialect for some parts, and I absolutely hate that so much. I also just did not love the way this book was written. For me, it felt like too much telling rather than showing.

I enjoyed all the LGBTQ* representation in this book, and how “natural” it felt to have those characters, rather than them being a part of the story with that being their only character trait. I also did enjoy the found family, as well as the real family, aspects of it, but overall I think I am just not meant to be a sci-fi reader.

Thank you to Netgalley and Harper Voyager for the advanced copy!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the free ARC! All opinions in this review are my own.

RATING AND OVERALL THOUGHTS:

3.25 stars. I found this to be a very middle of the road but quick heist novel. I didn’t love it but I didn’t hate it either. It was all very surface level and formulaic but it does have amazing queer rep and cultural/socioeconomic themes.

SOME SPOILERS AHEAD

---

WHAT I LOVED:

- The natural inclusion of queer identities that isn’t seen enough in SFF!
- I really saw the love the author has for their culture and Hawaii in the novel and love how it was so seamlessly translated into the characters every day lives.
- The times Edie spent with their family, especially with their sister Andie and her kids, was honestly the best parts of the novel. You could feel the genuine love there and I honestly looked forward to those moments more than the plot moments centered around the heist. My only gripe with that though was how much Edie seemed to *hate* Tyler and went out of their way to try and prevent Tyler from seeing the kids which is pretty fucked up. Tyler was a douche in the sense that we were constantly *told* he put climbing the social ladder over his family with Andie but we never got to actually *see* that so when Edie constantly had the inner thoughts of keeping Tyler away from Andie and the kids, it just felt like someone was pissed that their older sister grew up, had a family, and was currently undergoing some martial problems that Edie took a hard side in. Unless Tyler was doing actual harm to the kids, you don’t prevent them from spending time with their parents. It wasn’t Edie’s place to decide that.

WHAT I DISLIKED:

- The romance was unbelievable. Honestly the idea that Edie just rolled over nearly the entire book, even after Angel was the reason they went to prison, and Angel never truly got called out for it until towards the 80% mark only for Angel to get sooooooo offended for being (rightfully!) called a snake that she kicked Edie out of the room leaving Edie to roll over and show their belly again. I already wasn’t buying their romance, since there was no real moments of bridging that reconnection, that the Happy Ever After ending had no meaning. There was no redemption.
- The characters were very one-note. I didn’t hate them but I had no attachment to any of them really. They were all there to serve a purpose in a very barebones matter. I also didn’t feel like the crew never really became a family, there was no genuine connection for most of the book. Edie absolutely felt like an outlier to most of them except Cy but that is only because they knew each other their entire lives.
- The plot was very predictable, I never felt any of the stakes and it didn’t do anything new in an exciting enough matter to keep me engaged. I did find it hard to suspend my disbelief with how easy everything seemed to be and that they were never caught sooner.

WHAT I AM NOT SURE ABOUT/WANTED MORE OF:

- I was surprised to find that the Hawaiian Pidgin was easy to read (I did have to look up a few words here and there as expected for one with no familiarity of the language but most of it I gleaned via context clues) however I found the dialogue that was written entirely in, for lack of a better word at 2am, “proper” English felt unnatural. I just felt like no one would actually speak like that. I would’ve rather the entire novel been in Pidgin honestly.
- The worldbuilding was a bit sparse which isn’t necessarily *bad* but it also just felt like Earth Lite:tm: but in the vague notions of Space:tm:. There was no depth to it which was a reoccurring problem throughout the novel.

Oh this book. This book was so unbelievably FUN. Not only that, but it expertly portrays desperation and loss, friendship and growth. I love the openness of the queer characters, the unabashed trans-ness of this book. It's such a lovely, magnificent book and I will be recommending it to everyone I know.

My only real complaint is the ending– it felt rushed and in some ways unsatisfying. I think in many ways the least important part of the book to me was the romance elements, but I understand the purpose they serve here– I just found myself not as interested in it. Though I do think the romance will work for a lot of people, it just didn't work as well for me.

I also loved the use of pidgin throughout the book. This books feels like living in Hawaii, albeit a Hawaii far away from the islands. Most of the struggle of longing for the home planet felt like longing for a Hawaiian culture that was ripped from its people by the invasive species that is American imperialism.

This is a wonderful, important book. I will be picking up future books from Makana Yamamoto.

Not objectively bad in any way, just not for me. The prose is very quick and plain and direct, and the first-person narration isn’t to my taste. I was hoping to get swept up in the characters and worldbuilding even though I don’t usually like heist stories, but alas – no, I just don’t like heist stories. Which is of course not Yamamoto’s fault!

If you DO like heist stories, and the blurb sounds up your alley, I encourage you to look this one up! Because it seems like it’s going to hit all the usual heist high-points for sure.

So there's two things to know going into this review: I dystopian futures, and I can't remember the plot of any of the ocean's films. Well, like, I know the rough idea, but cannot for the life of me remember how any of them turn out.

I loved this book. From the start, right out of a hollywood movie, to the end, which, to be honest, could have also been out of a hollywood movie. Meet Edie, fresh out of spending their twenties on an icy prison planet, and ready to go straight. Except. There's rent to pay, cancer treatment to fund, and no one with hire them. Enter Angel with an offer Edie just can't refuse. Maybe one last job won't hurt, and it'll hurt even less when it's against the guy that got Edie sent to jail in the first place.

The book is a perfect future dystopian heist, with a great side of sapphic romance, Hawaiian culture and full cast of LGBTQ+ characters. It was about community, legacy and what really matters in life. It loses a slight star because it could have had a more dramatic ending!

4.5* rounded up!

I can confirm this is NOT like Ocean’s 8 meets Gideon the Ninth. -____-

I wanted to love this very much. Your girl loves a heist. But it was a bit too cheesy and cliche for my taste. Neither the characters nor the world ever had a chance to really set down roots in my brain.

😔

A lovely queer heist novel.

I can definitely see the comparison to Ocean's 8 with this one, though in my opinion it has very little to do with Gideon the Ninth other than both share a butch main character. With Blade Runner it shares the cyberpunk aspect, though Hammajang Luck, while still playing in a capitalist hellhole setting, is nowhere near as bleak. I found this to overall be a rather positive and upbeat book that makes you feel good while reading.

Despite this being a heist novel, this felt almost low stakes. Thus I find the Ocean's 8 comparison much more fitting than Six of Crows, simply due to the humorous tone and how things just simply... work out, with very little pushback. There is still tension, near misses, and high octance scenes that will get you excited while reading! I just never got the "omg I have no idea how they could possibly get out of this" feeling. Instead, it's more celebratory, triumphant adrenaline of watching the characters overcome the obstacles and succeed.

Plot-wise, the book is pretty straightforward. Edie is released from prison, and the very person who betrayed them is now looking to hire them for a job again. But with a family to support, and a big payout at the end of it, and few alternatives, Edie finds themselves agreeing. There's a crew to recruit, bait to lay out, traps to plan, routes to prepare, and finally, the big heist.
There were no big surprises or big twists, though it wasn't exactly predictable, and never boring. Just nothing groundbreaking new, which is perfectly fine!

I really enjoyed the side characters. The final crew was diverse and fun with multiple trans and nonbinary characters of different varieties (some directly referred to as Māhū), and I really enjoyed reading their banter. I almost wish we had learned more about the dynamics within the crew, as ultimately it didn't go very deep. The Hawaiian Pidgin was new to me but a lot of fun to read!

Where the book was underwhelming for me was the romance. I generally found Angel to be one of the weakest characters. She is cold and standoffish, keeping up the image of the unflappable leader, which unfortunately also meant we never really got to glimpse behind the mask. And the few glimpses and honest open conversations were too little too late for me - or rather they just weren't enough for me to believe the romance from it.

Another aspect is how Edie's prison time feels almost forgotten a lot of the time. Eight years is long. And yet they are still considered to be one of the best "runners", meaning able to make their way through the dangerous, impassable corridors of the station. When they haven't been doing it for eight years??? SO much must have changed??? And then they have 2 heart-to-heart conversations with the childhood friend who sold them out, and they are in love and all is well and nothing changed??? It unfortunately broke my suspension of disbelief.

Overall this was a lighthearted read with some pleasant action. It didn't wow me, but it was fun and entertaining depite its flaws.

This was such a fun, fast-paced book. Hammajang Luck is essentially Hawaiian Heist Lesbians in Space, and every part of that is delightful. The casual way the book incorporates Hawaiian pidgin was enjoyable and added a lot of depth & feeling to the worldbuilding, which is essentially a futuristic space colony living late stage capitalism. I loved getting to know Edie and their relationship to family, to their past, to their own identity, and to the other members of the crew. The heist portion moved quickly with some tension but was not too stressful—in that sense, I think Ocean’s 11 as a description of the vibe is right on the mark. Everything wraps up quickly and in a generally satisfactory way. I do wish we had gotten a little more with the other members of the crew, but I think the focus was always more about Edie than about the heist. Very fun.

We need more space heist books.

Hammajang Luck promised me one thing I couldn't resist: outcasts on a heist. It's compared to Gideon the Ninth, but I almost wish it wasn't because the only similarity is sapphics in space, and it fails to include what makes this story unique: the family dynamics.
This is a heist story. It doesn't have any particularly novel scenes, but that doesn't matter because we're here for the fun of it. Edie, upon being released from prison, is roped into yet another crime with their friend - and maybe more - Angel, who betrayed them before. Together with their team of outcasts, Edie and Angel organize a heist against a technology guru trillionaire. I thought the stakes were relatively low for a heist novel, but I didn't mind too much. There weren't a ton of plot twists, either. For as much as the heist was emphasized in the blurb, I feel like this book focused more on vibes than anything...which I didn't love.
I think the issue for me was that I didn't really connect with any of the characters. I'm going to take partial blame for this; a lot of Life Things were going on when I started this book, and I didn't really get into it until after the characters had been introduced, so I didn't really get to know them well enough for a found family book. As far as the main characters went, I thought Edie was fine as a narrator, but they were more avoidant than active. I didn't love Angel, but I didn't hate her. Andie was probably my favorite because it's rare we get to see someone outside the heist have opinions on it.
Hammajang Luck is a sci-fi heist story perfect for fans of found family and real family mixing together.
Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the free e-ARC!

3.25/5

thank you to netgalley for the arc!

i ended up really enjoying this, which i am glad about because it sounded really good when i requested it :) the found family heist squad is really cute and honestly was my favorite part of the whole thing. malia and tatiana are such funny characters to me. the second chance romance was also pretty good as second chance romances go although, as usual, i wish we got a few glances into what life was like during the 'first chance' (and, alright, this wasn't even an actual second chance romance because they technically never got together but it sure felt like it lol)

and finally i wish we got more paige. what an icon

I quite enjoyed this one! I absolutely appreciate that the heist is brought up in chapter one and that there was no slow build up to it. It also remained a constant plot device through out the story and did not get lost, even if it did seem to take a back seat to Edie's relationships with those around them at times. Not that that was bad though because those relationships and Edie finding their place again after being in prison so long was actually my favorite part. I came for the heist and stayed for the community.

I haven't watched Oceans 8 in a while so I do not know if this is the comparison point for any reason besides being the most recent Oceans movie but I will say that I did get Oceans Eleven vibes so it definitely hit the mark for the genre. I don't really agree with the Six of Crows comparison though and cannot comment on the Gideon the Ninth.

There is so much culture and representation laced throughout this story though that even if you don't much care for heist novels this would be worth the read for that alone. All in all a wonderful debut and I look forwards to more from this author.

The story's focus is as much, more probably, on Edie’s relationships as the heist itself. When it comes to Edie’s family – their sister, her kids, and even Edie’s father who passed away before the story began – I was invested. Edie has some of that wild younger sibling to Andie’s more settled adulthood, but they’re both adults now and the relationship has shifted to something more mature. Edie wants to be the protective one and someone Andie can rely on but struggles with it. I would have liked even more of their relationship and how it was reshaped after Edie’s time in prison. Edie’s thoughts on their father were great too. Edie’s feelings that their home – the space station itself – had betrayed them by taking their father greatly interested me. Their family still has its ties to the homeworld, but the station has long since been their world and they must see it as more than a sterile, artificial compartment. Through Edie’s thoughts on their mechanic father, there are hints of a more complicated relationship to this place as a land and a home.

The other relationships were less interesting though. I think the author was trying for a found family vibe with the heist crew, but I didn’t see that kind of depth or bonding from them. I liked the way some of them played off each other, for sure, but it stayed fairly shallow. Then, the romance between Edie and Angel… eh, I wasn’t compelled by it at all. Angel wasn’t developed enough and we didn’t get to see beneath her cold, calculating front enough for me to feel compassion for her. She kept betraying and hurting Edie, someone she supposedly loved since childhood. When it was just something she did eight years ago, even if it took so much from Edie, I could understand them still wanting her and still being able to have a functional relationship with her. But she kept manipulating them and making their life worse for her own gains the whole damn time. It wasn’t offset by showing enough love in their past for me to really accept why Edie went back to her and loved her through it all. I can get behind a toxic relationship that feels inevitable no matter how bad it gets, where circumstances have led the characters to feel like nobody else will ever understand them and what they’ve been through but each other, so who else could they go to? This was not that. The end acted like they’d settled into something healthy, but there was no reflection or dealing with their issues to warrant that. Everything up to that point left me thinking they’re going to go through a series of shitty, painful breakups for a few years before they finally grow up enough to move on to other things.

sad to say that i unfortunately did not care for this book as much as i would want to. i was REALLY excited but i had a hard time connecting with the characters because they were so unlikeable & mean to our protagonist (Edie) and to think i was expecting some found family trope because of the group of friends. i did liked the representation of lesbian, nonbinary, and trans characters because it was very diverse but maybe the story just wasn't for me.

i HIGHLY recommend this book to anyone who wants a queer heist novel that reminds them of the movie Ocean 8 and the world building just like Gideon The Ninth. it won't disappoint i promise.

thank you Avon Books!

Thank you to Avon and Harper Voyager | Harper Voyager, and NetGalley for allowing me to read this book!
I truly enjoyed it as an adult book., and i loved the relationships between the characters, almost as much as I loved the culture woven and preserved throughout.

Hundreds of years later, and it's hung on, and done more than survived-- it's thriving, resistant and strong.

I also loved the butch representation, something that is (thankfully) starting to become more common in sapphic speculative fiction, and the nonbinary representation on top of that! The butch community? The trans community? Absolutely beautiful.

Hammajang Luck is heist-light, and community-strong. I really enjoyed it, and I'm looking forward to the special edition!

I was intrigued by this book because the theme of it basically is "be gay, do crime" except in space with an Ocean's Eleven stylish flair and a nonbinary protagonist. I love seeing more nonbinary characters in SFF and I loved the transmasc nonbinary rep in this.

Edie has been in prison for the last eight years, betrayed by her best friend and partner in crime, Angel. For years they have danced around the sexual tension between them but Angel's manipulated Edie for her jobs, though they started getting into trouble as a united front and it wasn't like Edie was naive. I am not a fan of betrayal arcs and where this lost me was that I felt like Angel never redeemed herself and their romance just came out of nowhere. I never saw the sexual tension or chemistry between them, just hate, mistrust and hurt. Their sexual attraction was there but so subtle I thought it was "Oh this person is hot but she's betrayed me so many times and I'm going to be gullible one more time for her because she's hot."

That said it's tough even in the future for an ex-con to get legitimate employment so I understood their motivations for taking the job.

I did like how Edie had a backbone and stood up for themself. In a lot of betrayal tropes the LI is a total pushover and Edie was not that.

I also didn't care for the found family vibe with the heist crew. They kept teasing Edie for being analog and were completely tone-deaf to their long prison sentence. It started to feel mean rather than like bonding moments. The crew never really felt like a family, they were all in it for themselves and cocky, unlikable characters.

However, I really enjoyed the spotlight on Hawaiian culture and the moments between Edie's family, how they kept their immigrant culture going in space. I liked how Atlas was a Musk or Bezos character times ten set in the future and the space heist plot to take him down.

But this just didn't work for me. I couldn't emotionally connect with any of the characters.

I also really hope that Goodreads cover isn't the final cover. I would have completely overlooked this book with that cover. Those colors are meh and the design has little to do with the story.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the advance review copy. I am leaving this review voluntarily.

I love love loved this trans, Native Hawaiian-inspired, futuristic Ocean's Eleven heist novel. Yamamoto's debut shows that they are one to watch, no question about it.