I first heard about this book last summer and started following Alechia Dow after her Booky Cookies caught my eye. From there I messaged her and we talked about our excitement over the black led upcoming YA releases and wanting to see black girls in sci fi romances. She even gave some great advice for aspiring writers like myself.
Needless to say, I had this on my TBR and was very excited when I saw that pretty cover pop up on Netgalley one day. The publisher Inkyard Press usually grants my requests and I'm happy they gave me the chance to read this story early in exchange for an honest review.
I had such a mixture of emotions while reading this story. And I'm still not quite sure how to put my feelings into words. I'm not the biggest sci-fi reader but the world Alechia Dow created here really intrigued me. Sometimes when romance is heavily factored into the story the world -building can get lost in the mix. But I thought this story did a good job adding substance to the world while building the romance.
"Love is in every story and in every song."
Ellie is a huge bookworm and she runs this secret library to bring young people in her building happiness during the dark times they currently live in. Readers who are big fans on mainstream young adult books will recognize the many references to different stories.
One thing I really enjoyed about our heroine Ellie was her dedication to her family. Before the Illori took over Ellie's family were trying to adjust to their new neighborhood. They had moved into a new building with a larger apartment after her father and mother got new jobs. And they had to deal with the microaggressions from their neighbors who felt they did not belong. I like how her disabilities were written into the story with such care. These were things she had to deal with on top of everything that was going on but the writing never felt too heavy.
I loved how Alechia Dow never shied away from discussing the racism that never quite went away even after the aliens took over. Ellie mentions that her skin color still angers some people despite the Illori seeing all humans as the same. Ellie's dad grew up as a black man in society experiencing racism just for being smart and outspoken. When the Illori took over people who had mistreated him were turning to him to be the hero. His willingness to speak out for people even the ones he didn't know results in horrible consequences for him and he ends up becoming a shell of the person he once was.
Morr1s is an alien with a love for music. He's got a penchant for David Bowie and feels like an old soul. Morr1s is a labmade who was built to look like a human with dna that does not belong to his father. His father feels he will never live up to the family name and finds him a constant disappointment because he has feelings and true Illori don't have feelings. Sometimes he can be a little overly cheesy but it's so sweet and innocent. You don't usually come across male characters like him in YA.
I'll admit it felt a little strange for these aliens to be introducing themselves with terms for human gender identity and human sexuality. But I also learned a lot about how different people identify. And humans have a need to label everything and obsess how people identify themselves so that rang very true. As ideal it would be if everyone could be accepted for being themselves we know that may never truly happen. I understand how important this is that so many people are able to pick up this book and see themselves represented.
Credit: Erin O' Neill Jones
I think this would actually make a great audiobook. Especially with the interviews of The Starry Eyed spread out throughout the story. I listed to the audio excerpt on Netgalley which was a snippet of a podcast and enjoyed it.
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