This was a strong start to the Titan of the Stars series, it had that element that I was looking for from this type of book. I had enjoyed the overall concept of this world and how everything worked together to tell the story that it needed to. The characters had that feel that I was hoping for and enjoyed the overall feel of them in this. I always enjoy the way E.K. Johnston wrote this and am excited to read more.

I had such a blast reading this book! I love E.K. Johnston's writing, and this book sounded really good, so I knew I was going to enjoy it! The whole idea of a luxury space cruise that unveils aliens, but that it turns out the aliens aren't dead, and start to take over the ship? It sounded so good!

Celeste and Dominic's lives might have had a similar starting point, being affected by the same tragedy of a fault line opening up, but while she had to continue to live there, he was adopted by a rich couple in politics. (While I loved the mention of my home province, Alberta, I did not like her being the politician representing us, since she was an awful human being.) That she is now a worker on the voyage that he's a passenger on, I really enjoyed those dynamics! She's resourceful and a hard worker, and he's struggling under the weight of his parents expectations.

Watching as they tried to survive the aliens, was thrilling and so very entertaining! The aliens were so creepy, and the in between chapter pages that we got from the alien's perspective...chilling. I was tense the whole time reading this book, I had to know what was going to happen next!

This book is technically a stand alone right now, there's no series mentioned on Goodreads that I can find right now. But at the end, the way it ends, and that in acknowledgements, it mentions that ending is a series potential, and I really, really hope that it becomes a series, because I need to know what these characters are going to do, given the circumstances that they're in!

Loved reading this book, it was so fantastic, and I can't wait to read more by E.K. Johnston!

I received an ARC from the publisher in exchange for an honest review

Titan of the Stars by E. K. Johnston is a mixed third and first person multi-POV YA sci-fi horror combining Alien and Titanic. Celeste and Ren are two young engineers on the Titan, a space cruiser heading to Mars, and were chosen for being young survivors of a massive earthquake that ripped through Ottawa, Canada. Dominic is another survivor of the earthquake and was adopted by rich, opportunistic parents who used his circumstances to better their own. When the three meet and are introduced to fossilized aliens, they couldn't have expected what would happen.

A major theme is how the rich tend to not think of others and will use the misfortunes of others to gain the upper hand. Dominic’s mother is a politician who paraded her son around to really boost her career but is also extremely controlling and doesn't support his artistic talents. Dominic's father is even worse and his boyfriend, Adam, cares more about sex than he cares about Dominic. Celeste and Ren reveal parts of their childhood where the rich came in and gave ‘opportunities’, but many of those chances left the people who took them in a worse spot.

The pacing is on the slower end but is what I would expect of a horror novel. Horror needs time to build that atmosphere and to really set the stakes when things start to happen and not a page feels wasted here. The character arcs are fairly tightly written as are the bits and pieces we see with the aliens on display, such as their neon coloring and how many eggs are in the nest. The worldbuilding and atmosphere really worked together and sold that Alien meets Titanic concept.

Celeste and Dominic have a somewhat complicated dynamic because of their shared past but this is also the first time they've ever met. Celeste isn't very interested in getting to know a spoiled rich teen, though Dominic soon proves to be different from Adam. Meanwhile, Dominic is looking for some kind of connection to what happened when he was too young to remember, but he also starts to develop feelings for Celeste that go beyond that. There's mutual trust and respect that isn't made more difficult by misunderstandings because the aliens are enough.

Content warning for depictions of child abuse

I would recommend this to fans of YA horror looking for something more sci-fi and fans of space horror