The Chosen Twelve by James Breakwell. It did take me awhile to get into this novel but once I did it had interesting theory’s. Very much enjoyed indeed.

The Chosen Twelve tells the story of the last of humanity. Deep in space, in an ancient colony ship on a moon orbiting the planet Dion, twenty two twelve-year-old children are all that remain of the human race. The children, who thanks to the manipulations of the machines that ‘care’ for them, have been twelve for almost sixty years, their physical ageing paused as they’re trained to one day land on the planet below and build a civilisation.

Their guardian, Edubot, has been happy to teach them advance degrees and academic subjects for decades, allowing the children to practice their future task in simulations that often end in chaos as they have their people start strange religions, ride around on unicycles, and release weird plagues on each other. The children are used to this strange life, and despite having little real freedom they’re happy with their lot.

This all changes, however, when another AI arrives, one who is determined to use the humans to mine the planet for resources to help spread artificial life into the galaxy, and he wants them to begin soon. The only problem is, the ship they’ll be using to travel to Dion only has twelve seats. Now the children are being forced to prove they have what it takes to restart the human race and survive on this hostile world, or risk being left behind to age and die in the cold of space.

The Chosen Twelve is a story that does a good job at hiding the stakes. When the story begins we meet one of our twenty two children, Gamma, as he tries to reach a vending machine where he believes god lives inside, but he has to get past a murderous automatic door in order to do so. To begin with things seem very weird, and the book has this odd sense of things not being quite right, and almost bordering on silly. But after a while you begin to see that this is because our protagonists, despite having been alive for more than sixty years, are a bunch of children, and as such we see this dark, brutal future through the eyes of these immature beings.

To begin with the book manages to walk this fine line between the serious and the bizarre, and thanks to the children being given free reign to explore their creativity in their simulations and pursue whatever course of action they choose we get things like war elephants with diarrhoea, or a planet where there must be a sanctuary for geese. It feels close to the weirdness of something like a Douglas Adams book; but this doesn’t last.

As the story progresses a darkness begins to creep into things. At first there are hints that this isn’t the jovial, weird world that these kids seem to see it as, as Gamma learns when the murderous door very nearly succeeds in killing him in a painful, brutal way. But it’s only when SCASL, the chief AI arrives that the underlying darkness is revealed. His single-minded goal of using the humans for his own ends, despite the pain it will cause them allows him to push these children in brutal ways; and the bonds between them are soon tested as they begin to compete against each other for their place on the ship.

These twenty two children who have only ever had each other for their entire lives start out treating it like a game, competing to see who’s the best, but it soon devolves into a desperate fight to survive. Alliances are formed and broken, old wounds are reopened, and violence breaks out. The blurb for the book describes this as being The Hunger Games meets Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy, but there’s also a lot of Lord of the Flies mixed in there too, as we see tribalism spread through the group as factions begin to form as things get desperate, leading to a book that becomes surprisingly brutal compared to how it first begins.

When I began reading The Chosen Twelve I was worried that it was going to be a bit too weird for me, that it would veer too much into the ‘wacky’ territory for me to really get invested, but by the end I was on the edge of my seat as I wanted the character I cared about to survive, as I saw friendships fall apart, and death came to this small group of humans. By the time things came to a close I was even a little angry that the book ended where it did, because I was desperate to find out what happened next, and would have been happy to stay with these characters for even longer.

I don’t know what I expected from reading the description of this book, but by the end I’d had a journey into a very different future, one that felt unique and different to a lot of other books I’d read. This would have been an interesting story with any kind of protagonists, but putting young children at the heart of it made this feel like a very different kind of survival story; one that absolutely sucked me in. If you’re looking for science fiction that feels very different this is a book that is very much worth reading, and one that I’m sure you’ll enjoy.

This writer has put everything everyone loves about science fiction into one book. The blurb says it is Hunger Games meets Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy and Lord of the Flies meets Philip K Dick. It’s spot on.

The human race fought each other to death and the last remaining survivors take a colony ship to live on a new planet. The first problem they come across is their ship’s A.I. Humans had a hard time getting it just right. Their first two ships flew directly into the sun. By making all their electronics think independently, they get to the planet but the A.I’s takeover when the humans end up killing themselves there. 24 embryos are found hidden away on the ship and are raised by an edubot who paused their growth at 12 years old and runs them through simulations to have them figure out how to survive. They have been doing this for SEVERAL years and being 12, the children use the simulations more as a video game like inventing elephant diarrhea to combat killer kangaroos and wolf sharks.

Edubot gets taken over by a bigger A.I. and tells the children only twelve of them will land on the planet and the rest will be left behind. This is where we go full out Lord of the Flies but in a way if Leslie Nielsen made a parody of it.

I absolutely loved this book and didn’t want it to end.

The robots have deleted most of humankind and the last remaining batch are on board a colony ship, being trained for survival on a new planet. But only 12 of the remaining 22 can travel on the landing ship, so it must be decided which of them is truly suited to life on a planet, populated by dangerous creatures. This YA sci-fi is equal parts funny and thrilling. While it has elements of The Hunger Games and Battle Royale, it’s still full of fresh ideas. There are characters that I loved, characters that I hated and a plot that continuously threw out fast-paced, violent action scenes. It’s thoroughly transporting and I was genuinely glued to its pages.

An absolutely hilarious story about the end of the human race! I had such a good time with this book. It was highly entertaining and I flew through it. The action is non-stop throughout and despite a massive cast of characters you get a good feel for all of them.

We are following the last 22 surviving members of the human race as they battle it out in a Simulator to show that they are the best candidates for a mission to colonise a new planet. We are also following several sinister robots who are in charge of the mission and selecting the Chosen Twelve. High stakes, extremely funny and very interesting characters. I also really loved the world that was built and seeing all of the high tech equipment of our future.

I also appreciated that there are two LGBTQ+ characters in this without the story focusing on their sexuality - representation done right.

Thank you to Rebellion/Solaris and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book to review.

The Chosen Twelve by James Breakwell touts itself as a Lord of the Flies and Phillip K. Dick type story. For the most part, it does hit those marks without straying too far into either one to be uncomfortable for readers. Which I think is this story's most significant flaw.

The subject matter should be uncomfortable.

The Chosen Twelve starts with, "God lived in the coffee maker on deck four. Only Gamma Knew." Gamma, one of humankind's last organic beings, is standing before a door that may or may not be trying to kill him. On the other side of this door might be God. If only he could make it through this door.

You see, in Gamma's world, most of the machines are trying to kill the organics. Their programming has fizzled and popped and, in many cases, gained sentience. The machines have learned that humans should die. If Gamma steps through this door, he could be crushed to death. But on the other side, there might be answers. Gamma's life has been long, and he has been kept in the proverbial dark by the machines that control his survival. But like a man searching for water in the desert, Gamma believes that he can get answers if he can just make it through this door.

Gamma runs through the door, but the door is too quick and catches his arm and almost severs it. He begins to scream, but the ship is so big and full of so many things trying to kill you; the odds are that he will die with his arm trapped like a bear caught in a bear trap.

The "children" of the story, all 22 of them, are the last humans in the universe. The artificial intelligence that controls their ship grew them from embryonic form with the help of another machine designated, Edubot. The 22 fledgling humans were raised and educated according to the machine's ultimate goals. The humans would survive and help repopulate a planet and serve the machines. Thus helping create new computers from the raw materials on the colonized planet, they found. The children also live exceptionally long lives, with the help of technology, but are kept at the physical maturation age of 12.

They are 12, but not really.

The machines waited until the right moment to send the children to the planet and begin reconstruction, and that time is now.
Conflicts arise with the AI that controls the humans and with each other. We get our Lord of the Flies moments with that many different personalities and skill levels and only 12 seats to go to the planet. Humans can be real bastards to each other when there are scarce resources.

I enjoyed the characters of Gamma and Delta quite a bit. They stood in stark contrast to some of their classmates—especially Delta, who raised herself above her classmates in both skill and desire for a better world. The cast of characters is very long, named for the Greek alphabet, and they drop like flies. You care a great deal about some characters, while others pass by like a ship in the night.

Even with the level of deceit and violence the characters display, it doesn't venture near enough into the darkness of the human psyche for me to honestly believe in the predicament they face. These aren't children; their bodies belie the minds encased within, and I would expect them to act as such. Delta comes close, though. She starts to understand the necessity of some of her choices and feels the moral burden they entail.

There are certainly some very dark moments and bloodshed in The Chosen Twelve. The fight scenes are frenetic and well-written. It was hard for me to imagine swords in space like this, but Breakwell makes it work.

This is a highly imaginative novel. The predicaments the characters face are just shy of excessive and ridiculous, but if anything is possible, the highly imaginative and crazy can become plausible. Almost cherry-flavored food rations that you have to beg machines for, check. A robot that thinks of itself as a king, check. A metallurgist making swords that can cut through anything, check. Breakwell makes the scenarios work. And while I couldn't entirely shed disbelief, I was highly entertained by the dark comedy, fight scenes, and narrative.

I think this story will engage readers who like their science fiction and fantasy on the darker side. While it did not stray dark enough for me personally, Breakwell makes this highly imaginative story work and is worth reading.

This book follows Gamma, Delta and the remaining humans on a colony ship on the moon. These humans have been tasked by AI to prepare themselves for landing on hostile earth. The only issue is that there is 25 of them and only 18 seats on the lander. You definitely get "The Hunger Games" vibes from the book and I imagine, this will be turned into a movie very soon. I'm new to the sci-fi genre so it was a little out there for me but still an enjoyable read.

This is a first for me by the author and one I enjoyed and would read more of their work. The book cover is eye-catching and appealing and would spark my interest if in a bookshop. Thank you very much to the author, publisher and Netgalley for this ARC.

3.5/5.

5/5 stars
Recommended for people who like: sci-fi, multiple POVs, AI, end-of-human-life, space, space drama, competition, murderous robots

This review has been posted to Goodreads and in an abridged form to Instagram as of 11/6. It has been posted on my review blog as of 1/19.

This book went in a lot of directions (in a good way) and I don't really know where to start. I really liked the murderous sentient robots and the not-twelve twelve year olds. Right off the bat this sets up a really interesting scenario for everyone involved, and that's before we even get to the whole question of whether the characters are truly ready to go planet-side.

There are three, perhaps four, main bots that get roles in the story. First is Edubot, who is the teacher for the kids on the moon base. She's quite long suffering and doesn't always understand their decisions or personalities, but she's a pretty decent character, in my opinion, even if she does delight in making them somewhat uncomfortable. SCASL is...not as nice. He's undoubtedly powerful and has successfully kept the lander safe for all the years since the humans planet-side got destroyed and until the ones on the moon base are 'ready,' but he's not great with people themselves, which causes trouble. Spencer is a non-speaking robot who, like the other main four, is not murderous. Spencer actually seems to like the kids a lot and genuinely wants to help them and see them succeed, particularly Gamma, who he's especially attached to. Finally, there's God the coffee pot. God doesn't really get a lot of lines since he's kind of mysterious and in a dangerous area of the base. However, he does play a role and is omniscient and honest in a way the other speaking bots aren't, so he deserves a space here.

The simulations were my favorite part and I liked the funniness the kids would get up to in them. Over time, the humor gets mixed in with the grim reality of trying to survive on a planet that's essentially trying to kill you. I also thought the murderous bots made things interesting since even 'home' wasn't considered safe. The bots resulted in a good number of near-fatal incidents during the book, and a couple prior to the book's beginning, and so it served as a good way of upping the stakes.

Delta was my favorite of the bunch. She's largely a loner, but she's had time to perfect what she's interested in and is a pretty good leader. She's competent, if a little distracted by a former love, but when said former love isn't in the room she's golden. Delta also has a good balance of sass and compassion and while she may start out uninterested in helping the others, the idea seems to grow on her more as the book goes on. I'd be happy reading a second book that features Delta as one of the mains.

Epsilon kind of stands as a foil to Delta since she's the other potential leader of the landing crew. Unlike Delta, Epsilon has remained with the other students for their entire time on the moon base and has always been in charge of the missions. Unlike Delta, she's completely unsuited to it. Not only is she bossy, but she's unwilling to listen to other ideas or really even acknowledge that other people can have good ideas. Plus, she's kind of just an all-around bitch who thinks she's doing the right thing. It was frustrating seeing her be unable to read past the propaganda simply because it supported her when all signs pointed a different direction. But, I suppose it made her an interesting and nuanced opponent.

Gamma is actually the character the book starts off with and he acts as a good witness. He's not really good at anything but he also isn't bad. His mediocrity means he's perfectly aware there's a good chance he won't be one of the chosen twelve but he doesn't seem to mind it so much. Instead, he contemplates other ways the human population could survive in a more peaceful way.

Alpha (yes, they're all named after Greek letters if that wasn't obvious now, lol) was a wishy-washy character for a lot of the book, but she really came into herself after the halfway mark and I ended up really liking her character. She wants a peaceful option that doesn't involve the possible genocide of the native fauna on the planet, but she also isn't afraid of fighting back against people or bots that are either 1) against this idea, or 2) trying to kill her.

There are a couple of other minor POVs in the book as-needed, but these are really the main ones (plus maybe Rho). Breakwell did a good job of making sure each of the twenty-two human characters were distinct enough from one another that it wasn't really an issue telling them apart. They all had their own interests and quirks and it was fun seeing them revealed as I read.

I will say, by the end of the book I was wondering why the twelve seats still mattered as much as they did, all things considered, but I guess the amount of food that was going to be available was a bigger issue than anything else, so it does still make sense. I don't know if there's going to be a sequel, but I'm hoping so because I'd love to see what happens after the chosen ones get on the lander and go down.

Overall, I enjoyed this book and the characters. The plot was interesting and all the aspects of prepping to land on a new planet and fighting off killer robots while doing so kept the book moving and me engaged. There were a couple of plot points that I wish were filled in a little more (like the point of drilling down when it seemed to unfeasible), but they don't really take away from the story itself.

As much as I hate doing it, I’m going to have to DNF The Chosen Twelve.

I’m not sure what I was expecting but talking traffic light software, laundry carts, etc. was not it. This was a little too silly for my tastes. I’m sure that fans of The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy would probably enjoy this story, but it’s just not my cup of tea.

I think what did it was a 62 year old child thinking a unicycle would make a great transportation device for the new organics coming to their world. And the fact that they thought they were still 12.

Sorry to the author and to the publisher, but although I LOVE sci-fi, this story just didn’t work for me personally. I suspect I’m not the target audience. I thought it would be more serious with a Hunger Games flavor.

*Thank you to Solaris and NetGalley for the advance copy.*

This is YA Sci-Fi dystopian set on a interstellar colony ship with the last humans left in the universe. And they are 22 12 year old. Although they have been 12 for a long time!

The robots are in charge, there's only room for 12 on the lander to take them down to the planet - where they will probably die because it's full of murderous things. Who's going to get a seat? Who even wants a seat?

My expectations for this were totally wrong - the tag line in the description badging it as 'Hunger Games meets Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy', and a 'breathless survival thriller' was very misleading. About 70% of this is just 12 year old messing a out in space. Tonally, it's more like a YA Red Dwarf than Hitchhikers Guide. A lot (too much) time is spent on them doing simulations of how they will develop the planet - and focusing on things like the elephants with explosive diarrhea was just a bit juvenile for me.

There are far too many characters in this. 22 humans and a number of robots - I could remember about 2 of them, not helped by the Greek alphabet being used as names which dehumanised them as characters. I think the author realise this though as essentially every time a character popped up we got a reminder of their one defining characteristic to nudge you as to who they were.

Three stars, it was a slow read and felt about 100 pages to long

Sadly I had to dnf this book as it just wasn't for me.

Thank you Netgalley and the publishers for giving me the opportunity to read this in exchange for an honest review.

When a book synopsis mentions The Hunger Games and Hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy, you know you're in for a ride!

There's humour, philosophy, a coffee machine and all of this revolves around a twelve year old who's not quite twelve...
I really enjoyed this book! The writing was easy to follow and the humour was my kind of thing! I liked the characters and the apocalyptical setting- it was fun to read about. Also, that cover is so gorgeous! Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for an e-arc.

This is an exciting dystopic story of the last 24 humans left alive. Earth has fought its last battle, but the dying civilisation sent three spaceships seeded with embryonic humans to colonise a new world. Only one makes it, and it has landed on a star. The robots designed to nurture these infants have somehow been corrupted, and the youngsters are living every day in fear of their lives. Edubot is trying to teach them how to cope on an alien world before the craft lands on Dion below them, but all the simulations have them facing innumerable enemies, with scenarios that all end in death.

As a reader we identify especially with Gamma and his vacuum 'bot Spencer, as he tries to make sense of the world he is living in. Delta is the maverick, who removes herself from the colony to train in the art of fighting, then comes back ready to lead the pack. But the group do not only have to contend with haunted robots, but with the jealousies and petty feuds of their own friends. Human existence in a microcosm!

Its a cracking read, with a great climax as they chase to the landing craft.

Thank you to NetGalley, Rebellion and Solaris for allowing me access to the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The Chosen Twelve, by James Breakwell, is a humorous standalone dystopian thriller about a group of young senior citizens competing in a series of chaotic simulations to determine the fate of the Earth and all organic life. It strikes an uncommon balance between silly and serious and certainly checks the box when it comes to having fresh perspectives for the genre. But, with such a strange and chaotic premise, does the book manage to tie everything back together?

Our narrative focuses on twenty-two ‘children’, each of which is about sixty-three years old but are trapped in a state of bodily suspension right before puberty on a space station orbiting Earth. These youthful geriatrics all are named after a Greek letter of the alphabet, are a little bit insane, and have been entrusted with the future of sentient life. The Earth of this timeline has been completely destroyed due to human negligence and nuclear fallout – so the A.I.’s have taken over custody of intelligent life in the universe. After the complete death of our species, the A.I.’s have decided it would be good to start expanding their reach away from the hellscape that is Earth. To do this, they have realized that they will need a small crew of human operatives to do things that they physically can’t. So, they decant some embryos they have in storage and set them up in a huge competition to determine who will be the chosen twelve to get on a spaceship and further sentient life. Just one problem, being trapped as twelve-year-olds for close to sixty years has made all of them go batshit insane.

The Chosen Twelve is just chock full of absurd humor, ludicrous situations, strange conversations about the meaning of existence, and clever commentary on the human condition. A large portion of the story revolves around coming up with a solution to genetically engineered mega-death kangaroos. Not all of it lands. I found that the book was trying to evoke a similar narrative style as that of Terry Pratchett and Douglas Adams, and it does a mostly good job. Breakwell has his own voice that is quite fun that manages to feel original, but still great for fans of those two iconic authors. The humor is not flawless though, as there are times when jokes fall flat and tonal shifts can feel grating. But, for the most part, I was picking up what Twelve was putting down and having a great time. Twelve has a really interesting structure to its story that allows it to use its cast very effectively to tell its story. Most of our characters are a sort of faceless set of beings that just exist to move the story around. They each have a few clear recognizable traits (a love of reading, a hatred for doors, a talent for storytelling, and more) but they sort of sit at the back of your consciousness and let the humor and chaos take center stage.

However, that doesn’t mean the characters are bad and I was very attached to most of them (even the complete fuck ups) by the end of the book. There isn’t really a protagonist to the story, but Delta and Gamma spend the most time in the spotlight. Delta is the rogue in the story, resisting the plans of the A.I.s and providing a strong counterpoint to their ideas. Gamma is the witness who provides a window into most of the happenings around the story. All of them are great in their own way, but some readers might struggle to find attachment with these characters due to the story structure.

If you are looking for something different with a strain of humor running through it, The Chosen Twelve might be what you are looking for. Its chaotic plot, psychotic characters, alphabetized cast, and interesting premise kept me interested from beginning to end. It could have been a little more consistent and a little more mature at times, but I think it was overall a good time.

Rating: The Chosen Twelve – 8.0/10
-Andrew

I really wanted to like this and I read it all the way through but just found the characters very un-engaging, not helped by their Greek alphabet-based names that made it hard for me, as the reader, to relate something to each of them and remember who they were. And the plot was disappointing too.

Really sorry but this genre is one I absolutely gobble up but this book just didn't do anything for me. There's a lot better out there. I just wouldn't recommend this.

*Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with an early copy of this book for review, all opinions are my own*

2.5 stars

This isn't a bad book, it was just a case of it's not you it's me.
This is not the kind of book I'm used to reading which made me not like it that much.
My biggest problem with this book was the science fiction part, it was too heavy which I don't like even more when I'm reading in English because I don't understand all the terms and invented words.
I was happy that this was a quick book to read but I had the feeling that this book would never end, it dragged a little.
The characters I didn't like either I think only one of them I was interested in and I also found the whole age story confusing and unnecessary.
In the end, as I said it's not a bad book, it has its interesting parts especially if you like science fiction.

The Chosen Twelve was not what I was expecting and I think that threw me off a little going into this. The first few chapters are incredibly confusing and jarring in terms of the layout and writing style and whilst it does become more coherent it doesn't become any more gripping.

I do think I wasn't the target audience for this (despite the blurb making it seem like I would have been) but yeah I just really couldn't get into it. I DNF'ed at about 56%.

It's an interesting plot and the cover is lovely but didn't work for me.

Thanks to Netgalley and the Publisher for an arc of this in exchange for an honest review.

Okay, full disclosure, I was kind of lost when this started? But it was funny, and I like funny, so I kept going. And soon enough, I got the hang of it! Plus look, if you tell me it's The Hunger Games in space, I'm never going to not read that, right? And so I will tell you the things I enjoyed about this one!

►It's funny, remember? It made me crack up. Like a lot. I really liked the author's humor, and it made the book so much more readable. Because a bunch of (biologically) twelve year olds dying, in the last human outpost, at the hands of a broken vacuum or whatever? Bleak. But add in the humor, and it becomes very palatable.

►The concept is built for excitement. I mean, much like ALIE, these AIs just don't see the point of humanity. We're messy and emotional and as a rule, mess things up. So the AIs have come up with a plan to basically train the last humans, or "organics" as they call them, to pretty much just complete the AI agenda. It's a pretty good plan, honestly, but not one you want to follow if you are indeed a human. So you can tell from fairly early on that this will be far more nuanced than a simple "12 best organics" competition.

►So thought provoking. A lot of "no good choices" for sure, and wondering if humanity really was worth saving at this point. Especially when they are fighting each other so fiercely at this point in the species.

►While we don't get to know the individual characters too well, it actually works in this format. I almost never say that, but hear me out. These "kids" have been raised by machines. They have no culture to speak of, no awareness of the past, outside of what they've been fed by the artificial intelligence. And remember, these AIs don't even like humanity. So in essence, they're raising them to be like AIs. It makes sense! BUT. The humanity shines through anyway. And I think that is perhaps supposed to be the point? That despite the AIs' best efforts, these are still human beings with individual personalities.

►It's exciting and entertaining. The pacing was good, the story certainly entertained me, and I was certainly invested in seeing how it all panned out. And frankly, I'd be very here for a sequel.

Bottom Line: So very fun and entertaining, but still thought provoking and smart, I certainly enjoyed the ride!

The write has a quirky point of view, making it feel like a mash of the hunger games and 2001 space odyssey. Its written tongue in cheek, with digitals (aka computers) in control and 24 organics aka humans to be relied upon to populate a new earth. The ship has been traveling across space for decades, with humans suspended at the stunted age of 12, only to learn at the final hurdle that the launch pod only seats 12. The real fight for humanity begins.

It’s more of a farce than a drama. I quite enjoyed it but found the non gender names of the Greek alphabet very confusing which made it hard to get to grips with the different characters. I could only ever remember two of key characters. The world was well created and I got a real sense of the monotony of theirs lives and the hopelessness of the human plight. I’m sure there was lots of hidden meaning and subtleties but I’m afraid I missed them.

The last interstellar shop containing the final batch of humans to survive humanity's destruction left Earth an unspecified amount of time ago. Based on a moon orbiting a new planet, 22 teenagers live on a slowly breaking down outpost, They are put through simulations every day by their teacher, Edubot, but never seem to grasp how to survive on the planet's surface which is teeming with unfriendly flora & fauna. The teenagers also have to live with rogue machines trying to kill them & each other if they venture too far from the main rooms. On top of all this, they then find out that there are only 12 seats on the lander which will take them to the planet's surface, & the other 10 will be left behind to fend for themselves.

I really wasn't sure what to expect when starting this, but it turned out to be an entertaining read. It reminded me of Robot Wars, a British TV program where humans built robots which battled each other, only in this book they also battled the humans. Just imagine your robot floor cleaner gained intelligence & tried to kill you every chance it got! There was just the right balance of violence & humour that it didn't go too dark, but dark enough that the ending had some pathos (shout out to Spenser). One of the most inventive books I've read in a while.

My thanks to NetGalley & publishers, Rebellion/Solaris, for the opportunity to read an ARC.