At an unspecified point in the probably-not-too-distant future, humanity has a solid start at space exploration, with bases on distant moons and regular liftoffs of supply rockets. It looks a little different from what we might expect; for one thing, rocket launches take place somewhere that's very cold. For another thing, the whole program seems to be organized around the protégées of Peter Reed, who invented a new kind of fuel cell that makes long-distance space exploration possible. This fictional space program also seems a rather down-and-dirty affair, not the gleaming high-tech of NASA.

When the fuel cells on the first long-distance mission malfunction, though, all long-distance exploration is on the verge of being scrapped. Everyone assumes the crew is dead, except for June Reed, Peter's niece, a young and difficult genius in her own right. Only twelve at the time of the malfunction, she must bide her time training for space before she can set her plan to save the crew in motion. It is six long years before she is assigned to the moon that was meant to the be the gateway for supply runs. Here she is able to collaborate with one of her uncle's students, and together they try to reconfigure the fuel cell so that they can mount a rescue mission, and reopen deep space to humanity.

The harshness of space is not new to the science fiction reader. In Kate Hope Day's hands, that harshness feels very immediate, as June trains for, and then tries to work in space. Giving equal measure to the human and the science is the mark of the best science fiction, and Day is more than up to the challenge. June is the only character to get full authorial treatment, but seeing the universe through June's eyes, and walking with her as she struggles to see her vision realized is a treat for the reader. She's a character who won't soon be forgotten, and her dream is one to build on.

Thank you Random House for a complimentary copy. I voluntarily reviewed this book. All opinions expressed are my own.

In The Quick
By: Kate Hope Day

REVIEW ☆☆☆☆

Synopsis
A young, ambitious female astronaut’s life is upended by a love affair that threatens the rescue of a lost crew in this brilliantly imagined novel, in the tradition of Station Eleven and The Martian.

*****
I loved Kate Hope Day's previous novel, If, Then, so my expectations for In The Quick were high indeed.

First of all, I seriously love the cover. I mean, it's all about space, and it's pink. What's not to love?

As for the story, you should know the synopsis doesn't really match what the book is because it is neither a romance nor a rescue mission.

The heroine, June, possesses a brilliant mind for mechanics, etc., but she is sorely lacking in people skills. Misunderstood by everyone except her intellectually gifted uncle, he alone encourages June, and she, in his shadow, often, covertly, learns about spacecraft engineering. Specifically, the Inquiry, a spacecraft powered by fuel cells designed by her uncle that, regrettably, goes missing when June is twelve. The first part of the book addresses June's childhood. You get a sense of her thought process, personality and the origin of her desire to work in outer space.

June begins astronaut training. This is a difficult program, made more so by being two years younger than her peers. Intellectually, however, June is already beyond them. Six years on, June is finally, as she always dreamed, a space station engineer. Here, after years of hard work, June finds true commonality and belonging. Imagine always feeling outcast, then, finally, finding your people. June does well at her job, but the missing Inquiry lingers at the back of her mind. After years gone, everyone has forgotten it, except June. While working, June makes a discovery, reaffirming her belief that the Inquiry crew are, in fact, alive. June's time on the space station is the most engaging fast paced part of the book. With witty dialogue, meaningful interactions and complex problems, the story progresses quickly.

Circumstances lead June to James, a guy who studied under her uncle. James has been trying to understand why the Inquiry's fuel cells, designed by June's uncle, failed. He and June are well matched intellectually and might be able to solve this mystery together. June cannot ignore her gut feeling about the missing spacecraft. She intuitively knows her life's direction, and with every turn of a new corner, June's resolve further hardens into a quickly approaching reality.

June and James are odd ones with an equally strange and evolving relationship. Additionally, the environment surrounding June and James is eerily weird. Everything here feels dark, bleak, harsh and lonely. Atmospherically speaking, the set up is perfect with slower pacing that subsequently matches both mood and tone.

I won't disclose the various twists giving chase to the last page. My biggest issue is the abrupt inconclusive end. The story is going in this direction, and now, it is going in that direction. In the meantime, I am aimlessly floating away into deep space....

Overall, I found In The Quick quintessentially inspiring, defiantely feminist and quietly terrifying. It was also reminiscent of The Martian in some ways. Both project a vast sense of nothingness, yet encompass everything at once. The feelings of utter despair and fledgling hope continually battle for dominance of an abstraction that neither can ever claim-the human mind scape. As long as horizons exist, despair will not triumph over the human spirit of ingenuity and progress. Hope will ignite, given even the tiniest pinprick of light, from a fragile spark into an unextinguishable flame.

“We’re humans, not machines. We have to adapt ourselves to space. Not it to us.”

Young June, niece of aerospace engineer is obsessive with her uncle’s knowledge on all things space and mechanics. After he dies, June is shipped off to a school named after her uncle that focuses on preparing students for space. There June utilizes her knowledge and talents to advance quickly.

Years later, she is reunited with her uncle’s protégé, James in an attempt to correct a mechanical failure attributed to a component of the ship her uncle developed that lead to the loss of contact with a ship six years earlier. June thinks the crew are still alive and, with James’ help they work tirelessly to prove it & save them.

For about 75% of this book it’s all about June-her growing up, learning to adapt to her new surroundings, becoming an independent & strong woman who focuses on her intellect and drive, but then when James is introduced the focus changes a bit and their slow burn romance begins. After years of isolation, James is no longer stable. His singular focus on correcting the mechanical failure has lead him to some dramatic, obsessive behaviour that endangers June and others.

Overall, this was a really enjoyable read. I really liked June’s character and how the story progressed. Though I didn’t like the romantic aspect of this one or James’ character I think they helped humanize the characters and understand the toll this very dangerous work takes on the physical, mental, and emotional well-being of astronauts.

Though I’m not a fan of this writing style (the author chose to write dialogue without quotations), I felt it flowed really well and the pace was perfect. I felt compelled to pick it up every chance I got to see how it was going to progress.

*please note, this is shelved on GR as queer fiction and it is not. I don’t want anyone to go into this hoping for some queer sci-fi & be disappointed by that misleading tag*

My rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing for the e-arc.

This was such a fabulous book. I zipped right through it. June is an extremely intelligent girl, at the age of twelve she has mathematical and engineering capabilities that most people do not develop in a lifetime. Her dream is to be an astronaut and live out the things she learned about through her now deceased Uncle, who’s exceptional talent lives on through his technological inventions. This is a science fiction lite with a hint of thriller and a dash of drama. It is not a romance novel, which I admit, in line with other reviewers, the synopsis aludes to. Go into this expecting tight prose, great characters, space exploration, techno porn, and at the very heart of it all some fantastically feminist characters, and you will not be disappointed. Thank you so much to NetGalley and the publisher for my advance copy. I am beyond thrilled that I got this phenomenal book for free!

If you go into this book on the basis of it's synopsis you will most likely be incredibly disappointed. This book is nothing like what the synopsis leads you to believe it is.

My main issue with the novel is that the stakes never really felt that high. Yes there's a missing spaceship with a crew that is presumed dead and a main character who believes they are alive and wants to rescue them, but because half the book focuses on this main character as a child you never really come to care about the people on this ship and the fact that it's missing. This is a novel that feels like nothing ever really happens. The storyline is interesting enough, but the tension is not built that well. The characterization in this novel could also have been stronger.

While not a terrible book, I was mainly just bored while reading this one and wanting it to deliver more along the lines of what the synopsis was promising. There is also the odd choice to not include quotation marks in this one, which did not work with this story, and leant the impression that the author was trying to make this book more "literary" than it actually is.

DNF at 20%

One of my biggest issues when it comes to sci-fi is when too many creative liberties are taken since it’s still supposed to be rooted in science. <i>In the Quick</i> definitely falls down that trap immediately.

Here we have the 12 year old niece of a renowned aerospace engineer who. After his death, rumors circulate that the fuel cells that her uncle made for the latest shuttle (the Inquiry) were faulty. She refuses to believe this since her uncle’s fuel cells were always perfect.

So, the 12 year old pulls out all of the complex iterations of the different fuel cells that her uncle constructed with his four lab assistants. She pours over them in order to see where the mistake is.

Okay, what 12 year old understands the complexities of aerospace engineering to the point that they could accurately pinpoint the issue of a faulty fuel cell that went missed by a subject matter expert and his four lab assistants?! This girl is a regular 12 year old kid not some prodigy with increased intelligence or anything technology related.

Furthermore, there are zero quotations in this book when it comes to dialogue, so trying to figure out what is dialogue versus action is trying to say the least. Also, when multiple people are talking, it’s difficult to figure out who is talking.

Yeah, so this whole this is a big NOPE from me.

Thank you to Random House Publishing for providing a review copy. This did not influence my review. All opinions are my own.

In the Quick was really well written, fast paced, and engaging throughout. I had a hard time putting it down and I am still thinking about it. One thing I do wish was that there was more character development with the main characters. I also thought the ending was a bit rushed but that may have been because I wanted to know to know more about the outcome of their mission.

This book is about a girl, June, who lives on a space compound sometime in the future. Her uncle is in charge of the fuel cells for a launch that will occur soon. In a turn of events, June is sent to the training school for astronauts and we follow her time through school and her subsequent missions. As the story evolves we meet characters that she has known since she was young and you see how all of their lives become intertwined throughout.

I could not put this book down. INTO THE QUICK reads like an intense space movie and a poem all in one. June is such a likable character and it is not often we get to view the world of space exploration through the eyes of a woman. There is a lot of science language and engineering terms in the book, however, there aren't so many that the reader is confused or becomes disengaged in the work. I absolutely would recommend this book to a friend.

This book reminded me so much of the movie Ad Astra, specially in the vibe of the story; some moments of intense danger embedded in being in outter space sparsed with some mundane activities. Also, in both of them I got a sense with the main characters of deep longing for the outter space, of belonging there. A type of inevitability of being involved with this exploration. It's also so interesting how we completely mesh with the main character by being exclusively in her head and following all the events and interactions through her point of view eventhough she is not the most accessible character.
I liked so much to follow her when she is building a device or when she's fixing something. For me, it was so fascinating to follow her thought process when building the hand or trying to understand the fuel cells, how she had to go back to basics and that way we could fully follow along.
There are also some surprises in the book that I was not expecting and, once again, some of them really reminded me of Ad Astra, specially by the end.
A really thoughtful well-constructed book with a really good ending.

Thank you Netgalley, author, and publisher for the ARC.

This was so disappointing that I'm bitter. Before reading, I didn't have the greatest of expectations but I was still disappointed.

When June is twelve years old, the spacecraft that her uncle created disappears. Everyone but she believes that the people are dead. She progresses at astronaut training with the goal to find the lost spacecraft.

This book is dull. Things happen but I never once felt the world or June. Everything is bland. I think there is supposed to be a romance but, ignoring their weird power dynamics as he knew her when she was a child, June doesn't seem to care about him. She doesn't care about anyone. Her driving force throughout the book is finding the spacecraft and it felt like it was just a mystery for her to solve.

And that ending was so anti-climatic. Finding out about what happened to the spacecraft is told to her. That was the moment when I questioned what the point of this book is. She never grows as a character and her one big goal is done off-screen.

I'm trying to find someone nice to write about this but it's getting a one-star.

This review is based on an advanced reader copy provided through Netgalley for an honest review.

First of all, this is one of the most beautiful book covers I’ve ever seen. It’s bold, it’s pink, it’s effective, and I absolutely love it. Secondly, however, this is the second time I’ve been tricked by a Kate Hope Day synopsis. Based on how this book was presented, I was expected it to be a rescue mission and a love story… and this book is neither of those things. It’s more a coming of age story, and the focus is very much on June. Also, the book has no quotation marks. Do what you will with that information.

I don’t want to give too much of the plot away, but the book is broken into four sections, and every section is very different from one another, so I thought I’d break down my thoughts per section.

Part 1 reminds me a lot of the first half of The Queen’s Gambit, which was one of the breakout streaming shows of last year. We’re introduced to June as a twelve-year-old mechanical genius with a difficult family life and we see how she struggles to adapt to the difficult astronaut training program. We’re seeing what makes June tick and how she’s different from her peers. I really loved how she was being portrayed here.

In part 2, June gets aged up and we see her on her first mission in space. This section reminded me of Away, another one of my favourite Netflix shows from last year. June’s now part of a team, and not on Earth anymore, and you read about their daily lives and the struggles they have to overcome together. This was probably my favourite part—I wished we got more of this.

Then in part 3, I felt there was a shift in the story, and it almost becomes a whole other book to me. It reminds me of Passengers, the Jennifer Lawrence/Chris Pratt movie from 2016, but there’s none of the cuteness. This is where we finally really get to know James, the love interest that was touted in the synopsis, but he’s neither likeable nor is there relationship really much of anything other than physical—and truthfully, they’re the only two people around (more or less), so why wouldn’t they hook up? I’m not sure they really ever said anything non-engineering to each other.

Finally in part 4, the very beginning reminded me of The Martian with Matt Damon, but slowly transforms into more of what part 2 was. I got more into it again and then, the book just ended. I remember looking down at one point and seeing I was at 98% and assuming that my ARC was missing the ending. But nope, it just ends. There was all of this plot culminating in a rescue mission… and we don’t get there. I was so disappointed.

That being said, I did really like June and there were sections of this book that I really enjoyed. But it’s not the love story we’re expecting based on the jacket copy, and overall the story falls a little flat. If you’re interested in any of the TV shows or movies mentioned above, or are really into how things mechanically work, there are bits and pieces of this book that you’ll really enjoy. But it’s a very slow burn, and a little all over the place.

2.5 STARS

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House for the advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

At first, I wasn’t sure I would enjoy this book but the more I turned the pages, the more I enjoyed it. Unique and imaginative. I loved gifted and persistent June, how she resolved challenges within and outside her orbit as a young 12-year old girl and later as engineer on the space station. A complex, absorbing character. Kate Hope Day was an associate producer at HBO. Maybe she has enough pull to bring this book to life on tv or film!

This book was not what I expected, and I think that's largely due to the synopsis. I was expecting this to be a bit like The Martian, or a space odyssey, with a female lead and a hint of romance. Instead, the book spends much more time in June's childhood than I expected, and the relationship wasn't as compelling as I had hoped. It's really more of a coming-of-age story than a space adventure, which is fine, just not what I was expecting,

When this novel starts, it's an unspecified time in the future, and 12 year old June is a 12 year old who lives with her aunt and uncle, socially awkward but brilliant at engineering. As June's uncle is dying, a space ship launches nearby with some of the specs designed by June's uncle and his students. Communication is lost with the spaceship and they are presumed dead, but June never stops believing they're still out there, through her time at a special academy for training teenagers for the space program to becoming an astronaut herself at a young age. (Ignore the publisher's blurb for this one because I possibly have never seen a more inaccurate description of a book.)

I really enjoyed Kate Hope Day's debut novel In the Quick, so I was excited to get an advanced copy of this one, out 3/2/20. Like that book, this one is a kind of literary science fiction but in a realistic way, quiet but interesting. For the vibe, think a mix of The Light From Other Stars by Erika Swyler, The Martian by Andy Weir, The Wanderers by Meg Howrey, and a dash of the movie Interstellar.

The reader is plunged inside the head of June, a brilliant girl whose life goal is to solve a problem that her beloved uncle was on the verge of solving before he died. June is so single minded that she notices practically nothing else. I enjoyed the book but was left with many questions.

June is obsessed with space travel and the science behind it. She is brilliant which gets her a spot in a coveted space exploration training school where her mind is far beyond many of her peers but she is socially immature. When she is picked for a mission it takes her some time to feel comfortable with the close quarters and physicality of deep space. She ends up running into her Uncle's favorite student James and they fall for each other's brain and body. Finding out what happened to a spacecraft that went off the radar years earlier became her obsession and continues once she is in space. There is a strange lack of punctuation which makes it difficult to read at times and I found myself wanting to skip some of her training to get into space and solving the puzzle. I felt like her attraction to James was due more in seeking his approval much the same way she sought out her uncle's approval and less of a "love match". It is a satisfying look at what it takes to make the leap into deep space and one that fans of 2001 A SPACE ODYSSEY and THE MARTIAN will appreciate. My thanks to the publisher for the advance copy. 3 1/2 stars

In the Quick
By. Kate Hope Day
P. 272
Format: eArc
Rating: ****
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I received an e-arc from @Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.
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The description of In the Quick makes it out to be some science fiction romance. It is not. No relationship even starts until 70% of the way into the book. Even then it is highly problematic and not the main focus of the book. If you want romance then this is not the book for your.

In the Quick is a book about an orphaned genius, June, who was raised by her aunt and uncle. Except only her uncle really understands her. He is a scientist for the space program, a program that has expanded to a few stations and a long term exploration mission to the outer solar system.

June’s uncle died when she was eleven leaving her with an aunt who does not understand her at all. A year later the long range mission has a malfunction and goes dark. This mission is her uncle’s legacy and June devotes her life to honoring his memory by making it right. Although, I doubt she would see such deep philosophical meaning behind her obsession.

June does develop a relationship with one of her uncle’s students. The relationship is troubling and disturbing. However, it is thankfully not a major part of the book.

If you like character driven science fiction set in outer space then this is a great read. If you do not, then you probably will not enjoy this.

I know they say not to judge a book by the cover, but the moment I saw this gorgeous image, I absolutely KNOW this was going to be a book for me. I am desperate to own a physical copy of this as soon as it becomes available, because I need to have it on my shelf and on my Instagram.

But getting on to the actual content: this book follows June, from her time as a gifted young engineer in a school for training astronauts, to her days in space as she works to find a crew that has been missing (and presumed dead) since her childhood.

This book is exactly my kind of science fiction. Be warned--if you are looking for something fast-paced and plot-heavy, this is not the book for you. The plot meanders around slowly--possibly too much time is spent on June's childhood and there's not enough once she becomes an actual astronaut. I enjoyed June's time in school and would have read even more about it, but the whole book could have been longer to balance things out. It's a short read, and not as much of a space rescue mission t as you would imagine from the description. This is a book that is more about the character of June, a stubborn young woman who often struggles to explain herself and fit in with other people, and who happens to become an astronaut. There's fewer thrilling space chases and more day-to-day minutia of how it feels to live in space, and I loved all of it. This book has the strong emotional writing that I feel like is missing from most science fiction.

The romance was possibly my least favorite part of the book. It's too problematic for me, and I thought it was going in a completely different direction than it ended. Fortunately, it is not a huge part of the book, at least in terms of pages spent on it. The only other thing that bothered me is that this author does not use quotation marks and it is often difficult to decipher when someone is actually speaking. I know it is probably an attempt to keep everything dreamlike, but it's a gimmick that I do not enjoy.

Overall, I enjoyed it very much and look forward to reading more from this author.

1.5 stars, rounded up.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange of an honest review!

I really wanted to like this book. I thought it was a slow-paced sci-fi rumination, but alas. The book stresses every minute detail of young June's life. At first, I appreciated this attention to the minutiae of everyday life. I thought it was a way of setting the stage, but it kept going, and going. And going. These details did not really contribute to the development of the characters of the story; mostly, it just dragged it down. The relationships between the characters are dry, especially the relationship between June and James. Their "love" story just kind of sneaks up on you, and even then, it was not believable (not to say, it's also incredibly toxic, yet the story does not explore this toxicity and danger at all). It was a very underwhelming book, although it saddens me terribly to write this review.

This book is great! Would definitely recommend. Thanks so much to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.