Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for granting me free access to the advanced digital copy of this book, as this book has already been published, I will not share my review on Netgalley at this time.

In the sequel to Wab Kinew's Red Maple-nominated Walking in Two Worlds, Bugz is dealing with the death of her beloved older brother, Waawaate. She's still dating Feng, but he's dealing with his own stuff, having discovered that his Uighur parents are alive, and want to see him. Bugz creates an AI replica of her brother to help her deal with her grief, but that quickly goes off the rails.....

I really enjoyed the first book in this series, and know that students who enjoy gaming get caught up in the storyline quickly. This one was harder for me to buy into. The homicidal AI Waawaate was a little overwhelming for me, and it was fairly obvious, from its creation, that things weren't going to go well. I appreciated the connections that Kinew draws between residential schools and the attempts to eliminate Uighur culture in China, but sometimes found the transitions between the battle scenes of the Verse and the serious conversations in the real world jarring. Bugz struggle with the judgement of her community in terms of ways in which she approached her grief felt very real, but again, the AI plotline was over the top for this reader.

Thanks to NetGalley and Tundra Books for the e-arc.

I wasn't aware this was the second book of a duology - but I'm glad I came across it nonetheless. I've been wanting to come across more Indigenous stories and this one is science fiction as well! The cover is absolutely stunning.

Much recommended to fantasy and sci-fi readers. I've always heard about this author and was glad to have the opportunity to read this book. We need more indigenous authors in this space so massive kudos to Wab Kinew!