Unfortunately, this book just wasn't it for me. The premise was unique and the pacing was good, but the story itself didn't keep my attention. I didn't find the book memorable and don't plan to continue with the sequel.

This book has my entire heart. From the gorgeous writing to the slow-burn between the characters and the intriguing Mech's I want to learn more and more about, I'm incredibly excited to read the finale to this duology. Zoe Hana Mikuta's writing style was one that took me a bit to get into, a few chapters or so, because of how different it is than most young adult or even adult books. The setup was fairly quick and the immediate chemistry between the two main characters was obvious but I loved seeing their apprehensions of each other and their separate worlds fade away into pride, joy, and love.

This was a wonderfully fast-paced, character-driven, adventurous queer love story. The high stakes and relationship dynamics both kept me reading!

Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for giving me a free advanced copy of this book to read and review.

This was such a fun book to read!! Found Family?! YES PLEASE! Found Family is one of my absolute favorite tropes and most books with the element usually hook me in. Also, a little bit of romance, count me in even more!! I really hope to read more from this author as these character had a chokehold on my heart.

Loved it. Fast paced. Loved the characters and the setting. Will add to the classroom library. Can't wait to read more.

Gorgeous and amazing in so many ways, from multiple angles of representation to the worldbuilding. Will be rereading it asap just to experience it all over again.

I was so, so, SO excited for this one. It seemed to have everything I could possibly want in a novel — queer Asian women in mechs??? Amazing.

But it just did NOT work for me. I worked so hard to get into this, even switching to the audio to see if that would help. This book is simply too slow moving and too awkwardly written. The two main characters are too similar, to the point of being occasionally confusing, and the dialogue is clunky and a hard to read at times.

This book feels very much like a first draft. The concepts are strong, but the writing is a mess. Hopefully the young author improves her craft, but I for one will not be picking up the sequel.

Thank you to NetGalley and Feiwel Friends for providing me an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Gearbreakers bounces between high-octane mecha fights, rebellion, intense emotions, and savage banter. It’s a story about a wasteland outside a glittering, high-tech city. It has plot twists and schemes, and characters always willing to break the rules.

And somehow, it manages to be overwhelmingly dull.

The action scenes shine throughout the book. They unfold like sequences in films, tense and easy to imagine in striking visuals. Whether it’s two giant mechas duking it out or a truck full of adrenaline-fueled kids taking down a steelwork god, the battles deliver.

Unfortunately, very little else does. The book leans into a found family dynamic, but those characters are flat, only showing slight variance when it serves the plot. As I write this, having just finished the book, I can’t tell you the difference between Nova and June, or Theo and Arsen. They’re just… there. Their home, the Hallows, is a collection of buildings. It’s got a gate. I couldn’t tell you more. There’s something of a plot, but the one driving it is secondary character Jenny. Gearbreakers falls flat in so many ways.

One of the greatest flaws from which the book suffers is character-centered morality. I found myself genuinely disturbed with the number of times main character Sona kills other Pilots with little sense of remorse. Sona herself is a Pilot, and readers are expected to take at face value that she has a history, a personality, a value. The others don’t. They’re just evil. Similarly, when she arrives at the Gearbreaker compound, only one character remains consistently suspicious of her. He’s meant to seem jealous and hysterical, when having an enemy soldier wandering around the base should put everyone on edge. It asks too much of the reader: despise all other Pilots but support Sona, both without question.

I’m not someone who needs romance to be at the heart of a story. Actually, I prefer when it isn’t. In this book, the romance is mild, yet still so poorly handled. Eris and Sona never really seem like friends, romance is always clearly the endgame even during their contrived “enemies” phase—and Eris still has a boyfriend as she and Sona’s relationship develops. People grow apart and messy timing is often part of life, but rather than address it, the book simply vilifies her boyfriend to get him out of the way. It’s another contrivance and not a good look for a bisexual character to emotionally cheat before coldly kicking out her not-quite-ex boyfriend.

Finally, outside of vocabulary, the worldbuilding is extremely weak. What are the main industries of Godolia, other than war? I don’t know. What do the main characters eat? There’s a reference to popcorn and sweets; besides that, I don’t know. What sorts of religious rituals to mechvespers have? Not only do I not know, this worship of mechas is first mentioned about halfway through the book. It’s not clear how the world came to be this way besides passing references to wars. It’s not always necessary for all of these details to be included, but when I finish a book and realize I don’t know what the main setting is like and can’t quote an expression or unique turn of phrase, I feel somewhat like I’ve wasted my time.

Perhaps most frustrating of all, Zoe Hana Mikuta has talent. There are powerful scenes and moments of true poignancy throughout the book. In one delightfully unsettling scene, Sona thinks of her burning hatred for Godolia but is distracted by almost childlike delight thinking about peach tarts. Scenes like that are powerful and immersive. They’re standouts. They stand out from dullness and repetitiveness. Overall, this is not the book it could have been—and that’s a shame, because it could have been great.

a chaotic romp you didn't know you needed. This world was so fun to spend time in, you know when a book makes you feel cool? I want to be friends with all of these characters.

This is just a fun mecha YA book, something the world needs so much more of. It's not spectacularly written but its incredibly enjoyable.

I had extremely low expectations when I started reading Gearbreakers, so I can’t say I was actually disappointed when I read it and hated it. However, before I’d heard of certain negative aspects of the book that lowered my expectations, I was really excited for it! It sounded like it had everything I wanted, particularly in its Asian sapphic enemies to lovers and found family. Unfortunately, it was a complete disaster.

Gearbreakers is really just vibes, trying (and failing) to execute the tropes listed above, and grating writing. The character arcs were okay, and I liked how the two main characters’ arcs mirrored each others’, but I was so annoyed by the characters themselves (and how hard they tried to be edgy) that I couldn’t appreciate their development. I felt nothing for the romance, and there’s so little context or information about the world that it’s hard to care about the plot and the characters’ motives. The characters and world could have been so interesting, but the poor writing

And the worst part of my reading experience was just that—the writing was aggravating and try-hard, from the prose itself to its extremely cringey dialogue. You can tell that a thesaurus was used when writing this book, and not just used but abused, because so many lines used complicated words that made no sense. Everything in Gearbreakers reeks of trying too hard: it reads as if the author cares nothing about actual plot- and worldbuilding and only cares to make things look cool and edgy (and instead only annoys the reader into frustration).

A delightful book full of adventure, action, and thrills. Fun to read, engrossing world building, and very descriptive imagery made it feel like it was cinematic. It's hard to resist the story as it drives forward. Would recommend.

Glorious, Heartbreaking, and Powerful

Two girls on opposite sides of a war discover they're fighting for a common purpose―and falling for each other―in Zoe Hana Mikuta's high-octane debut Gearbreakers.

We went past praying to deities and started to build them instead...

The shadow of Godolia's tyrannical rule is spreading, aided by their giant mechanized weapons known as Windups. War and oppression are everyday constants for the people of the Badlands, who live under the thumb of their cruel Godolia overlords.

Eris Shindanai is a Gearbreaker, a brash young rebel who specializes in taking down Windups from the inside. When one of her missions goes awry and she finds herself in a Godolia prison, Eris meets Sona Steelcrest, a cybernetically enhanced Windup pilot. At first Eris sees Sona as her mortal enemy, but Sona has a secret: She has intentionally infiltrated the Windup program to destroy Godolia from within.

As the clock ticks down to their deadliest mission yet, a direct attack to end Godolia's reign once and for all, Eris and Sona grow closer―as comrades, friends, and perhaps something more…

“Gearbreakers” is both glorious and heartbreaking. Zoe Hana Mikuta’s debut novel illustrates exactly why we need more authentic voices in fiction and how marvelously well it can be done. But it also made me cry, both from the beauty and the ending of the novel. But everyone should read this brilliant steampunk, giant robots and queer romance because it is emotional, adrenaline filled and intense. 

Even for a debut novel, the plot is compelling. The point of view is split between the two main protagonists but that doesn’t detract from the intensity but only increases it. It also provides insight into each character, into their emotions and reactions to the events in the novel. Both characters are likeable, interesting and full of complexity. Eris is both fiery, rebellious, but full of love for her crew, for her people, and wants to take down Gondolia one robot at a time. Sona is torn, her loyalties with the Gearbreakers but she’s made choices she can’t take back, been transformed but her emotions haven’t been stripped from her and she still has choices left. Both are engaging and bring a fire that many novels lack. 

The action is equal to the characters that Zoe Hana Makuta has written. Giant robots, life and death battles, where individuals attempt to take on robots that could pulverize them. Even with the best technology, the Gearbreakers have little chance against the Windups but their battle provides hope to those still fighting Gondolia. The question is can they stand a chance in the war, even if they win individual battles and do Sona or Eris stand a chance with each other? The ending is mesmerizing, made me cry with the intensity of it all, and I really don’t want to wait for the next book. I don’t want to spoil anything but this book is incredibly good and is not to be missed. 

Rating: 5 out of 5 Windups

What a amazing book! I feel in love with this one. The story is spectacular, all the characters are super vivid. I recommend with my heart.

DNF @26%

This was one of my most anticipated releases of 2021, and I’m so disappointed that I wasn’t able to finish it. I started this book eager to dive into a sapphic cyberpunk novel that included some of my favorite tropes: enemies-to-lovers and (queer!) found family. I will admit that I was intrigued by the first chapter; I found myself liking the writing style and was excited to continue. However, as I continued, the chapters droned on and on and I quickly regretted my thoughts.

Although the writing style seemed beautiful at first, I grew to hate it. While I am someone who loves purple prose, this author’s writing style takes the idea of purple prose to such an extreme extent that the words simply do not make sense. Every paragraph was increasingly longer than the next, drenched in flowery adjectives that made me forget what the point of each sentence was in the first place. I only got through 28% by skim reading, and after that, I couldn’t go on. Perhaps because of this, I was not able to differentiate between the main characters’ perspectives, and did not care about what was happening to them enough to continue reading.

All that to say, this did not work for me, and I don’t have any plans on coming back to this in the future.

I loved this book!

The characters make tough choices and they know they have to live with the consequences of their actions. The writing and storyline were fantastic and easy to follow! Loved the book and the pissed off knife girls.

Shortwhile YA Dystopia/SciFi centered around rebellion and mechas.

I enjoyed the switching POVs and the two main characters, and while I liked their interactions I was most intrigued before their paths converged. There were several interesting side characters, but also a lot of forgettable ones that I kept mixing up, never able to remember who was supposed to be who.
There was pretty much only one plotline with few big twists or subthreads, but it was never boring. The couple hints towards sapphic romance could have played a bigger role, but I also enjoyed that it was rather subtle, and it fit the characters and ultimately probably would have distracted from the plot if it had been more prominent.
The worldbuilding could have been some more in depth, as well as all the technology used, especially for the mecha pilots, could have played a bigger role, but what was there more than sufficed for the book.

Overall this was a fine read. It didn't quite stand out, but was sufficient on its own.

Content warnings include: torture, violence, death and murder, bullying, child solders, death of parents, mass murder, child abuse.

Gearbreakers was my most anticipated book of the year and I was so excited to receive my arc. Sadly I was not able to get to it until a few months after release due to an unexpected hiatus. Recently got to chance to pick it up and am glad to say it was worth the hype. The beginning of the book is a little rocky at time, but around the 30% mark the story really picks up. Ultimately, the book ends with quite a bang. I thoroughly enjoyed it and am looking forward to the sequel.

I think the main reason the rating is what it is was because the plot just felt non-existent and all over the place at times. The progression of the world-building wasn't working for me and I do have to say that it does focus a lot more on the character relationships than what what I wanted. Of course, if that's your type, then you would still enjoy this book. I usually a look for deeper more gritty SCi-Fi. I think we can agree that it's hard to continue a story when the main characters perspectives are investing. *disappointed sighs*

I probably would have continued reading this for that found family aspect though. Those parts were the good parts. (and you know... sapphic... *twinkle*)

I can see this being loved by people who like relatively lighter Sci-Fi that focuses more on found family bonding and the enemies-to-lovers aspect. It just wasn't for me.