I’m not usually into reading about death and disease (I like to keep things somewhat light over here), but this was surprisingly good and somehow not too depressing.

The ‘terminally ill teenager’ trope used to be fairly popular, and I always hated how it was done, but this story avoids some of the pitfalls of those plot lines. I never felt that the trope was being used to get some cheap tears out of me, it never felt as though either of the main characters was just a tragic figure, but at the same time the main girl’s situation was not treated lightly (in my opinion). Lenni felt like a real person to me, and someone I might have wanted to befriend. She was a little bit odd and ‘quirky’ without it ever straying too far into eye-roll territory (and I do love to roll my eyes).

Something about this novel just felt… nice. And I want to explore more stories of inter-generational friendship, as I feel it’s something that’s lacking from our societies, and I’d like to be inspired to go out and talk to people of all kinds and backgrounds, and learn from those more experienced than me.

Sweet enough but too surface-level! It felt a bit like a children’s story trying to introduce me to a few basic stereotypes about different eras. The historical footnotes were especially annoying and minimally informative. At no point did I see why I should care about this cat (except that his bond with his human gave me a few warm fuzzies).

I also expected a bit more Edinburgh flavour, but this could really have been set in any old UK city.

I’m terrified of space, not the biggest fan of romance books, and didn’t love ‘Daisy Jones and the Six’, so I went into this with a certain reluctance (but the book was a gift, so what was I to do?). I found myself pleasantly surprised.

The novel alternates between a ‘present day’ (1989) space mission going awry, and chapters presenting the backstory leading up to that mission, primarily focused on building the relationships between the characters. This structure helped to keep the tension throughout the novel, whilst providing slower, character-focused chapters in the middle. The overall effect was highly readable and engaging.

To me, the weakest part of the story was the romance. It was one of those relationships that, once feelings were admitted to each other, involved a lot of pretty speeches in which the leads tell each other how special they are in their eyes. Very sweet, I’m sure, but not particularly interesting from a reader’s point of view. I prefer for feelings to be rarely spoken but often shown, or at least for declarations to be more subtle and original than gushing and soppy.

When it comes to character relationships, I appreciated seeing the bond the main character had with her niece. That’s a relationship I don’t often see portrayed, and it warms my little heart to see a loving and close relationship between an aunt and niece.

So, overall: good but not great. I will remember to look up at the stars a bit more often, though.