2.5 stars

**Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.**

Basics
author: self-said Thai ladyboy who identifies as a girl (she/her?)
genre - sci-fi, speculative fiction, dystopian
Lilith (fMC) - sex zek (bot) turned sex-murder zek on a mission

Pros
+ feels like a messy, blood-soaked, plot-ramble through Disneyland while on acid
+ supporting women's wrongs
+ nudibranch connection is awesome
+ I gave up trying to fully understand the plot and am just along for the vibes now
+ vibes: acid trip, high-octane, bloody
+ lgbtqia rep: f/f
+ interesting world-building/dystopia
+ a lot of Go game lingo, which I found mostly interesting
+ very interesting author's note at the end (how the story came about from the author's own upbringing in Thailand)

Cons
- the ARC has spelling and formatting errors (hopefully, they will be fixed before publication)
- At 10%, the lexicon is a full info-dump, a world-building cheat-sheet
- the beginning is so confusing
- page 23-26 info dumps again (in the middle of plot)
- the amount of r*pe, general sexual violence, and genital-based gore is truly over-the-top
- Warrior sex bots? We couldn't have any new concept for the future?
- about as subtle as a sledgehammer
- overwrought, melodramatic writing style isn't my cup of tea
- "baby girl" x1,000,000
- intentionally using male gaze to sexually objectify women to prove a point is really clunky and, honestly, cringey to keep reading
- reads like fanfic by someone who wants to have sex & babies with Elon Musk

Similar vibes - Oryx & Crake by Margaret Atwood, Venomous Lumpsucker by Ned Beauman, Maeve Fly by CJ Leede

TW: Chinese-specific slurs, gore, death, murder, r*pe, poisoning, forced ab*rtion, miscarriage, castration, amputation of many different body parts, funeral pyre, insta-love, impregnation, sex scenes

idk if i was high reading this or if author was high writing this but either way one of us was high ON SOMETHING. First few chapters, I thought there was a perfectly maintained balance between insanity and artistry. Then everything took a turn for the worse.

We start off with a key which i think gives us enough insight about how complicated the world's gonna be. In it, end of the world events and culture revolutions are defined and we get an idea of just how fricked the world is. America is Amirkha because something about Amir and Khans, the internet is gone because of a solar flare, and the US somehow banned color. In an apocalyptic world where the world's environmentally fricked, robots or Zeks have been made as genetically engineered non-human beings and we learn our mc Lilith is a sex one. She fails a mission and finds refuge among some hiding ladies in Dizzyland (was Disneyland) who she learns survive by hosting giant orgies. Lilith bonds with them, falls in love, then a benefactor of one of the giant orgies kills one of them and they plot a revenge plan to kill them back during another giant orgy. At said orgy, we meet the possible killer Luxh who's super rich and plans on mass-impregnating one of the ladies (actually a breeder Zek) to colonize a planet and keep humanity surviving. There's a chain reaction of events since Lilith doesn't want him to, the lady wants him to, and then everything's on fire. Literally. At one point Lilith gets a nuke and sets it off and the end.

From someone who has absolutely no idea what "camp" means, this book was felt very campy. It's very gritty, gory, has lot's of sex and attempted rape but also in-depth world-building. It's like the author put every single possible idea of future events into a book, no matter how absurd. Some were just super exaggerated versions of events already happening today in a masked critique of current society which I did appreciate. Exhibit one: the US banning colors stemming from states like Florida banning books. Unless that was just a read I had. Either way, I enjoyed it and similar aspects of the book's world. It had its own charm, especially at the beginning. Like, I want 30 thousand razor sharp teeth in my vagina in case I need to cut off an offending appendage. I want the ability to release truckloads of hormones and chemicals to manipulate emotions. I believe in Pussy Power. Sadly, the book's writing really just declined after the halfway point.

However! It wasn't a total flop and I know if this book ever went mainstream it'd be absolutely bashed but it doesn't deserve that so I'm giving it a 4/5 to counteract those potential bashes. Thank you Netgalley for an ecopy in exchange for an honest review.

I loved getting to learn about this world and how it was different. I was engaged with the characters and how everything worked with this storyline. It was everything that I was hoping for from the genre and thought worked overall. Wine Lo Borgias has a strong writing style and am excited for more.