Weaver

"Weaver" by Kelly Ann Jacobson was overall a relatively good novel, however there were some aspects of it that left me waiting for more. Jacobson did an amazing job at creating the world and introducing the beliefs and lifestyle of Laffians. Her use of numerous descriptive words enhanced my journey throughout this book allowing it to pull my in. However, the place where "Weaver" fell short was format. While POV is quite easy to jump back and forth from, this novel jumped from topic to topic, such as jumping from character development into court cases, which seemed a little out of place, even though they were quite interesting.
Overall, Jacobson did great work in character development, world building, and plot description, but fell short in format.

My Rating: 3.75

CW: murder, enslavement, mentions of genocide, interspecies racism

This book is what the blurb tells you it is, but not much more. The blurb does tell you everything that happens.
That said I thought it was a nice and quick read. It is written quite well and was very easy to read.
It is a collection of documents so there are a lot of jumps and different perspectives. Nevertheless Jacobson somehow manages that one can still follow the events and not be confused.
This book is also a nice (as in I think rather accurate) reflection of the human race and how some will enslave others, murder others for their own benefit. And how the rest either looks away and pretends they don't know it's happening or find ridiculous reasons as to why these other people deserve it or should actually be happy about it.

However, because of the format, there is no character development. Actually there are barely any characters at all that you can care about/root for. So if you like books that are in anyway character driven, this is not for you. Also there is no line of suspense.

Definitely a message I endorse: anti-capitalist, anti-racist, greedshaming, selfish, tribalistic thoughts and actions disparaged and criticized in a post-apocalyptic novel that is very queer-inclusive. The author's previous two excursions into mostly YA storytelling but that are suitable for adults to enjoy too (ROBIN AND HER MISFITS, TINK AND WENDY) were favorites of mine earlier this year.

Author Jacobson's storytelling chops, in this book, are aptly held up against David Mitchell's famously fractured framework in Cloud Atlas and, while I wasn't a fan of that book, I felt this iteration of that multi-documentary style worked...and didn't work...in the same ways here. It makes the worldbulding, particularly important in a story with an alien species introduced to Earth, a bit spottier and harder to follow than is my personal sweet spot for reading.

What definitely works is Author Jacobson's certainty that all her queer-coded characters are central to the narrative of humanity's survival. It is by no means certain that humanity will survive, but we're giving it a good, solid go in our confict with the superior forces of an uncaring galactic horde. The story is moe than rich enough in detail to make the average teen reader use their pattern-spotting skills, keeping track of the many different threads of the story.

A terrific choice for the experienced SFF reader, the young queer or questioning reader will find themself in here too, and the grown person will enjoy this non-triumphalist, question-authority vibed tale of working for survival.
Highly recommended for the Booksgiving choice to unwrap and dive right into.

After having to flee Laffnia due to a volcano eruption Tamsen and his dad or two of only 200 Laffnians refugees on the ship they call Laffnia, Laffnia, which means life in their language. They were trying to find a new planet to inhabitate but when they landed on the planet which was made of only green sea and no land they couldn’t leave so they made due. Tamsens dad ultimately died by committing suicide but I’d led him to a great discovery in a material where they could make more ships for their growing tribe. After creating their own type of island which was made up of ships all tied together with bridges in between and living on this watery planet for years they finally have contact with health core the company that pretty much runs America and although the plane leaves they do come back to the planet and say they’re going to rescue the Laffnians. The humans promise to relocate them to a uninhabited planet that is the most like their original home planet Laffnia. The humans are more than happy to do this for them but first they want the aliens to gather up all the seaweed they can because it had a special property in it and health core wants to produce and it is sorely needed on earth. The only problem is just like history the original quota isn’t good enough and every time they reach it the humans want more. This is when the crux of the problem begins. In the book made up of police reports eyewitness accounts quart room documents and so much more are not told and chronological order but is easy to follow. The brief summary I have put is pretty much the beginning of what came a problem I found this book to be so interesting and thought the author did an awesome job creating a culture out of whole cloth with their own language and rituals. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and if you love sci-fi you will definitely enjoy it as well it is an alternate future universe where the bad guy doesn’t get the last laugh… Or does he? I want to thank Net Galley and the publisher for my free arc copy please forgive any mistakes as I am blind and dictate my review.

Oof. My bad for having this one on my netgalley shelf for so long! I never got around to reading it. Other books just sparked my interest more. I'm sure this one hits the YA demographic and the concept seemed interesting. I just overestimated my reading interest.