A sapphic sci fi novella with a dystopian edge. Wylla is a scavenger who gets a mysterious message about a nearby powerful Mask open for the taking. Like everyone in this future society, Wylla wears a Mask which gives her enhanced abilities. Her typical Mask is a rabbit, which gives her sharp prey instincts. The mysterious Mask is a HAWK, with abilities not seen in any other Mask. Wylla is not the only scavenger after the HAWK Mask, and it turns out that powerful entities are trying to get the Mask back. 

Wylla and the being within the HAWK Mask fall in love MUCH too quickly (as in: instantaneous) and then spend the rest of the time fawning over each other and trying to build up the other's very low self-esteem. 

 It reminded me thematically of This Is How You Lose the Time War, and I unfortunately felt the same about both novellas. But I am in the minority, because most people RAVE about Time War. If you loved Time War, give this one a try.

a big thank you to NetGalley and Tor for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

This was such a fast paced and poignant novella 💚

if you enjoy sci-fi and self exploration along with some sapphic storyline and a sentient mask,thrn this is definitely for you 💚

at no point in this love letter to trans and queer identity did I know what was coming next, and boy howdy was that exceptional. A cross between This Is How You Lose the Time War and Gideon the Ninth, with all the affection of a Sappho poem and the precision of Brandon Sanderson, I cannot recommend this highly enough. The world building was exquisite; the mask technology was both incredibly complex and very easy to understand, as was the caste system and the stakes. What an excellent read.

Rep: Trans lesbian MC, queer woman LI

spice: none

tw: murder, transphobia, homophobia, rape, battle sequences including graphic gun violence

I read the e-arc for Volatile Memory by Seth Haddon. This book is unusual. The word I would like to use is weird, but that seems impolite. This story is told in the second person, a narrative style I do not personally enjoy, but we also get alternating first person POVs and that works very well. What does it mean to be human? And, what is a post-human world or life look like? If you are at all curious, read Volatile Memory. Can we invent technology that allows us to continue to inhabit after death? Very unusual and thought provoking read. It's novella length and it is the first book in a duology. I'm definitely reading book two. Thank you to Tor Books and Net Galley for my e-arc. This book came out on Tuesday, July 22, 2025.

“You could be as untouchable as a corporation, a Wylla who had always been Wylla; you could escape the heavy burden of your history, extricate some pure kernel of the person you were always meant to be.”

Volatile Memory is the first novella in the Volatile Memory Duology, a gritty cyberpunk adventure set in the far future, where corporations on terraformed planets and isolated space stations control humanity. Told in the second person where you, the reader, are in the pilot’s seat, we’re introduced to Wylla Sotain, a scavenger who travels to Pholan’s World in search of a rogue signal, only to be confronted with a frozen wasteland crawling with criminals after the same reward. There, she encounters HAWK, a mask that may have the consciousness of the dead woman it’s attached to inside it. Drawn together by obsession and rage, Wylla and HAWK seek revenge and fall in love as they try to piece together who shot HAWK and why she’s trapped in a machine.

“A consciousness spinning through metal and circuits, a bodiless mind, spun to life in the HAWK’s temporary storage. I crystallized and realized: I was alive.”

The best word to describe this book is relentless, with familiar themes of rebels, cults, and hackers, reminiscent of Ghost in the Shell by Masamune Shirow. It tackles anonymity in a repressive society where many live behind masks for their survival and horrific themes of body snatching. While some of the dialogue surrounding consent felt forced, given the life-or-death stakes of the plot, the romance and murder-mystery aspect kept me engaged until the last sentence. I highly recommend this novella and can’t wait for the sequel!

Recommended for Readers who Love:

— transhumanist sci-fi,
— cyberpunk set in space,
— and, a high-octane sapphic adventure fueled by feminine rage

Thank you, Tordotcom, for sending me a digital advance reader copy via NetGalley. You can find more of my reviews on social media at @crownebooks or ww.crownebooks.com.

Trans rage! Feminist revenge! Cerebrally sapphic! This fast-paced novella reads like a punchy short story, but keeps the momentum going throughout. Centering on a woman who we get to experience moving from prey to predator and she fights the corporate-controlled futuristic world, this book is amazing in all the right ways.

I received an advanced copy of the book from tor via NetGalley; the opinions are my own. And my opinion is, buy this book. Or borrow it from the library.

Solid page turner. A novella should fly by and despite the dystopian setting and danger this was an excellent palette cleanser of a book that I finished in one go. Well developed main characters for its length and sufficient world building to make it feel real.

I really wanted to like this but alas, I did not. It was confusing. And I hated the writing style, written in first person POV by Sable, a copy of a mind living in a mask, but written to the trans woman who saved her, Willa. “You were” this and that and “you kicked” etc - I have never seen that style of writing before and I really hated it personally. The idea of a mind fragment falling in love with a human… a human kissing a mask… it was all too weird for me. The most redeeming factor was the trans rep and commentary.

Thank you to Tordotcom for an ARC in exchange for my honest review!

This is everything I love about sci-fi! Kinda weird, relatively fast-paced, and emotionally intimate with themes that explore what it means to be human.

The obvious strength of this book is its exploration of queer identity. The author tackles the question: how much of identity is tied to the body, and how do you define identity outside of the body? Volatile Memory also makes use of themes that are often seen in queer literature, especially the idea of emotional scarcity and queer trauma bonding. The relationship between Wylla and Hawk is validating but also complicated; they latch onto each other quickly and later have to address boundaries and expectations because of it. I found their relationship to be incredibly compelling and nuanced, especially considering the short length of this novella.

Aside from the queer themes, Volatile Memory also brings up a conversation about AI that is only going to keep being more and more relevant. Hawk's sentience is explored with nuance and depth, and feels in tune with conversations that have been happening about AI and the question of AI consciousness. Hawk's behavior brings up thoughts about parasocial AI relationships, particularly how algorithms learn to mimic humans and perform affection.

What made it insightful, though, was that Haddon used this to explore what it means to be conscious in the first place: isn't being human just a form of mimicry after all? It was so intriguing to see AI explored within the space of queerness, and added a unique perspective to books that tackle similar topics.

The writing style and the way the relationship functions is very reminiscent of Harrow the Ninth, so if you're a fan of Muir's style, definitely pick this one up to scratch the itch. I also definitely see the comparison to This Is How You Lose the Time War, which explores similar but almost diverging themes.

Besides the themes and main relationship, this novella's plot packs a vengeful punch. Wylla and Hawk are essentially space pirates who team up to exact revenge on Hawk's abusive ex-husband. While their relationship is the main focus of the story, their plan for revenge results in a compelling character arc for both characters, and kept a fast-paced intrigue to keep the book moving forward. Dare I categorize this as a female rage catharsis?

The only thing I disliked about this book was that I didn't get more! While Haddon does a great job exploring complexity with such a short timeframe, I don't know if it was quite enough to have fully realized character arcs that could have bumped this up to an all-time favorite.

Though it operates in a hypercapitalist, sci-fi world, Volatile Memory stays grounded in something deeply personal: what it means to be seen, loved, and made whole when you've spent your whole life erased.

Thank you Netgalley and Tor for the eARC in exchange for my review!

This book has such a fascinating concept. Wylla, a scavenger just trying to make her way in the galaxy, intercepts a transmission from a small planet. A woman challenging anyone desperate enough to come find her, to take the advanced tech she has. Wylla needs the money so she wastes no time in getting the planet. By the skin of her teeth, she obtains the HAWK mask. But things are not quite right. HAWKs don't exist and when Wylla touches the cold metal, something, or someone, reaches back out.

Typically, novellas are a bit hit or miss for me, but this absolutely hits it out of the park. This little book is dense but Seth, our lovely author, handles the complexity in such a digestible way. The Masks are a fascinating concept. They represent animals and allow humans to take on their characteristics. Wylla has a RABBIT so she is always searching for danger and ready to bolt at any moment. We also meet an OX, DOG, RATTLESNAKE, and several others. I loved how these Masks, predator and prey, existed with each other and was almost a second identifier for people. I would absolutely read full length novels set in this universe (I'm so happy there's going to be another book in this series!).

Now to get on to the real stars of this book, Wylla and HAWK. They were rich and interesting characters, full of such depth that I was amazed just how real they felt to me when some five hundred pages books can't get me there. Wylla is a woman who has forced herself to be small, to blend into a crowd and never give someone a reason to look at her twice. HAWK never was able to fully live before her life was cut short and she is, rightfully so, furious about it. A big discussion point in this book is bodily autonomy and how forces greater than yourself, galaxy wide corporations, controlling husbands, and even each other will try and steal that autonomy away. But they learn that instead of trying to bend one another to their own will, it's easier to work together and they are far more powerful because of it.

I think this little book has so much meat on the bone and has something for everyone. If you love sci-fi, read this. If you love well executed metaphors and strong through line messages, read this. If you love unconventional queer love stories, read this. If you love an angry vicious woman, READ THIS!

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an advanced reader copy

Volatile Memory by Seth Haddon is a first person-POV Queer sci-fi novella. Masks shouldn’t retain memories, yet when Wylla puts on the HAWK mask, the memories of Sable remained. The pair journey to find Sable’ ex-husband to get answers and find understanding in each other.

Sable refers to Wylla in the narration as ‘you’ and only refers to Wylla by name in dialogue. This helps make the narration feel more personal and depending on the individual reader, it puts the reader in the place of someone who is not only transgender, but someone who has had to change their names in a system that doesn’t see a point in honoring who we really are, or in the place of someone who has lost their identity but knows everything about and their memories start with Wylla,.

A transwoman wearing a mask that retains a different identity is a very apt allegory for how it feels to not be cisgender in 2025. In Queer spaces, we talk a lot about masking and wearing different faces around different people in order to guarantee our safety or in order to move through the world in a way that doesn’t automatically put us at a disadvantage. While that’s not quite what’s happening here, the inherent connection of masks and Queerness still rings quite loudly every time Wylla puts on the HAWK mask and every time Sable mentions Wylla wearing her.

I would recommend this to fans of Queer sci-fi and readers of novellas looking for works with a trans lens

This was a really interesting read. Short but good, I enjoyed the little adventure, and if there’s a second one, I’m excited to read it. This story explored bodily autonomy and what makes you human.

I admit I was a little nervous at the prospect of a sapphic book written by a man, but I think this was a good one. I’m not entirely sure how I feel about the second person perspective, but it was unique to what I usually read.

Set in a futuristic world, our two characters stumble upon each other when the narrator character, Sable, calls from the remains of a technological… exoskeleton? Mask? Something like that. Enter Wylla, a trans woman forced to scavenge to survive because she chose to live in a body that matched hers.

The two then have to struggle to escape, as everyone wants the technology Sable is stored in. Along the way, the pair dig into Sable’s past, discover company secrets, and decide to go after her ex-husband who treated her poorly (and fall in love).

I really enjoyed this sapphic short story and would love more.

This is a speculative novella about a space scavenger and the "mask" she scavenges. Because it's a novella, the world building is fast and furious: people wear animal-themed masks that enhance their physical and mental abilities. Wylla, the main character (although referred to in the second person) uses a Rabbit mask to help her gather and analyze information with the goal of survival.

When Wylla finds a prototype mask, Hawk, she also discovers that the mask already has a human user (the first person narrator), Sable. Sable's consciousness has been downloaded into Hawk, while her physical body no longer exists. Sable wants revenge on the person who trapped her in the mask and disposed of her body. Wylla and Sable set off on a violent mission to do just that.

The experimental narration was interesting, but I found it just a little hard to follow. I did really like the different explorations of identity: Wylla is a trans woman, and Sable has no physical body at all, meaning that they both experience their femininity in very different ways.

While the book didn't quite hit the bullseye, I really liked the writing and themes. I may be checking out Seth Haddon's other books!

This objective review is based on a complimentary copy of the novella.

I enjoyed the premise of this story, and I am invested in where the characters go from here. The second person was a little hard to get used to but it was an interesting choice.

I recommend this story to avid sci-fi readers looking for something a little different.

Volatile Memory is more than an action packed sci-fi novella, at it's core it's a story of identity. We follow Wylla, a trans woman who has lived her life fighting to be who she is. And Sable, a consciousness within a mask, as readers grapple with the age old sci-fi question, what does it mean to be human?

Some elements of the story were confusing because there was so much to unpack into so few pages, but the characters were compelling and the world-building was captivating. In this universe, people wear high-tech animal masks that imbue the wearer with the traits of that animal (a rabbit mask gives you improved prey instincts, good for sensing danger).

Overall, a fast and enjoyable read and I would dive deeper into this world in the future.

trigger warnings for: transphobia, violence, and sexual assault

Volatile Memory is a riptide of emotions, from anger to desire, about what it means to be a person–a woman, made in her own image or ripped from another.

I loved this author's other book Reforged. I don't often read novellas, but I was excited for a sapphic book by this author and also love trans rep. The romance didn't really make me feel anything between just imagining a mask and a shorter story. I did like the sci-fi aspects but felt like I wanted a full length novel.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for a free eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

THIS is what good sci-fi is. Such a unique story from the very start. The idea of the masks is so interesting and unique. Smart, haunting, with important and timely commentary on our society. The second-person POV of the novella really works. Even though this novella is so short, it really packs a punch and feels COMPLETE. Too often, novellas feel unfinished and leave me wanting more from them. But this was perfect. I cannot wait for the sequel.

3.5 Stars

As per the blurb, an irresistible message is sent out into the deep depths of space, enticing scavengers from all around with an ungettable get. This prize not only hones your senses but gives the wearer valuable survival skills where milliseconds count. What heroine Wylla doesn’t expect is something beyond comprehension with uncharted abilities, and imagine her shock when the tech comes with its very own impossible sentience whose creator wants back.

As Wylla and the embedded intelligence Sable are prudently forced to get to know and trust each other (and fast), they find solace and empowerment in shared past experiences where their autonomy mattered little to those in power. Thus they decide on a path of vindication and revenge as they investigate the hows and whys of Sable’s existence.

Perhaps as a warning, this is told in first person POV alternating with a second person narrative, lending an unique presentation style as one doesn’t see this often. What this does very well is the actual outer space setting along with interspersed intense action scenes that fully immerses the reader in its science fiction roots while showcasing a burgeoning sapphic romance and an apt commentary on identity.

This ends on the limitless potential of Wylla and Sable’s partnership. Good thing this is going to be a duology so we can see what else is in store for these two!

Thank you to the author and Tor Publishing Group via NetGalley for an e-copy to review honestly

⋆.˚✮ 3.75 stars ✮˚.⋆

⤿ Thank you to Tordotcom for the advanced physical arc in exchange for an honest review!

I've gotten very lucky to be sent so many amazing novellas by Tordotcom that I was really excited for what sounded like a unique sounding science fiction. I can be very picky about my science fiction books and what I want from them, at least in terms of adventure and technology, but this one was super interesting! I know it's a novella so it's bound to be a little less detailed, but I really wish there was even more exploration of the world and society in this novel. I have heard it's going to be a duology though, and that ending made it feel like there would be even more exploration of how these societies work. There were some commentaries on current issues in our world though, so that was interesting to see be spun in a new light for science fiction.

This is definitely for fans of This is How You Lose the Time War, which wasn't a book that I absolutely loved, but thought was unique. This book gives similar vibes because of the situation that the main characters find themselves in, and the connection they make together even if one of them is stuck in the AI-mask. It was really interesting reading about this and learning about all the technology and how Hawk/Sable is so different from other models. I loved this technology and how it was used for survival, appraising, weaponry, and more by lots of people, especially with how it was linked to animals and their abilities.

Overall, this was a very interesting science fiction novella that I am looking forward to hopefully, getting even more of. The technology was fun and it left me feeling interested in the connection between the two main characters!

↬ trigger warnings: death of family members, dismemberment, mentions of torture, depictions of grief and mental health