i think this book gave me a better idea what literary thriller meant. def don’t go into this expecting a traditional thriller- there are parts that get crazy and violent, but overall the “thrilling” aspects are purely interpersonal

lily was a boring and shallow main character. i normally enjoy unlikable fmc’s but lily had genuinely no personality other than being stupid and materialistic. i wish she had a better arc

i generally enjoyed the writing and pacing, but some of the dialogue in the beginning had me genuinely wondering if the boys were robots

i also think i had a different understanding of the show than the characters. they all seemed focused on the coupling aspect, when the whole point is the rewards and that there is only one winner

even though the main focus was interpersonal, i don’t think the relationships were established enough. sam and lily being in love was so random and i didn’t actually feel that. we time skipped over all of their bonding

i did enjoy the creepy atmosphere and the overall concept of the show. i also think some of the action scenes with lily and tom were super engaging

the ending was anti-climactic, but i’m not sure how else i would’ve wanted it to end

this was my first science fiction book, and i absolutely loved it. it built suspense incredibly and was insanely creepy, the entire time i read it i had a sense of doom. area x is both fascinating and terrifying

i loved the aspect of not giving anyone names. it made it all feel more clinical and detached. in saying that, there was so much emotion throughout this book. obviously heavy on the fear and paranoia, but also times of deep sadness

our narrator was super interesting to read, both her inner thoughts and her downward spiral

i think the first 100 pages were easily 5 stars, but towards the end it was a little too confusing/vague at times

i do think i likely missed a lot of things and will really enjoy reading threads and other posts/reviews to learn about others interpretations

this book was a entertaining time and had more plot than i was expected. dory (which i don’t love the name or wizard of oz references) was fun to read and had lots of depth. i appreciated that she had her own interests and skills

this was my first why choose novel and it was okay! i think i do prefer one love interest, but this handled it well. i will say adding the “tamagotchi” did make the throuple a little weird since it gave concrete evidence that dory liked one more than the other

it was also way more spicy than i was expecting. the sex scenes were a little jarring because they were pretty infrequent, but when they appeared they were rather long and went into EXPLICIT detail

toto was my far my favorite character. the intern was fun, but the narrators voice for them was grating. i think the entire lore of the corrupt aliens, the kidnapping, and the planet was super interesting

i think some of the social/political commentary was odd, but most were funny

this book covered a lot of the qualms i had with ice planet barbarians- only girls near imminent death were kidnapped, the love interests didn’t care she couldn’t get pregnant, most of the possessive behavior was during sex

karin slaughters writing was, as expected, beautiful. she writes these harrowing scenes so well, they’re not overly gory but are so vivid and have so much emotion

i did have a few small qualms - the ending was a little convenient, some of the characterization was strange, the very final twist was a little random to me (will likely matter more in later books since this will be a series)

emmy was a complex and emotional main character that was intriguing to learn more about

i did enjoy the overall plot and the cast of characters. i basically never knew what was coming next

even though the ending felt a little convenient, it was satisfying that all the loose ends were tied up/explained

i will be continuing this series when it comes out!