Pretty good horror bite. If it had been just a liiiittle 🤏 longer perhaps I'd have enjoyed it more. Would make a great movie though.

Simple enough formula: Creepy forest, camera feed, and an Entity. What else can you ask for?

I wanted to like Dark Orbit, because the plot is such a fun idea. A science fiction where they discover a planet with dark matter and spatial anomalies? Sign me up.

The world building is very interesting. I love the idea of people traveling by dissolving into light beams. I would have liked to see more futuristic science tech though, or at least more descriptions of it.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t really connect with the writing style. It felt almost detached and the descriptions a bit incomplete.

I did not like Sara (the MC). I do not care for colonists and the way they just barged in on that planet and immediately tried figuring out how to use it feels very colonist to me. I also think it’s very unfortunate that they spend majority of the book trying to teach a blind person to see. Like yes, do tell me more how you feel about disabilities and indigenous people 😐

It’s also another science fiction where the scientists do not observe proper safety protocols. Go figure.

Edit: on second thought, I am bumping the rating down. The way that the author treated other cultures was very.. sus.

🎧📘 What i can say about this book is that it had a very good idea - introducing Saint Petersburg, at least the most famous and iconic places of the city, through fantasy short stories that were set there, also using the folklore and myths known about this place. Sounds good, right? (that's why i still love the book cover with the mermaid) The reality of listening to this audiobook was different... at least from my point of view. I don't even know what i was expecting from this, but i want to say that it seems... shallow? i can't find the right word for this. Basically, it was hard not to give this a DNF... i don't know what helped me to work through this and reach the end successfully.

For the book itself - in my opinion, the stories were too short, and i couldn't kind of connect with the characters in any way. Before i got a chance to get used to them, it was already over.

As I said, the idea of introducing culture, places, folklore and legends of Saint Petersburg was great. The author herself wrote in the introduction that it started as a joke in the chat with someone and then it turned into a love letter to the city. I am still planning to see this book in the e-book format so I can take notes about the most famous and iconic places of Saint Petersburg (because i would like to be aware of them... it might get in handy in the future i guess😊)

now the only thing i can say is that at least i know this exists.✨