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rsadelleI read this because it's a lesbian YA sci fi novel, and it didn't disappoint me. I also read most of it at jury duty, and it was straightforward enough that it didn't suffer from reading it in bits and pieces. Cassandra Leung is a Reckoner trainer-in-training in New Los Angeles, Southern Republic of California. Reckoners are giant, trainable, laboratory created monsters that bond to ships and protect them from pirates. On Cassandra's first time out as a full Reckoner trainer, she gets captured by pirates, who want her to raise and train an illegal Reckoner.
The love interest is Swift, one of the pirates who is in training to potentially take over for the Captain. The moment we met Swift, I thought, "So, Natalie Dormer in Hunger Games." The book came out in 2016, so she might actually be modeled after Natalie Dormer in Hunger Games: "She's about my age. Her blonde hair is desperately trying to recover from a sideshave, and she's got a feral grin on her lips."
One of the things I really liked about this book is that there's no angst or surprise or struggle about the characters being queer. Cas and Swift are just straightforwardly lesbians. At one point in the narration, Cas compares Swift to the girls she dated at school. When the pirates are celebrating a victory, Cas walks into their party to find Swift with a girl in her lap. (Um, I would read a lot of pre-book fic about Swift hooking up with girls on the ship and in various ports.) They also explicitly acknowledge that there's a power imbalance between them - Swift is a pirate, and Cas is their captive - and that they can't be together because of that, which is not something I see much in YA novels.
The book ends with Cas joining the pirates as one of the trainees, and finding out something about what Swift did before they met. I don't want to spoil you too much, but suffice to say, it puts a damper on the possibility of a happy reunion. There's a sequel I haven't read yet, and it looks like there might just be two books - the author's third book comes out next year and is about a different world - which means they might work it out in that book. I certainly hope so, because my biggest worry about the book is that it has the potential to be the setup for a whole series where something gets in their way every time Cas and Swift try to be together, and that's not the kind of story I would enjoy.
The love interest is Swift, one of the pirates who is in training to potentially take over for the Captain. The moment we met Swift, I thought, "So, Natalie Dormer in Hunger Games." The book came out in 2016, so she might actually be modeled after Natalie Dormer in Hunger Games: "She's about my age. Her blonde hair is desperately trying to recover from a sideshave, and she's got a feral grin on her lips."
One of the things I really liked about this book is that there's no angst or surprise or struggle about the characters being queer. Cas and Swift are just straightforwardly lesbians. At one point in the narration, Cas compares Swift to the girls she dated at school. When the pirates are celebrating a victory, Cas walks into their party to find Swift with a girl in her lap. (Um, I would read a lot of pre-book fic about Swift hooking up with girls on the ship and in various ports.) They also explicitly acknowledge that there's a power imbalance between them - Swift is a pirate, and Cas is their captive - and that they can't be together because of that, which is not something I see much in YA novels.
The book ends with Cas joining the pirates as one of the trainees, and finding out something about what Swift did before they met. I don't want to spoil you too much, but suffice to say, it puts a damper on the possibility of a happy reunion. There's a sequel I haven't read yet, and it looks like there might just be two books - the author's third book comes out next year and is about a different world - which means they might work it out in that book. I certainly hope so, because my biggest worry about the book is that it has the potential to be the setup for a whole series where something gets in their way every time Cas and Swift try to be together, and that's not the kind of story I would enjoy.