I’m gonna be honest I was not a big fan of this book, I’m not sure if it was my inner social justice warrior but it didn’t sit well with me. However I do love space and I’m a sucker for those stories so it could have been worse!

Finished Hullmetal Girls which really picks up steam during the second half. It feels oddly like it was going to be the first in a trilogy but then there is an epilogue to wrap things up. On the one hand, YAY because too many young adult trilogies and on the other hand BOO because this one was getting interesting. Perhaps we might get another novel set in the same world? I would actually like to see a book set before Hullmetal, even if many years before, since the ships have been hurtling through space for 300 plus years. Also, kudos to Skrutskie for dealing head on with an issue and differently with an issue I always had with Catching Fire (don’t want to say anything more, it gives away a major plot point).

Exactly what I want to read when I'm in the mood for a space opera. Memorable characters and a whole new outlook on a standard genre.

My review: Compared to The Abyss Surrounds Us -- this wasn't a go-to read like the first one of her books that I read. I try not to compare books but sometimes it's really hard not to do since I was hyped up about her previous work. I was hoping for the same feeling as I read this but it wasn't there.



It's still an interesting read to go into but not something I had imagined it should/would be.

Emily Skrutskie wow-ed me when it came to her debut duology, The Abyss Surrounds Us and it's companion The Edge of the Abyss. I loved the characters and couldn't get enough of the unique sci-fi world with monsters, hate-to-love sapphics, and badass pirates. So when I heard about her next, Hullmetal Girls, you can bet that was was ecstatic! After reading it, however, I just cannot, cannot, recommend this book. Maybe others will enjoy the aspects that I found so frustrating, but overall, this book was a letdown.

Skrutskie's writing was similar to what it was in TASU, with itnot being very descriptive but still fairly emotional and intense. However, when nothing really happens for the entire first half of the novel, the writing kind of lost all of it's luster. I was constantly waiting for something to happen, but all we got were training montages and Key and Aisha banging heads over small disagreements. We got hints here and there to a larger problem with the government, but after hitting the halfway point, I just didn't see a point in continuing. I knew that with no buildup in the beginning, everything would be shoved into the last half, and considering this book is a standalone, it just wouldn't work. Too much was shoved into the last half of the book.

Going back to the characters, holy shit. Aisha was okay, but she was completely defined by her siblings and her past. I understand that that's normal, but when you're reading from her perspective and only getting things about her brother or sister or memories from her past--it got old really fast. And Key--Key was angry at everything, hated Aisha because she was religious, and lashed out at anyone who looked at her the wrong way. Like Aisha, Key was so one-dimensional, and they fought so often that I just couldn't stand them.

One thing that this book had going for it was the representation. Aisha follows a religion (Ledic) that is similar to Islam in our world, which was interesting. People hated Aisha because of this, but that was about it. I'm not even sure if there were other Ledic characters besides Aisha and her family. In addition to that, it's revealed that Aisha is aroace, Woojin is pansexual, and Praava is trans. Nice! Except for how these identities were revealed. There's a whole scene when Aisha and Key have to relive a memory of Praava and Wooj having sex, which is when Aisha is mocked for being a "Ledic prude", which "forces" her to come out as aroace. Great, love it when an aroace character comes out after having a sex scene shoved in her head. Praava is given a "gender reveal" when the characters have their minds connected, and it's explained that everyone got to see the other's secrets, including "Praava's XY chromosomes". Can people just drop the whole chromosome bullshit already?? 

Final Rating: ★★☆☆☆
Overall?
I really, really struggled with Hullmetal Girls for so many different reasons. The terrible pacing, the mismatched writing, the representation, and the characters all came together to force me to drop this book when I was barely half way through it. I wish I could have loved this book, but it just didn't work well at all.

Would I Recommend?
As stated at the beginning of this review, probably not. The characters were very one-dimensional, the representation was there but not the best, and the story took way too long to develop.

I'm not sure what I was expecting from this book, but whatever it was I was still surprised by the story.

Hullmetal Girls is an incredibly diverse and unique Sci-Fi story. It has a trans character, an arcoace character and a pansexual character. And get this all of these characters are friends and the main cast of the story, they aren't background characters! I really loved this. 

Aisha is the character I ended up empathizing with the most. She leaves her family behind to go into a dangerous and potentially life threatening surgery, just so that she can get more money to her siblings. She's strong and motivated and I loved her. 

Key is the other character that has a POV in this book, and she's a very interesting character too. Her memories are wiped, but she slowly gets them back over the course of the story. I liked that at first you think her backstory is cliche, but then you realize that she's actually being used. 

This story is weird, dark, unique and a lot of fun to read. It's about family and friends and I think you all should give it a try.  I gave this book 4 stars on Goodreads.

Hullmetal Girls was both painful and fun to read, with machinery and body modification in space. Skrutskie’s latest novel is quite different for those who have read her The Abyss Surrounds Us duology, but just as good.

No cute sea monsters though. 😞

What can you expect from Hullmetal Girls then?
Because that’s what you’re really here for. (That, and well, prime book shoving from one of your favorite book dragons.)

Space and machinery
Hullmetal Girls is kind of cyborgs in space but not exactly cyborgs as Scela are people who are enhanced with machinery to be stronger and better. There’s a huge price to pay, but also rewarding for those who make it to the top. I found it interesting to see how the Scela worked both during the process of becoming one and training.

Very painful beginning
Skrutskie introduces us to Aisha, a girl who decides to undergo surgery to become Scela, an enhanced soldier who is stripped of humanity to protect the Fleet ruled by the General Body. We’re in the process of the surgery with her, and it’ll be a painful read as she is being taken apart and put back together.

Strong sense of family
Family is a huge theme from the beginning of the book until the end. Aisha risks her life to become Scela to provide a better life for her remaining family and to give her younger brother the best care for his sickness. Throughout the book, we see this as her motivation to get through basic training and to be a part of the best Scela, even though she probably doesn’t care or want to be there. She’s not the only one though, as one of her teammates undergoes the procedure to help her sister become the best researcher she can possibly be. If anything happens to the people they love, they’re in a void of nothing, trying to figure out what their meaning of life is.

Friendship and teamwork
After Scela survive their procedure, they are placed into squads who they will be with from training and into their careers as the Fleet’s protective body. From early on, Aisha and her squadmates: Key, Wooj and Praava are all thrown together and have to figure how they can work together as a team. They learn that if they all want to accomplish their goals, they’ll have to meet somewhere in the middle. It’s not something they get ahold of easily and without some challenges, though, but they get there eventually.

Open-ended ending
Hullmetal Girls has an open ending but brings everything together to a satisfying closure that leaves some imagination to the readers of what could happen to the characters after the book ends.

Hullmetal Girls is different from Skrutskie’s debut novels, but just as amazing with the technology in space, the friendship that develops and the sibling relationship that drives some of the characters.

Emily Skrutskie writes great young female heroes. I liked the characters and the urgency of the story, and I felt Skrutskie built up her writing style a lot in this book. I think I'd recommend to teens who like action and adventure stories.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me a copy to review.

DNF'ed around 54%. I don't believe in rating books that I didn't finish but I really did want to review this book and since NetGalley requires you to rate the book with the review that is why I rated it one star.

To explain a few things: I read over half of this book before I decided to DNF and I really didn't want to because this was sent to me as an ARC and therefore I feel that I should read the whole book and give a proper review and most importantly, I WAS EXCITED ABOUT THIS BOOK! In the beginning, I was somewhat enjoying it. It wasn't the greatest book that I have ever read but that is okay as it was the beginning. But then the story was just making me so mad.

First, I detest long expositions. They are probably the number one reason why I DNF a book or at least give that book a low rating. I love being thrown into a story with little information (hence why I don't usually read the synopsis for a book) And this exposition went on for about 150 pages, which was about half the book. To clarify, I consider the exposition to end when the book starts the main conflict. For this, it was Key finding out her past and Aisha dealing with her family issues and them hating each but then having to work together to solve their issue. Sounds pretty good right?

What Went Wrong:

Key. She was truly the reason that sent me over the edge. She has no memories before becoming Scela and at around the 150-page mark we find out that she was ArchAngel, basically the leader of the Resistance Group. And this was used as a major plot twist. I just did not appreciate it because up until this point Key doesn't question at all why she became a Scela. If you, all of a sudden woke up as a super powerful solider with no memories wouldn't you have questions? I know I would. But she is just a doormat and then the author all of a sudden gives us this huge flashback and then the plot starts and ugh. I would have much rather enjoy Key if she questioned why she was there if there were flashbacks to her past to fuel her questions, and then maybe use a plot twist like she was the Commander's daughter or there are Aliens or something.

Now Aisha. She has her own issues. Her aunt is the major figure in the resistance. And Aisha is solely depending on her aunt to keep her siblings alive. So what does this aunt do? In exchange for not making Aisha's siblings homeless, she makes Aisha become a spy for the resistance. When I was reading this I was ranting about how stupid this decision was as Aisha's higher-ups don't seem like terrible people. Side note: this was the one good point in this book that I really enjoyed. The leaders except for the Commander (but I can even understand her cold heart) actually had feelings. They seemed to care about Aisha, Key, and the other Scela. (I will get to the other Scela in a minute.) In my opinion, Aisha should have just gone and told her higher-ups to listen, "My aunt is a big wig in the Resistance and she wants me to spy on you in exchange to keep my siblings safe. Can you help me?" And I am sure that they would have gone "Totally, we would love to have you help us get this thorn out of our side." Though I can understand for the author not wanting to do this because it is not as exciting but there is the chance that they could say "What if you are a double agent and we will hurl you into space to get rid of you."

Next issue that I had with the characters was the two other Scela in Aisha and Key's group, Woojin, and Pravaa. The story is told in Aisha and Key's POVs but Woojin and Pravaa had their backstories mentioned and I think that it would have been really interesting to see that further developed.

Also, there is LBGTA+ representation in the book, but from what I have heard from other readers since I DNF'ed before I got to those scenes was that there were some issues with this and I encourage you to read other reviews on GoodReads to learn more about this.

Now this book wasn't all bad. Like the previously mentioned non-heartless leaders. There was also the interesting dichotomy of the Resistance and the Government. The Resistance wanted to find a planet so they could get off the ship and be free of the Government but the Government likes to be in control of the people. Well, Aisha, Key, and the two other Scela in the group find a habitable planet and well you can see why this is an issue.

So that was my rant. It was quite cathartic actually. If you have any thoughts about this book, book rants, or DNF reviews please leave a comment! I would love to hear from you!

Reading this book and love the change from human to metal. i love that they are working as team to trying to remember all of their lives, but they are team. Great story and enjoying the different point of views.

This is another book that is a little tough to review. I didn’t love it, but didn’t dislike it either. As I write this (about 2 weeks after I finished) I struggled to remember anything that was like woah. Never a good sign. The book was just a little too shallow for me. Its a fascinating world; humanity is on a generational ship in search of a new planet with distinct classes and mechanically enhanced soldiers and an uprising brewing. But that is about as deep as it gets. Our two main characters are all about the search for the one thing; Aisha for the money to support her family, and Key trying to figure out who she is (literally, her memories are missing). Sounds great right? But it seems like thats all we hear about; the family and the memories. Then all of a sudden these 2 are BFFs and helping decide who is going to “win” the almost civil war. I really wouldn’t recommend.

2.5 stars

Aisha and Key are from two different worlds. Well, two opposite ends of the Fleet, humanity's last hope for survival after the ruin of Earth. Aisha is from the impoverished Seventh District, and becomes a Scela—half-human, half-machine soldier—to ensure that her sick brother and little sister have money for food. Key is from First District, but she has no idea why a possibly wealthy daughter of the Fleet would undertake such a drastic change—her memory is wiped. Together, along with two of their teammates, Aisha and Key are forced to work together as they uncover a plot involving the Fleet's General Body, the rebellious Fractionists, and a possible new homeworld.

I wanted to like this book a lot more than I did. It took me four days to read to the halfway point, and I finished the rest yesterday in an epic slogfest, hoping that it would pick up and get better, and hoping that something would be more exciting. Despite space-ship jumping, the book was...grand in scope, missing something in execution. I'm not really sure what was missing, just that something didn't click.

The one good thing the book has going for it is diversity. There are LGBTQIA+ characters and POC (and intersectionality!!))

I did like the overall message of "diversity is good" and "forced uniformity and unification stifles humanity and snuffs out individual cultures and greater diversity," particularly with the subtexts of the whiter, richer folks living in the front of the Fleet and the poorer, POC living in the middle and back ends—showing that classification happens no matter how uniform and fair one tries to be (although in this case, not really that fair).

Overall, the concept was good (cyborg police force operating in an all-space Fleet searching for humanity's next homeworld with a diverse cast? YES PLEASE!) but the overall execution was somewhat lacking.

I received this ARC from NetGalley for an honest review.

<i>Hullmetal Girls</i> is the weird, complex, sci-fi book about consent and reluctant friendship between girls I didn't know I was looking for.

This book follows two POVs, Aisha Un-Haad (a hijabi aroace girl) and Key Tanaka (a Japanese girl) when they each become Scela, genetically altered, mechanical soldiers. Aisha makes the choice for herself, a drastic decision that goes deeply against her religion, in order to get the government money her younger siblings need to survive life in the back of the fleet. Key doesn't know why she made the decision she did. She has memories of a life of privilege, a world where she wanted for nothing. But her memory is full of holes, and she can't piece together why a girl of her standing would ever decide to become a mechanical monster.

So much about this book is a discussion of consent, of bodily autonomy, of classism and the moral gray of an uprising. It's a deeply fascinating story, and one that can get horrifying fairly quickly if you have issues with body horror and loss of bodily autonomy - which I do! It's an alarming subject matter! There were times when this was a hard read.

Related to autonomy and lack of consent, I do want to say that there are a couple of characters who experience some sort of outing, or are forced to come out, under unideal circumstances. Scela are often forced to share a brain space and all their thoughts. Due to this system, which the characters are forced into without warning or consent, we learn that one of the side characters is a trans girl. This also leads to a later scene in which Aisha is exposed to memories of characters having sex and, when she is deeply uncomfortable with this, comes out as aroace. At this time, another character comes out as pansexual as well.

I, as a queer reviewer, felt that this scene very clearly established the through-line of lack of consent and autonomy that the main characters were faced with. It was difficult, and wrong, and these characters should not have had to come out the way they did, which I feel is the point the scenes were making. Some ownvoices a-spec reviewers have also felt this, but many feel that these scenes were hurtful, so please be aware of that particular content going in.

Ok, so back to the rest of the book. This features and enemies-to-best-friends female friendship that I would like to shout about to the heavens. Especially because I feel like Aisha and Key were not written to be especially likable characters. Aisha is furious, bold, and unyeilding in her protection and love of her siblings. She will make bad decisions and follow them through fueled by her one-sighted view of how the world should work. I think this makes her a fascinating character, but also one that challenges readers. Similarly, Key is very much a privileged main character surrounded by characters with no privilege and that is played up in the way she treats Aisha, Pravaa, and Woojin. She is also incredibly angry, and a lot of that rage is focused inwards on the holes in her memories and the ways they make her feel incomplete. Because her anger is focused on what she feels she is lacking, as well as the people in her life who have led a much more complicated life, she is also a challenge for readers. But I feel like this book dealt with anger in such a particular, validating way that I also couldn't help but love both Key and Aisha.

Besides the characters, <i>Hullmetal Girls</i> excels in its worldbuilding. I think it is pretty easy to see the author's love of sci-fi wound through the story, especially her love of of films like <i>Pacific Rim</i>. I think the world does a great job of walking a line between that dour feel of an all-powerful regime and the fun of a world set across a group of spaceships. There are moments when it feels like the book allows itself to be more fun, to embrace the fact that its main characters are super soldiers in space. I really feel like that levity lent itself so well to the much tougher subject manner and some of the complex decisions both Aisha and Key were working through.

Oh! And speaking of worldbuilding, I know I just wrote a whole paragraph about some of the aspects of the mind-sharing technology in this world and what that leads to, but mind-sharing is a personal all time favorite trope of mine and I honestly screamed aloud when I realized how it was going to be incorporated. Characters who are constantly faced with that level of closeness, and how sharing one-another's every thought can shape relationships, is a fascinating concept to me that I think was used incredibly well throughout this entire book.

Honestly, and I don't feel this is hard to gather, I adored this book. It had all the elements of a fast-paced sci-fi story I was looking for, it had excellent characters, worldbuilding, stakes, and an exploration of what one is willing to do for freedom that impressed me so deeply. I loved every second of this book, and I can't wait to see how Emily Skrutskie continues to write worlds and stories that are all-consumingly fantastic.

(I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.)

Emily Skrutskie’s new sci-fi novel Hullmetal Girls is a world of economic inequality, a militarized police force, and humanity’s last breath.In Emily Skrutskie’s new sci-fi novel Hullmetal Girls, humanity has spent centuries in a fleet of starships searching for a new planet. We follow two protagonists, one from a background of poverty, the other from a background of privilege, as they are transformed into cyborg weapons for the fleet’s oppressive army. They have to learn to work together and decide whether to stand with their programming and the General Body or the rebellious Fractionists—and try not to kill each other along the way.

We discussed this book in our <a href="https://teachnouvelle.com/ya-cafe-podcast-hullmetal-girls/" target="_blank">7/19 ep. of the YA Cafe Podcast.</a> You can listen to our conversation for our thoughts on the AI, the world-building, the characters, and the central conflict.

Some highlights from our Spoiler-Free segment:

"We learned really early on in this novel that it's a dystopian setup, I mean you cannot have a socially-stratified system and this sort of monetary incentive to become part of a cyborg police force without having, like, governmental control involved."

"I found it very believable that they would rush this militarized police force through the gamut
without proper training on how to interact with humans. I found that incredibly believable. These are very strong cyborgs, they have a lot of strength now, but they haven't been recalibrated to deal with humans with empathy. Like, that's a source of tension. I loved it and it kinda just gave me low level anxiety the entire time I was reading this. I was waiting for them to kill an unarmed human, you know?"

Check out the rest on the podcast. :)

Aisha and Key are from opposite ends of the fleet, but when they both wake up from surgery as Scela, cyborg soldiers, they’re equal for the first time. All Scela are tools of the General Body, whether they’re from the frontend or the backend—though they’re almost always from the back end. Take Aisha, who took the metal to protect her younger siblings. Or Woojin who was given the choice of becoming Scela or a life in prison. Or even Praava, who wanted to use the salary to help support her sister’s important scientific discoveries. Everyone who becomes Scela has one thing in common: desperation. Everyone… except for Key. Key can’t remember why she took the metal. She has holes—holes in her memory and holes in who she is. Discovering the secrets those holes hide could prove disastrous, especially with the Factionists growing increasingly violent as they try to split the fleet. And the General Body has secrets of their own, secrets not just about Key, but about the entire fleet. Secrets that could change the entire course of human history.

This is exactly the kind of sci-fi book I want to read. Really thoughtful worldbuilding that explores how humanity would adapt to living in space for hundreds of years on a quest to find a habitable planet, how social strata might develop throughout the fleet, how instability in the population could throw things off balance. Add in some political intrigue, government conspiracies, cyborg super soldiers, spaceships, and unlikely friendships and I’m just completely on board.

This book has lots of body horror, be warned. The two main characters are both recently created Scela, humans heavily modified and combined with machinery to create cyborg soldiers. The disconnect between their former humanness and their new otherness as well as the adjustment to this new way of being are both really important part of the book.

Overall? Just really good sci-fi. Pretty exciting from start to finish and it didn’t take me long at all to become invested in these characters and their story. I definitely recommend it for fans of spacefaring science fiction.

I had high hopes for Hullmetal Girls by Emily Skrutskie. There were quite a few good things about it, but it ultimately did not work for me.

[su_quote style="modern-orange" cite="Goodreads" url=”https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/33382313-hullmetal-girls?ac=1&from_search=true"]

Aisha Un-Haad would do anything for her family. When her brother contracts a plague, she knows her janitor's salary isn't enough to fund his treatment. So she volunteers to become a Scela, a mechanically enhanced soldier sworn to protect and serve the governing body of the Fleet, the collective of starships they call home. If Aisha can survive the harrowing modifications and earn an elite place in the Scela ranks, she may be able to save her brother.

Key Tanaka awakens in a Scela body with only hazy memories of her life before. She knows she's from the privileged end of the Fleet, but she has no recollection of why she chose to give up a life of luxury to become a hulking cyborg soldier. If she can make it through the training, she might have a shot at recovering her missing past.

In a unit of new recruits vying for top placement, Aisha's and Key's paths collide, and the two must learn to work together--a tall order for girls from opposite ends of the Fleet. But a rebellion is stirring, pitting those who yearn for independence from the Fleet against a government struggling to maintain unity.

With violence brewing and dark secrets surfacing, Aisha and Key find themselves questioning their loyalties. They will have to put aside their differences, though, if they want to keep humanity from tearing itself apart.

[/su_quote]

I received an eARC of Hullmetal Girls via Netgalley, courtesy of Delacorte, in exchange for an honest review. 
When I heard about Hullmetal Girls, I was thrilled. I love queer military science fiction, and this was advertised as having an aroace character and a trans character.

I loved the world that Hullmetal Girls was set in. As you read, you can tell that Skrutskie put a lot of thought into the world surrounding the main characters. There were a few things that I wish were explained a little bit better - like what exactly the dyeworks were and why they were so dangerous - but overall, I enjoyed the worldbuilding. I loved the idea of the Scela and why they existed in this story.

This needs a content warning for outing without consent through a neural network, major surgery, loss of control of bodies, anti-Islamic-like religion statements, body horror, sibling death, terminal illness, and an aroace character witnessing memories of sex through a neural network.

I thought that everything was too easy for most of the characters. None of them really had any agency of their ownThe plot was something that science fiction and dystopian novel readers will be very familiar with, and I thought Skrutskie skipped the best part of the novel at the end when she jumped to the epilogue.

I really think where this book really failed was its queer representation. One of the female squad members is described as having XY chromosomes, but it's never touched on again.  Aisha Un Haad, one of our two point of view characters, is aroace. However, the only time it's mentioned is after she stumbles into two of her squad mates' memories of having sex through the neural network that they share, which several aroace reviewers have mentioned as being very triggering and reminiscent of corrective rape. That's when one of those squad mates comes out as pansexual. That's also never mentioned again.

Hullmetal Girls takes place mostly within its character's heads. I felt that we really should have seen a little bit more of the attraction or anything like that.

Consent is a huge theme in this book, thanks to all of the characters being in each other's thoughts and memories, so I understand what Skrutskie was aiming for here. However, I don't think those particular moments really worked in this story. It felt to me that Skrutskie was trying to make it clear that their queerness wasn't a problem in this world. I think she just took it too far and it wound up being entirely inconsequential, making those scenes feel pointless.

If she had taken more time with these moments and really unpacked them, or dealt with them later on in the story, it would have worked a lot better.

Overall, this book just didn't work for me. If you want some queer military science fiction, I would recommend Yoon Ha Lee's Ninefox Gambit trilogy.

[su_box title="ABOUT *BOOK TITLE*" style="default" box_color="#ff4400" title_color="#f2f2f2" radius="3" class=""]

Title: Hullmetal Girls

Author: Emily Skrutskie

Publisher: Delacorte

Length: 320 Pages

Release Date: July 17, 2018

Rating: ★★ / Two stars

Genre: Military Science Fiction

Representation: hijabi main character, aroace main character, pansexual side character, asian main character, trans side character

[/su_box]



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5 of 5 stars
This book is a phenomenal addition to Skrutskie’s works and sci-fi as a whole. The two main characters are Aisha, a futuristic-Muslim girl who becomes a government controlled cyborg to save her siblings, and Key, a girl from the upper tiers of society with no memories as to how she came to this life. There’s mystery, there’s action, there’s a corrupt political system, and all of these things come together to make a phenomenal plot.

There were many things I loved about this book. I love how casually queerness is handled. I appreciate that Skrutskie used a blend of saying identifying words (Aisha states that she’s aroace) and allowing queerness to simply exist (Praava, another Scela on their team, is trans without it ever being directly stated). I loved how Key’s and Aisha’s stories move apart and come together over the course of the book. I enjoyed that Praava and Woojin round out their Scela team without feeling unnecessary or two-dimensional. The relationship among these four newly-made Scela is wonderful and makes me happy; what can I say, I love a good squad.

Most importantly, the majority of the main characters are women and none of their roles are dependent on male characters. In a genre where it’s just as normal for this to be true as it is for it to be untrue I deeply appreciate Skrutskie’s inclusion of well written cis and trans women in her world. It may be a low bar to hope sci-fi writers will overcome but until more writers meet these expectations I will continue celebrating those that do.

One small disappointment I had was the cover art. On the team of 4 Scela that make up the main characters, I believe Key is the only one that is white and hers is the only face visible on the cover. I’m also not positive that the trans rep will work for everyone (though to be fair, no one rep will work for everyone in a community). The references to Praava’s identity are casual enough that if you aren’t familiar with some common trans terms (like dysphoria or hormone therapy) you might miss it altogether. There are pros and cons to this method of representation and both sides should be considered when talking about this aspect of the book.

Even with my small issues, I still give this book an enthusiastic 5 out of 5 stars. It is everything I want out of sci-fi books. I would recommend it for folks who are looking for a revolutionary dystopia (think Hunger Games or Divergent) but in space and without a significant romantic subplot. Though I haven’t heard anything about a sequel, I hope Skrutskie continues to write about characters in this world.

“An electric buzz settles into my skull, comforting and cradling, and I feel my heartbeat slow. This is right. This is what a Scela is meant to be. A living weapon, a replacement for the ancient guns that blew holes in the hulls of ships we lost so long ago that their names are no longer taught. We’re more elegant weapons. More civilized. Less clumsy or random. We’re built with the strength to hold this Fleet together.
For the first time in two weeks, I’m proud of what I am.”


It’s been 301 years since the Fleet left Earth to find a new planet. In that time, seven tiers of ships have emerged, originally divided by functions but now basically a caste system, with the First District holding the seat of government and the Seventh having Dickensian manufacturing ships, child labor and all. Naturally, with a system like that, you’re going to have some unhappy with the status quo: the Fractionists, who believe that separating the Fleet into smaller groups will help them find a habitable planet sooner. Lately, the Fractionists have gotten rowdier, and have led to a recruitment drive for the Scela, the surgically modified peacekeeping force for the Fleet. Out of dozens of applicants, only four survive the surgery, including our two teen protagonists: Key, a First District girl who has giant holes in her memory, the largest being why she decided to sign up, and Aisha, a Seventh District girl who signed up to buy a better life for her sister and ill brother. Things are not quite what they seem (are they ever?), and soon the fate of the Fleet is in their hands. Can they overcome their differences and work together?

“A grin breaks over my face, uncontrollably wide thanks to the augmentations. I can do this. I can command my body, be the perfect tool I was sculpted into, earn my place in the Scela ranks. I can carry the weight of the exo on my back—it’s nothing compared to what I’ve borne already.
I may not be a useful Scela yet. But I will be damned if I’m not a useful sister.”


One of the surprising – and enjoyable – part of the books is that the main focus is not on a romance, but on the friendship between the two teen girls. To start off with, the characters are a bit hard to like. Aisha is (understandably) so obsessed with her brother and sister that there’s not a lot else to her character. Key is a snotty snobby teen who basically thinks herself better than everyone else, especially the Fractionist hoi pollloi (the big reveal of who she actually is will probably not be a surprise to anyone).

The part that worked best for me was the bit of sci-fi horror mixed in. I feel like I’ve read a lot of scifi involving enhanced soldiers, but it seems like most of them can “pass” for normal humans. Scela soldiers, however, can’t be mistaken for anything else, even out of their mech armor, and part of the integration is a sort of AI mind that helps them control the new tech embedded in their bones. In addition, each team can be connected through an exosystem, which transmits some of their thoughts and strong feelings to the others. Through willpower, one of the team could seize control of the others, and, in fact, on missions the team is usually controlled by a higher level person’s orders. There were thought-provoking issues of consent here, one of the major ones being the characters’ sexuality. Aisha is aroace, Woojin is pan, Praava is trans hetero and Key has so many holes in her memory it’s just one thing she can’t remember. While these labels are mentioned, I didn’t really feel like they had any effect on the overall story, and the way in which they come out (the characters are forcibly outed due to the effects of the exosystem) left a bad taste in my mouth. As another issue of representation, Aisha follows the Muslim-esque Ledic religion. Before the Scela surgery, she wore a headscarf and regularly attended temple, and she still prays. One of the Ledic tenets is that they believe that through traveling they will earn a new home, and that God’s promised a planet for them. I’m not Muslim, so I can’t speak to how well most of it was handled, but several team members are dismissive of her beliefs, with Key being especially nasty.

As for the rest of the story, I liked several secondary characters (Aisha’s siblings, Zaire the dock worker, and Marshall Jesuit are the top of my list) and though I thought the plot was predictable, the pacing and overall tension were good. Overall, while I liked the book, I have concerns about some of the representation, so I’d probably give it 3.5 stars, rounding up to 4.

I received this book for free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Hullmetal Girls is a YA science fiction story set in the future. Earth is no longer habitable and humans have taken to the stars, flying in a fleet of ships through space looking for another planet to call home. But it’s been 300 years and still they’ve found nothing. The governing body uses Scela, mechanically enhanced humans as their super soldiers, keeping the people of the fleet in line. The story is told from the perspective of two newly modified Scela, Key Tanaka & Aisha Un-Haad. The two girls couldn’t be more different, but in order for each of them to succeed, both as new Scela and in their own personal agendas, they must learn to work together in their new bodies.

I really, really enjoyed this book. The more sci-fi I read, the more I realize it is one of my favorite genres. I love the spaceships and action and the complicated underlying themes. Not to mention the fantastic characters and the relationships that play out between them.

I included a trigger warning above for body horror. The scenes did not bother me, but I could see where it may be a bit disturbing to others. That said though, I think this allows the author to explore some important issues. What does it mean to be human? Does body modification make someone less human?

And how far are you willing to go to help your family? There are lots of family themes in this book as well. Both the traditional type and found family, which is my favorite. I thoroughly enjoyed this read and am definitely looking forward to reading more of the author’s work.

Thank you so much to Delacorte Press, Random House Children’s and NetGalley for sending me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This is a book that did the impossible: it made me wish my metro ride was longer so I could keep reading. Twice.

Hullmetal Girls by Emily Skrutskie is the sort of book that I’ve been wanting for ages. Two young women undergo a literally life changing procedure that turns them into mechanically enhanced soldiers who aren’t exactly human anymore, each for their own reasons. Aisha Un-Haad volunteers for the procedure in a last ditch attempt to help her family while Key Tanaka has nothing but a blank space in her memory when she tries to remember why she would give up her life of privilege to become a Scela especially since many don’t survive the modification process. Aisha, Key, and the two other members of their squad have to learn not only how to live in their new bodies but also how to work together. If they excel, a top placement would mean that Aisha’s siblings wouldn’t have to worry about money. If they fail… To make matters more complicated, there’s a rebellion brewing in the fleet and Aisha and Key find themselves swept up in it, whether they want to or not.

There are a heck of a lot of things that make this book work. Actually… everything about this book works but part of what really makes it click is how the author handles the entire Scela concept. It would be so easy to just make them seem cool and wave off the integration between human body and mechanical enhancements after a chapter or two. Instead, Skrutskie leans into how truly horrifying the entire process is. Someone has to be truly desperate and out of options to willingly step into that chair. The descriptions are enough to make even the most strong-stomached wince a little. The entire squad (Aisha, Key, Praava, and Woojin) spends the bulk of the book adjusting to their new bodies and figuring out what exactly it means to not be human anymore. The exo is both a part and not a part of them and can govern their movements. Bodily autonomy doesn’t exist for a Scela. That’s almost as scary as the conversation process.

One of the things that really stood out to me was the representation within the book. Most of the main and supporting cast are all people of color. Skrutskie isn’t coy in regards to LGBTQ+ representation either. Two of the supporting characters identify themselves as trans and pansexual respectively. What really made me sit up and silently shriek with glee was when Aisha said she was aroace. There is painfully little asexual or aromantic representation within media and it’s often left to insinuation. To have a character (and to have it be a main character) casually say that they’re aroace means the world. I especially appreciated that it was just treated as part of who Aisha is and there wasn’t some giant storyline attached to it. More books should follow Hullmetal Girls’s example.

The only criticism that I really have is that occasionally, I had to pause and remind myself whose head we were inside. That said, I have nothing but the deepest appreciation for both of these angry girls. Far too often, women (both in real life and in fiction) aren’t allowed to be angry and when we are, we’re punished for it. Both Aisha and Key get to be angry about their circumstances and rightly so. Best of all, the narrative never punishes them for it. Honestly, I could read about angry cyborg girls who kick a ton of ass for the rest of my life and be happy.

Hullmetal Girls is a book that someone told me I’d love and wow were they right. And you know what? I think that you all just might love it too.