So much scarier, more interesting, and more moving than I was expecting, and, though I thrive from queer romcom in space, that is not at ALL what this book is and I agree with other reviewers who feel like the marketing for this book (and even the publishing categorization as Young Adult*) was a bit off. This is pure existentialist science fiction, and, while Young Adult can certainly be dark, certainly be existential, the only thing here that makes this feel like a YA novel is the characters being inexplicably 17 years old (which felt odd for the plot, even given the half-hearted explanation for it, and off for the characters who felt more like kids in their early 20s) and some of the prose feeling a bit stilted in a way that had me feeling pretty "meh" for the first part of the book... until the twist came, and then it wrecked me, and now I'm left here at 4 in the morning, thinking about the nature of existence, of memory, of love ... good times. :)

* again, I'm hardly one to disparage Young Adult, considering how much of my academic career and personal time I dedicate to my love for it, but it is kind of a drag that this book wasn't marketed for what it actually is and might slip through the cracks and not into the hands of folks who might love it, but who overlooked it because they thought it was a more lighthearted YA romance. The unrighteous dismissal of YA strikes again, but, really, I do feel this title would have made more sense as a New Adult title, if nothing else.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing a free digital ARC of this book. ( )

Very entertaining novel, weaving together SF tropes like 2001's hostile, deceptive AI (representing a character's "Mother," so invoking "Alien"), the distant Cold War influences of "2010," Blade Runner's doubting one's own humanity, the struggle to waken from hibernation like in Project Hail Mary, and the struggle to communicate across temporal resets ("Edge of Tomorrow," etc.). That the two characters do end up a couple seems kind of unlikely? In fact, it all ends a bit too happily. But I like that the characters do (repeatedly) wind up together, and that we do get our happy ending. ( )

Two young men, each from one of the last two countries left on Earth, are sent on a mission to rescue another astronaut (who happens to be the sister of one of them), who has sent a distress call from Titan. Ambrose wakes up shaky and with no memory of the launch, and he can't seem to get any answers about it from the OS. Kodiak, the other member of the mission, is mostly unresponsive to Ambrose's attempts to befriend him or get answers from him. But when the two of them start to doubt the motives of the OS and the mission in general, they start investigating what's really going on, and the answers they find are not at all what they expected, nor is the growing feelings between them.

It's difficult to do this one any justice without spoilers, but believe me when I say that it's a doozie, and in all kinds of good ways. Interesting twists, a HAL-like OS, and an intense yet sweet love story. It was fantastic. ( )

I had no idea what to expect from this book but I sure as hell dis not expect this.
The goodreads description made it sound like a love story in space, but it was actually a survival mystery with a side of sci-fi horror?

I didn’t care about the romance, but I did want to know what the point of this book was so I read it in one afternoon. ( )

Wow. I really enjoyed this book, SO much. I went into it expecting a romance, which to be fair did exist at times, but what I got was so much more. It was the mystery that drew me in. Without spoiling things I will say that I was desperate to figure out what was going on, and after I knew that much I was still desperate to find out why. This book made me feel afraid, hopeless and hopeful at the same time. It made me think, and it made me really feel for the main characters. I highly recommend this title if you enjoy sci-fi and mystery with a splash of LGBTQIA romance! ( )