✧₊‧˚⁀➷ 1.8/5 .ᐟ
➺ i'd like to remove the fact that this book even exists from my memory, thanks.
ʚɞ ⁺˖ setting .ᐟ the international space station, during the russian-ukrainian war (?). somewhere on the station, there's a nitrogen leak, and it's up to commander lucy (derogatory) to investigate. is it the russians? is it the trumpie? is it an accident? that's what lucy's here to find out! alternates between lucy's and some space admin's pov so we can get the whole background on russo-american relations.
ʚɞ ⁺˖ writing .ᐟ i feel like i could forgive everything else i hated about this—corny, non-existent mystery, insufferable characters, most boring politics of all time (ooh look at the evil russians!! so now what)—if the writing was remotely interesting. unfortunately, it was not. i didn't actually know this was translated until the author's note at the end, and it makes so much sense. the word choice, the sentence structure, everything is so bizarrely stiff. it's especially apparent with the dialogue—people don't speak like that in english. not to mention the annoying interjections meant to build character background take place entirely outside of the narrative. why are all these characters randomly daydreaming in the middle of important conversations?
ʚɞ ⁺˖ plot .ᐟ definitely not a thriller. no suspense, no mystery. we have three "suspects" at the beginning, the russian duo and the trumpie, ezra. except it's quite obvious it's not going to be the russians. the evil russians did it trope would make for an even blander book than this already was, and no author would write that, especially for something that's supposed to be an innovative political thriller. and of course it wasn't going to be the trumpie; there's no way an american would do anything wrong in these things. (he's not written to be a sympathetic character, but he's somehow more humanized than anton and lev.) so it's obvious that it's going to end up an accident. and the way it's written, this ending is more dull than the other two options combined.
ʚɞ ⁺˖ politics .ᐟ (white) american paternalism + anti-russian sentiment always gives me the creeps. a) these people almost never hate the 'i' place like that, so you can tell it's not about human rights. b) they're even more revolting towards the us-hated racialized countries like china and cuba. the paternalism in this was so blatant, i genuinely thought this was satire for like 99% of it, and if it is, + 1 star, but the hearing with the russian ambassador in the last chapter is seriously giving me doubts. it gets to a point where the satire is just a cia piece; you'd get as much out of this as you would out of black hawk down.
ʚɞ ⁺˖ characters .ᐟ i hope they all get taken out by a bomb the day after the book ends, but then, they're all purposefully written to be disgusting, so this is the one part of the book i can excuse. of course, it's funny that lucy, the only character written to be sympathetic, is more vile than the rest of them combined, except for steven. microaggressions towards devaki, the indian doctor. weird white savior complex towards lafayette, the black man. stupid, annoying as fuck, ridiculous victim complex. like maybe the misogyny should have won, sorry.
➺ i received an advanced copy from netgalley in exchange for a review.