Did you love Annihilation and wish it took place on the Nostromo? This book was written specifically for you. Seventeen-year-old Hana has lived on a bioship named Cyclo until a crew of criminals shows up to do some research. Cyclo is dying and it's a race against time and trust before the ship consumes them all.

This book is so immersive. Kang has a background in medicine and physiology and it really shows here. Clearly, every aspect of the ship had been mapped out, from how the vacuoles form, to nourishment, even to the way the ship communicates with the crew. In fact, it was so well-done, I find it hard to believe that Kang hadn't spent significant time on such a vessel herself. I never once got confused by the science in this science fiction. It is so organically done and makes so much sense every step of the way.

The romance, though insta-love, hits a lot of notes. There is enough mutual understanding built up between Fenn and Hana that it came so naturally. In addition, I appreciated this book's exploration of what's in a nature and what makes people "necessary." Fenn and Hana play so well off each other from different perspectives and I love how that balance plays out.

Another thing I admired was Hana's characterization. Because she spent her whole life divorced from human contact, there were so many questions she had about dealing with people and about herself as an entity separate from her mother or Cyclo. The odd ball crew provided a perfect playground for this exploration. The best part? None of it was repetitive.

A romantic science fiction in space, perfect for people who like their suspense to take place in small spaces and problems being solved with science, technology, and faith in each other.

I found Toxic to be a really unique experience: a mish-mash of multiple genres that when put together for me just flowed.
I would describe this if I had to clarify as a Romantic sci-fi YA with elements of horror.
Set in space on an organic ship it was the original premise put forward here that initially intrigued and drew me in.
A young girl that shouldn't exist: hidden for years in plain sight aboard a living ship: then later abandoned by her caretaker with only her closest companion Cyclo, left assessable for her needs.
Follow this with a suicide voyage of mercenaries sent to harvest data from the dying ship and what we have is a really ingenious and imaginative undertaking.
I actually really adored all the technical Jargon used here I think it added an almost authentic feel to the whole endeavour.
This for me has more of a Sci-Fi action vibe than an overly romantic one and it is in my opinion still age appropriate despite the intimate references of actions between Hana and Fennec.
These references are more about referral and don't go into any great detail.
I also felt Toxic stuck a good balance between the romance and action and it was certainly fast-paced managing to easily keep me on my toes.
While not overly complicated as a story this didn't really need to be and despite being somewhat predictable in places this didn't take away from my overall enjoyment here.
There was still plenty of curveballs to keep this interesting reading: a great experience.
This is a story that I am happy to recommend and one I really did enjoy.
I voluntary reviewed an Arc of Toxic.
All opinions expressed here are entirely my own.

My Review: This one although it was pretty good I felt that the romance took over the story. I would have liked this one more if the romance would have been toned down. The story for this one is more of a scifi horror which worked out well. I really enjoyed that the author didn't shy away from the gruesome deaths that were in this story. I will say that made this one for higher teens though becuase of it. My other issue with this one was that the voice at parts felt more middle grade vs. the situation which is more adult. The plot itself felt a lot like The 100 in the fact that this girl Hana was hiding. I just think that this one needed some more thought at least from my POV.


Go Into This One Knowing: Romance Takes Over, Horror, Scifi, Nothing New

This book is intriguing from the first chapter. I really loved the uniqueness of the book. Hana has lived hidden on a spaceship all her life and has relied only on her mother as company. One day, she wakes up and everyone on the ship including her mother has left, leaving her behind. Finn is the other main character and we get his point of view as well as Hana's. He knows he is on a suicide mission, but even from the get go, he shows he is a strong character willing to fight if necessary. When the two of them finally meet, it is awesome! They are both such different characters, but they complement each other. I really enjoyed the way their relationship came together. They were both so innocent in regards to relationships. It is a little instasta-like, but they have very little time to get to know each other.

I really loved the uniqueness of the ship Cyclo. I was really fascinated by the space ship and it's relationship with Hana. Cyclo is definitely sentient. The ship can communicate using colors and verbally. Different colors mean different things and Hana is able to understand what each color means. Sadly, the ship is dying and Finn came as part of a crew to take data from the ship before it completely fails.

This book kept me on my toes. There was plenty of excitement and mystery happening. The other characters in the book were from other planets and they were really well described. They added an extra layer of interest to the story. It was great learning about why they chose to be on the mission. Overall, this book was fantastic! I really enjoyed it and would recommend it to anyone who likes sci-fi, romance, sentient spaceships, and a little mystery.

Emotion packed these pages as various questions surrounding life and the selfishness/selflessness of relationships are explored—and all that in an adventure in outer space.

Hana has been hidden since the moment she was born. In her own tiny space inside Cyclo, a biological spaceship, her mother has kept her existence a secret because as a genetic manufactured human, Hana is not allowed to exist. When Cyclo's lifespan reaches its end, Hana's existence is supposed to be made known. But her mother doesn't come as promised. Instead, she has deserted Cyclo along with the rest of the crew, leaving Hana utterly alone.

Fenn is part of an investigation crew, whose sole duty is to record the data concerning Cyclo's last moments. It's a one-way mission, but a better death than he deserves thanks to his troubled past. At least, through his death, he will earn enough money to save the life of his sister—a person who truly deserves to live. But when he reaches Cyclo with the rest of his crew, they are in for more than just a few surprises. He begins to question everything he believed certain before.

This was not the read I was expecting. Although set in space and having moments of tension, action, chills and those which hold the reader on the edge of the seat, this book took a deeper, more emotional path. While it's a romance which explores Fenn's and Hana's relationship as they fight past suspicions and doubts to learn more about each other, it's also a tale of motherly love, regrets, misunderstandings and the search for a place in life and the universe. By creating a living and feeling ship, Cyclo, the author has added an extra level to the plot and opened up more than a can of questions.

Fenn and Hana both have pasts which are full of scars, doubt and dilemmas...enough for a book on its own. Cyclo's existence and how its handled leave basic moral questions open and untouched as tiny morsels of thought which float on the side, while so many other basic questions surrounding the meaning of existence and love are more than touched upon. All of this is packed into a bit of a thriller as the crew and Hana fight for their lives as an unknown murder leaves behind a brutal trail. There's mystery, high-tech and moments which near a chilling horror scene. But it's not always a fast-paced read. There are moments in between, those which dive deeper into Hana and Fenn as well as Hana's relationship with Cyclo, which slow it down. For an action fan like me, these moments moved a bit slow. Also, the romance didn't completely pull me in, but with two very difficult characters like Hana and Fenn, it couldn't follow the normal flow.

Fans of science fiction, romance, deep characters and the exploration of several basic questions of life are sure to get lost in the pages and enjoy an adventure into Cyclo...one they won't easily forget.

I received a complimentary copy and found the story so original and interesting that I wanted to leave my honest thoughts.

A clever blend of suspense and romance makes this Lydia Kang book a page turner from the get go. Despite being somewhat thrown into the story with little to no explanation, the exposition of the background info needed to make sense of the world and the characters is woven into the story as the book moves on, in a skilful way that does not hamper the pacing at all.
Our protagonist is Hana, a genetically engineered girl who is now the sole passenger on Cyclo, a bio ship that is a blend of technology and a living organism. Despite strict population controls, Hana's mother engineered her and hid her in the ship, so isolation is all that she has known, and her only companion, other than her mother is Cyclo itself. When the crew is forced to evacuate suddenly, hidden Hana is left behind on a dying ship. Even a dying ship, especially one as unusual as Cyclo has value, and when a crew of mercenaries arrive to study what went wrong , Hana is the last thing they expected. As the clock ticks down before the ship implodes, people start to die , and Hana is the most logical suspect, despite the fact that Fennec, one of the crew, has been watching her at all times, and possibly getting a little closer than he originally intended to.
As the time ticks on and the scavenger crew tries to find a way to escape the inevitable, the tension is intense and the pace accelerates to a suitably satisfactory and dramatic conclusion . The romance between Hana and Fennec is beautifully handled, as is the growth and development of Hana as a character, from the fragile helpless girl we meet, to the strong, determined young woman we leave at the end.
I read and reviewed an ARC courtesy of NetGalley and the publisher, all opinions are my own.

Toxic has a very quick timeline which made the book be very fast paced to read. When i was reading i could feel the tension in the atmosphere when the crew and Hana were on the cyclo. It was like know one trusted each other and if they were to make the wrong more there would be bad consequences. Hana and Fennec were the two main characters which we saw through both of their povs. Hana i felt was very much an attention seeker at the beginning as she had never stepped out of her room and never did things for herself so it was nice to see how her character developed through out the book with the help of fennec. I really liked fennecs character i felt he was really down to earth and had reasoning behind his actions. He was the first character from the crew that i felt i could really feel his emotions. The rest of the crew were a bit like marmite, you either liked them or not, for me i liked some of the crew but a few of the others i felt that i couldn't connect to them. I loved the relationship between Hana and Fennec, fennec taught Hana what it was like to be a human and not rely on someone or something for sleep, food and health care. I felt that their relationship moved very quickly however because of the situation that they are in that its kind of acceptable.
I gave this book 4 stars and would love a sequel.

I really enjoyed this book, it was fun read that did keep me wondering what was going to happen next. I liked the characters and really enjoyed the concept of the book, it is very similar to The Loneliest Girl in the Universe by Lauren James and Illuminae by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff.

The main character Hana was really interesting. She went through a lot and had quite a lot of development throughout the book. She was  brave and intelligent and she asked a lot of questions, I particularly enjoyed how her behaviour was so odd. She was kept away from people for so long that she had to learn in a short term how she should react and how to understand emotions and even certain sentences.

Fenn was a really sweet character, he fell for Hana so fast and it was pretty cute. It was an incredibly fast romance but then again, they didn't really have long. I liked Fenns backstory and I would love a book carrying on from the end of this one, to see what happened to him and his sister and whether he ever rebuilt a relationship with his parents. 

Cyclo was such a cool thing to have in this book, I knew from the beginning something was shady with her but it just kept coming. I liked that she was sentient and that she cared so deeply for Hana that she developed genuine emotion whilst watching her grow up. The ending was cute, even though Cylco is a genuine murderous psychopath, it was a nice ending that she got to be with the one thing she loved. 

I would have liked more story about the other characters, the descriptions of them, especially Miki and Portia were so interesting! I would love more information about the world as it sounded so interesting, I want to know what happened to earth and what are the alien planets like. I understand that it is important to keep the story on the ship because for the characters it is the only thing that matters at the moment, but I still would have loved to have seen the world a bit, maybe in another story!

The plot was really intriguing and constantly had me wondering what was going to happen next and creating my own theories. It is a sci-fi story with some murder mystery thrown in which I really enjoyed. The romance was really fast but due to the nature of the story that is to be expected and I totally loved it. I'm a sucker for romance and Fenn was the cutest!

I really wish there had been more focus on the friendships of the crew, it was only when someone had died that any mention of a happy friendship was mentioned. Another thing I didn't really like is the sexual relationship between Hana and Fenn, she is incredibly sheltered and I understand that she read a lot and learned a lot but she was so weirdly confident when it came to sex, it was quite unrealistic. I don't mind the inclusion of a sex scene, they literally think they are about to die, go for it you know, but I just felt it happened in a really weird way. Their only concern was pregnancy and for someone who had never met another human other than her mother just a few days prior to this, I just felt it would have happened differently.

Overall, it was a really enjoyable read. It was fast paced, had an awesome antagonist and a really interesting plot. I definitely recommend it for fans of sci-fi and I can't wait for you all to read it. It comes out in the US on November 6th and December 1st for the UK!

Will post review on my blog and Goodreads on the 6th of November
Will post pictures on my instagram when I acquire a physical copy.

[this review will be up on my blog, acquadimore.wordpress.com, on 11/10/2018]

DNF @ 30%

This book was ok.
As I have very little time for reading lately, I don't want to spend it on a book I know I won't feel strongly about.

I think my main problem with this book, if one can really call it that, is that I'm not the target audience. I feel like I've outgrown this kind of YA.
With "this kind of YA" I mean the kind that has characters on the younger end who feel even younger because of their naïveté, the kind that could more or less work as a middle grade/YA crossover (at least, the part I read could). The kind in which a boy and a girl can't do anything but fall in love. The kind in which the very dull, naive main characters end up naked together because of Contrivance.
This is also not my kind of sci-fi. While the spaceship Cyclo is very cool and unlike everything I've ever read, this book involves aliens, and I just don't like reading about aliens that feel like humans with dyed hair.

Toxic isn't a book I wouldn't recommend to anyone, however. If you want to read a cute m/f sci-fi romance on the younger end of YA which has Asian leads and takes place in a very interesting setting, I don't think you're going to dislike this.

If I’m honest, I didn’t have a very good time with this novel, though that possibility is the result of my tastes and interests instead of something the novel did wrong. Being more interested in contemporary literature, I found it hard to find myself invested in what was going on. Though the plot was reasonably fast pasted, I found myself having to weigh through each page and my eyes kept darting to the page number at the bottom. I wasn’t invested in anything that was going on and I couldn’t find myself relating to the characters.

I did think the idea behind the novel was interesting and seemed like something that would appeal to many people. I’ve read reviews and many people seemed to enjoy the novel so I’m sure if sci-fi and space travel appeals to your taste - this book will be right for you.

read full review at: https://afewchapterstillove.wixsite.com/afctl/single-post/review/toxic-and-just-pretending

What does it mean to be human? What will the future bring? Lydia Kang addresses important issues while entertaining with a thrilling and romantic standalone YA sci-fi novel. Highly recommended!!!

4 stars

One of the most notable things about Toxic was how readable and gripping it was. I started it (unwisely) on a school night, hoping to read a few chapters before setting it down and going to bed, but I ended up binging the majority of this book very late at night when I definitely should have been sleeping.

I was just hooked, for a lack of a better word. Not only was I absorbed in the entire concept (sentient, live spaceships), but the book was just paced really well and grabbed me from the start. I mean, you begin the book in the middle of a shocking revelation for the main character, and this just kind of builds throughout the entire novel.

The whole premise is so interesting--sentient spaceships that are dying and releasing toxic fumes plus a girl who is the only person left on that ship and a whole crew full of people going into research this live-ship and also die while they complete their work. It was just really interesting and novel and unique, and that's a big part of what I loved about Toxic.

Plus, back to how it was gripping, there's sort of a murder mystery element to this novel with figuring out who is behind the mysterious deaths of the crew member, and this definitely was another reason behind why I was so hooked on this book.

It was just so cool--with the life-threatening situations and the girl raised by her "mother" and the sentient ship. Plus, I love the way Kang explored heritage in a science-fiction setting with Hana and some of the artifacts and traditions her "mother" gave her.

I do think it's good to note that the main character feels more lower-YA (15/16) than what's now becoming upper YA (17-19), and I actually really appreciate having more lower YA main characters, because for me that was a transition time that was really hard, and finding books that were a good in between of MG and YA was hard for me as a teen. (Yay for more accurate teen representation on a whole spectrum!)

But, the reason why this was a 4 and not a 5 for me, despite me enjoying this novel so much, was because the romance felt really unnecessary. I mean, first off, I'm not a huge fan of reading naïve, youngish characters fall in love. This can be uncomfortable for me, especially when they feel young (15/16) and the love interest feels older (17/18), because these sorts of relationships feel more prone to being unhealthy & manipulative & full of delusion.

And even more than that, I feel like it just took away from some of the better aspects and unique parts of this book and made it cliché. I didn't really believe in the romance (it felt more like falling-in-love-with-your-savior) and I think it actually took away from the book, which I why my rating dropped so much.

Overall, I really enjoyed reading Toxic and would definitely recommend to anyone looking for a gripping science-fiction read!

(Content warning for graphic violence/gore.)

One of my favorite things to add to science fiction is a healthy dose of horror, and Lydia Kang delivers with her newest work, Toxic. The situation aboard Cyclo starts out rather grim, what with Hana waking up to find her mother vanished and her entire universe empty, and it only gets worse when Fenn and the other mercenaries show up with their one-way mission. Things are bad enough when they have a countdown clock to when Cyclo will become unlivable—and then things get so much worse. While I was able to guess one of the key plot points significantly sooner than the characters, that did little to undermine the tension I felt while Hana, Fenn, and the others tried to figure out exactly what was going on. Kang did a great job of crafting characters I cared about and then constantly upping the stakes for their survival.

My favorite character was definitely Hana. I have a fondness for characters whose main arcs are stepping into a larger world, and that is literally Hana. Kang spent a lot of time exploring how weird and even terrifying it was for Hana to go from a world of just her mother and the bioship to a crew of people who all carry serious secrets of their own. I loved Hana’s curiosity, bravery, and determination, and I especially enjoyed how Kang described the bond between Hana and Cyclo. Hana’s bond with her vanished mother was told in memories, but it was no less strong for it, though I particularly enjoyed the questions surrounding the morality of Hana’s mother’s decisions.

Even though Hana and Fenn’s relationship progressed at lightning speed (a countdown to death will do that for you), I was fully invested in it. One of my favorite scenes was early on in the book—I won’t spoil it, but it involved panic and danger and a demonstration of trust, and I knew then that I would enjoy rooting for the two of them. The way their trust in each other and attraction to one another is built was satisfying for me—and it helps, too, that they acknowledged just how much of a whirlwind it all was for them, too. Particularly Hana, who had never had any kind of relationship with anyone beyond her mother and Cyclo.

By the time I finished Toxic, I wanted more of this universe and these characters, and I feel like that’s a great place to be. While I have some general nitpicking and things I wish had been catered more toward my personal taste, Toxic was a great addition to the YA science-fiction world. You should consider picking up a copy.

Recommendation: Get it soon. Toxic is a fun science fiction/horror adventure with engaging characters and a race against the clock. Its whirlwind romance is entertaining, but I was mostly drawn to the heroine, Hana, and her introduction to a much wider world. If you like science fiction, you should definitely give this one a shot.

***Spoilers alert!***

***4.5 stars***

Oh wow! This is one incredible YA sci-fi! I enjoyed Kang's earlier books - The Impossible Girl & Quackery - so I thought I'd give this a try (although I'm new to the sci-fi genre). I'm really glad I read it! From the plot to the storytelling, it was one amazing experience, embarking on this suspenseful journey in the bioship Cyclo.

The plot takes place in a self-sustaining but now dying bioship called Cyclo. Cyclo stops photosynthesizing and is storing toxic substances which upon release will be biohazard. In a haste, the crew has evacuated, including Dr. Yoonsil Um, Hana's mother. No one knows of Hana's existence except for her mother and Cyclo. So when Hana wakes up after a week of sleep, she finds herself alone in the ship. She does not believe that her mother would abandon her and now she wants a chance to live.

ReCOR, a wealthy and powerful company that manufactures bioships, sends a team to Cyclo to retrieve data before the ship dies. It is a one-way journey, a suicide mission with death benefits where huge payments will be made to their beneficiaries upon completion of their mission. But when Fenn meets Hana, he determines to save them both. How can he manage that without jeopardizing his contract? Time is running out for everyone - Cyclo is deteriorating rapidly and events take a deadly turn when someone is murdering the team one by one….

This is an enjoyable light sci-fi with a cleverly written plot. It's intriguing and held my interest until the end. The plot is focused and strong and that is something I like about Kang's books. Her stories' plots are always intriguing and consistent throughout. I love the idea of bioship and wouldn't have known anything like that if it's not for this book. Cyclo is not just a bioship, but a living thing that is able to communicate with the crew through colours. She is also able to "move" akin to having limbs by manipulating her matrix. It's unique and creepy in a way.

I love the atmospheric writing! The ambience created in the story is appealing and real to me and totally pulled me into the story. There are numerous scientific jargons used (biochemistry and physics terms) which I think is educational albeit they may be somewhat intimidating. Honestly, I think these terms enriched the story and my reading experience!

I like both Hana and Fenn's characters and the light romance thrown in the story is sweet. This book has some iridescent and diverse characters, e,g: Portia Ynnatryb of Prinnia, Gammand Sadozai: a Gragorian-humanoid. As much as I love these characters but I do feel they are underdeveloped, flat and somewhat flaccid.

That being said, Toxic is a wonderful and fascinating sci-fi story. It is a fast-paced (without a dull moment), a well-thought-out plot (with a little horror and romance thrown in) type of story that is entertaining until the last page. I loved it!


***I received a complimentary digital copy of this book from Entangled Publishing through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. All views expressed in this review are my own and was not influenced by the author, publisher or any third party.***

This is kind of a sci-fi, horror, romance mashup. There were some things about it that I really liked, like the whole organic living spaceship thing, and the mysterious girl that was left behind when the crew evacuated. But then there were things that annoyed me, like the teen romance with 16 year olds having sex and falling in love after only knowing each other for a short time. Insta-love is not my thing. That pretty much ruined the book for me, but I'm still giving it 3 stars because the other aspects of the book were very well done.

The reason I'm calling this book part horror is because there are things that go awry on the ship. I don't want to spoil anything so I'm not giving any details, but this leads to more than one death. There were a couple of pretty gruesome deaths in this book, they kind of surprised me because the book seemed pretty mild up until that point. Overall I was a little disappointed in this one, but it wasn't a bad read. I probably would have enjoyed this a lot more if the romance had been toned down. If you like sci-fi type horror stories, and teen romance then you might want to give it a try.

Thanks to NetGalley and Entangled Publishing for providing me with an ARC of this bok in exchange for a review.

Toxic by Lydia Kang is a young adult standalone romantic science fiction fantasy read that has maybe just a touch of horror to it too. When finished with this one it was one of those wow, I didn’t expect THAT moments, but in a good way of course.

Seventeen year old Hana awakens aboard the sentient ship, Cyclo, wondering what happened to her mother. You see Hana has been hidden from the rest of the crew aboard Cyclo her whole life and after a week her mother has not checked in on her. Cyclo informs Hana that the crew and her mother have gone packing up and evacuating the ship.

Fenn has always been a bit of a trouble maker and a huge disappointment to his family. With his sister in desperate need Fenn decided instead of stealing and getting caught again he would earn money and make his family proud by volunteering for a job studying a dying biological ship. The trip for Fenn is one way as he and his crew will not be able to leave Cyclo after it dies but the death benefits to his family would be worth it but the crew never expected to arrive and find a human girl alive on the ship.

Obviously by my rating on this one I completely enjoyed this and found it extremely creative and one intense read. However, I would warn readers that this one is a case of the old insta-love if that were to bother them, along with hints at sexual activity. For myself though I thought the romance was one that I could forgive for being rushed in the situation and the action more than made up for any hesitation I’d had on it. To me the characters were all well developed and the world building quite elaborate but done at a fast enough pace the story never stopped. When finished I’d definitely recommend checking this one out.

I received an advance copy from the publisher via NetGalley.

Toxic is one of those books that I really wish I'd enjoyed, but just didn't. While the writing and the plot were excellent, the majority of the characters were annoying and underdeveloped. While they all had intricate and moving back stories, their own development throughout the course of the novel was sorely lacking. I think the problem I had, mainly, with Toxic is that I was just so bored reading it. Tack on the fact that the romance was massively cheesy and between a pair of characters who subscribed to cliches and a rather ridiculous insta-love and I had even more trouble engaging myself in their story. Which, frankly, is a real shame because the world and the plot were utterly brilliant. But it seems it was just overshadowed by really dull and sometimes irritating main characters. I simply did not care about what happened to anyone.

At the end of the day, the most interesting characters throughout the whole novel were Gammand and Cyclo. The ship, Cyclo was really the front runner of the story. She was the most important by far and it was fascinating to learn about her, how she lived, and the things that motivated her. The horror aspect was blended brilliantly with her character and I think shows how brilliant the writing of this book truly is. My appreciation of Gammand comes primarily from his backstory which I found deeply tragic, moving, and terrible all at once. He was the only character--barring Cyclo, the ship--that I really ever felt a connection with emotionally.

Hana and Fenn were just irritating, to put it bluntly. They each had little growth, showed a frustrating immaturity, and became so attached to each other so quickly in the most ridiculous of ways. I couldn't buy their relationship from his end and resultingly found him incredibly unrealistic as a character. Hana, at least, made sense and was therefore at least vaguely forgivable. There needs to be a level of realism in a romantic situation and considering how over the top Hana and Fenn's romance was written as, it was difficult to hold onto that.

Then there was the pacing, spurned by the dull characters to further turn the novel into a rather sluggish read. I had such a hard time getting through this book even with the promise from other reviewers that it picks up, which fortunately it does about 60% of the way through. The final portion of the novel was much easier to read, but still not enough to fully save the novel from the mistakes made prior. I did truly enjoy the revelations that arrive in the end, though I thought the bit about Hana's mother that was revealed last was kind of ridiculous. I think I would have much preferred if their rescue had been different and a certain character's initial plot had not been revealed to be something different. In the interest of avoiding spoilers, I won't delve any further.

All in all, Toxic could have been amazing, but instead I found it simply okay.

Can we first take a moment and appreciate this beautiful cover? Which was what made me take a closer look at this book because it’s so pretty. And also fits the story really well, a detail I just picked up after finishing and staring at the cover again.

Secondly, the content of the book was amazing as well. It is exactly the kind of sci-fi I love. It’s quite light, but with enough technical details that it all seems real and possible. The author is a physician, so I guess she knows what she’s talking about. A lot of the time I had as much question marks as Fennec had when confronted with all the technical things. But that just contributed to the whole atmosphere of the book which was dark and scary, thrilling and gave me the chills. Because same as the characters, the reader at first doesn’t know what’s going on and when we all do, it’s this „OH MY GOD“ moment. And I maybe actually sat in my room looking over my shoulder in case someone comes over to hurt me.

Anyways. I loved the atmosphere. And the characters and their group dynamic. They were all a different species, all humanoids but from diffreent planets and they each had very different characters that made up for a fun reading experience. The book is mostly set on Cyclo, a spaceship that is actually alive and like a second mother to Hana, who was artifically created in secret and kept from the rest of the crew. Because of that Hana has a very special connection to the ship.
Hana is very innocent and a bit naive at the beginning of the book but soon learns what it means to live and to survive. A lot of that is thanks to Fenn. And here comes my only real point of critique: Hana and Fenn’s relationship. For me it was pretty much instalove and the whole thing just developed too fast for my liking. I mean, the two of them really fit but it was just too fast and too much at once.

Apart from that, I absolutely enjoyed the book. It is definitely one of my favourite sci-fi reads. It has something from everything, space, romance, friendship, science and that made it a very special book.

I would have liked this more if some of the scientific jargon/explanations were removed. It seemed to mess with the flow of the book and to be truthful I still don't know what it meant. That was my biggest issue with the book. I liked the characters and the ending was not a cliffhanger. The story was unique and kept me interested (I started to skim over the science-y stuff).

"Toxic" is a creative YA sci-fi that primarily takes place on the ship, Cyclo. Cyclo is actually a living organism which is designed to work like a machine. However, Cyclo is dying, and things are changing. Hana was born on Cyclo and has only known the ship. Her mother, Dr. Um, is the ship's geneticist, creating the embryos which will replace crew members as they die of old age, designed to fill a specific role. Dr. Um created Hana in secret and has been working with Cyclo to keep her hidden. Creating a child for anything other than the ship's need is strictly forbidden, and Hana could die if anyone found out.

Hana, like the ship's crew, sleeps within the walls of the ship, where they are given lovely dreams, nutrients, and healing by Cyclo. The book begins when she wakes up after a week- longer than she usually sleeps, and for the first time, Mother is not there to greet her. Fighting with herself, Hana eventually decides to venture out of her small room, which has been her whole life. She soon learns that she is the only person on the ship- everyone else is gone.

Fenn (short for Fennec) is on a small ship, the Selkirk, sent to Cyclo on a mission which they know will end in their death. They are working for the ship's company to collect as much data they can about why Cyclo has failed, and then, as the ship dies, so will they. In exchange for doing so, they have been offered a large sum of money- provided they collect the amount of data they are required to plus that they die (they must die)- to be given to an individual or individuals upon their death. Fenn is doing this mission for his sister, Callandra, who was paralyzed in a mining accident for which Fenn feels responsible. The mood of the crew is somber, as they are all knowingly traveling to their death.

However, when the Selkirk crew arrives, they are surprised that there is a girl on this abandoned ship. As things grow more complex than anticipated and the rules keep changing, they enter a quest for survival to achieve their objectives- and potentially to save their lives (since Hana is not required to follow the rules in their contracts). The high stakes and quick changes give this sci-fi a thriller feel which makes it quite the page-turner!

I really enjoyed this book and found it impossible to put down- the sci-fi elements seemed well-researched and were well-explained despite being complex. The mysteries of what is going on/what happened to the ship and what will happen to the Selkirk crew/Hana really kept the plot moving quickly. In terms of the romance, it was very fast, seemingly insta-love, and it felt very take-it-or-leave-it in that I wasn't invested one way or the other and it felt more like filler. I kept that feeling all the way to the end, and it was really the sci-fi and thriller elements that made this book a fantastic read for me, not the romance.

There are also some interesting messages about genetics/heritage, and how we are not destined to do or be anything. This holds true of both Hana and the ship, Cyclo, who were designed with specific characteristics. Hana also has some elements of impostor syndrome given her Korean/Earth heritage but being born on the ship and from a designed embryo, as if she is somehow lesser for it (she corrects being labeled Homo sapiens to Homo sapiens novum, etc.). She considers and grows as an individual, with her heritage, during the book. Although these are minor plot points, they were interesting to include and added some dimensions to Hana's character as well as interesting thoughts to ponder (with correlates to now).

Overall, I found this to be a fast-paced and intriguing YA sci-fi that I really enjoyed. I highly recommend for fans of sci-fi and thrillers! Please note that I received an ARC from the publisher through netgalley. All opinions are my own.