What do you think?
Rate this book
Psychopomp
On the penal colony of Hibiscus Station, there’s no personnel more vital than the Pomps, who direct the excavation of highly volatile crystal. Young was in training to be a Pomp until a mental break and subsequent suicide attempt derailed her…and now she’s unraveling again. But when her secret hallucinations predict a tunnel explosion that kills her entire crew, she is offered a surprise second chance to complete her Pomp training, which she accepts in hopes of paying off the penal debt that is keeping her from going home. But the more she trains, the more her paranoia takes hold. What if the tunnel collapse wasn’t an accident? And what if everyone—her new crew, the station staff, even her lover—are all part of the deadly conspiracy?
321 pages, Kindle Edition
First published March 25, 2025
17 people are currently reading
3325 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 60 reviews
March 1, 2025
I was confused the whole way through…. Rtc
⎯⎯ ୨ preread ୧ ⎯⎯
Thankyou NetGalley for the e-arc!! I’m so excited
March 9, 2025
2.5 stars.
This sounded like it was right up my alley, with its Andor vibes, a corporatist government, life on a sci-fi space penal colony, cyberpunk visuals, and a FMC suffering from parental neglect and mental illness.
Unfortunately, the book was just okay.
While I really appreciated the POC characters, the main storyline and subplots felt like they were pulled from bits and pieces of other sci-fi psychological thrillers I've read or watched before. It wasn't all too gripping, and I wasn't on the edge of my seat, eagerly waiting to see what would happen.
All the story beats and plot twists were predictable. Even the mental illness angle read like it was pulled from a typical psychological thriller story. I have a feeling that I'll probably forget about this book in a few weeks.
Without going into spoilers, I just wanted a lot more from the subplot with Young's abilities and the whole backstory with her parents' fate. And maybe more interactions between the FMC and the actual setting itself. It felt like all she did was have a relationship with Gyu, work/train, question her sanity, and randomly follow directions from someone she barely knew. Rinse and repeat.
I think if you're a seasoned sci-fi enthusiast, this won't be anything new. I liked it for what it was and wasn't all too bored with my experience. The writing was good and easy to follow along, so this might be a good read if you're new to sci-fi psychological thrillers.
Thank you to Dark Matter INK and NetGalley for this arc.
This sounded like it was right up my alley, with its Andor vibes, a corporatist government, life on a sci-fi space penal colony, cyberpunk visuals, and a FMC suffering from parental neglect and mental illness.
Unfortunately, the book was just okay.
While I really appreciated the POC characters, the main storyline and subplots felt like they were pulled from bits and pieces of other sci-fi psychological thrillers I've read or watched before. It wasn't all too gripping, and I wasn't on the edge of my seat, eagerly waiting to see what would happen.
All the story beats and plot twists were predictable. Even the mental illness angle read like it was pulled from a typical psychological thriller story. I have a feeling that I'll probably forget about this book in a few weeks.
Without going into spoilers, I just wanted a lot more from the subplot with Young's abilities and the whole backstory with her parents' fate. And maybe more interactions between the FMC and the actual setting itself. It felt like all she did was have a relationship with Gyu, work/train, question her sanity, and randomly follow directions from someone she barely knew. Rinse and repeat.
I think if you're a seasoned sci-fi enthusiast, this won't be anything new. I liked it for what it was and wasn't all too bored with my experience. The writing was good and easy to follow along, so this might be a good read if you're new to sci-fi psychological thrillers.
Thank you to Dark Matter INK and NetGalley for this arc.
May 1, 2025
full review soon bc ARC
April 7, 2025
This was an ok read, I found that I didn’t really care for all the details given although it was an interesting setup. Descriptions of mental illness were well done and a company using prisoners to mine substances that will give the workers cancer isn’t a far fetched concept.
Read
December 3, 2024A big thank you to the publisher for an ARC for a blurb!
PSYCHOPOMP is a cosmic space opera that explores desperately flawed and human characters thrown into mystery and paranoia, where trusting themselves becomes more difficult than trusting others as secrets unravel piece by piece in this richly drawn and complex, ache- and angst-driven sci-fi thriller.
PSYCHOPOMP is a cosmic space opera that explores desperately flawed and human characters thrown into mystery and paranoia, where trusting themselves becomes more difficult than trusting others as secrets unravel piece by piece in this richly drawn and complex, ache- and angst-driven sci-fi thriller.
February 26, 2025
Review: Highly self-centered and myopic, verging on psychotic narcissism. That is the MC condensed for brevity's sake. Every frikin' page is this HUGE lament on her: life, abandonment, social interaction, people’s opinion, self-loathing, self-gratification etc. etc. When you are self-aware that your actions harm yourself and others, at some point you get better at pulling yourself out of detrimental emotions, rather than have them ruling your daily existence. She talks to herself about how bad this action is going to be, then goes ahead and does it. Riiiiight. She is constantly: limping, bleeding, aching, crying, sleeping, exhausted, dreaming or digging. As a reader, you get no breaks as well.
If you can wade through pages of self-recriminatory drivel, the world building and REAL story line is intriguing enough to bear witness. The characterization was limited in scope, especially the supporting roles. You just didn't care what happened to any of them. "Oh gee, we lost a crew of five. Time for a new crew assignment". Since the character depth is meager, it begs the point that the plan was to write them out anyway. But why not give it all in that short space, to build the best character that people will miss?
I like this world. It is creative and echoes Anne McCaffery's, Crystal Singer. The MC is insufferable in presentation, but you root for her, despite her dumb choices and lack of perspective.
I received this ARC for an honest review.
2.5/5
If you can wade through pages of self-recriminatory drivel, the world building and REAL story line is intriguing enough to bear witness. The characterization was limited in scope, especially the supporting roles. You just didn't care what happened to any of them. "Oh gee, we lost a crew of five. Time for a new crew assignment". Since the character depth is meager, it begs the point that the plan was to write them out anyway. But why not give it all in that short space, to build the best character that people will miss?
I like this world. It is creative and echoes Anne McCaffery's, Crystal Singer. The MC is insufferable in presentation, but you root for her, despite her dumb choices and lack of perspective.
I received this ARC for an honest review.
2.5/5
December 13, 2024
PSYCHOPOMP is an unflinching, brutally honest dive into heartache, depression, and resilience. Dong pulls no punches with her character, Pomp-in-training Young, who is determined to get the better of the monsters that haunt her in the mines of Hibiscus Station, and from within. Claustrophobic and intense at points in a way that invokes Daniel Kraus's WHALEFALL, PSYCHOPOMP is a riveting story about courage, and ultimately, self belief
February 27, 2025
This was boring. I was expecting something a little more action packed with way more scifi stuff. I got mild scifi with a prisoner falling in love with her psychiatrist. It just really didn't vibe with me. Our main character was just so hard to read from her perspective because I just kept hoping that the unreliable narrator trope would itch a certain scratch that scifi horror gives me but I was really let down. Thanks Netgalley for an early e arc of this.
Read
September 1, 2025Psychopomp is a far-future science fiction novel set on a prison planet where the protagonist, Young is a miner who failed out of training to become an overseer for mining teams. She gets a chance at a redo, but why, and who might be pulling the strings to get her to a different position?
I really liked this novel - it was pacy, exciting, but also had a lot of interiority. The worldbuilding with a space elevator between tidally locked planets was cool too. (Is it me or are space elevators making a comeback? I've seen them in a bunch of recent works. I am here for space elevators :D )
Possibly most importantly out of all the aspects I loved, I felt that finally there was something in science fiction in particular where we could see the perspective of a traumatized person not sanitized and made palatable by the narrative. This does happen, but it is increasingly rare in recently published SFF, I feel, so I very much want to highlight it. Here, Young makes suboptimal decisions, she cannot deal with various situations, she endlessly second-guesses who might want to hurt her and why (the list is quite long). The story also made me as a reader endlessly guess and one of my guesses was very wrong :) The novel has a paranoid ambience, but more than that, an it's-not-really-paranoia-if-they-really-want-to-hurt-you ambience. Very much up my alley.
I also appreciated that the plot tackled abuse in a teaching environment (among many other things) - a lot of books that have this as an element include it in an almost parodistic way, but here it was believable and relatable to me, and actually showed the psychological consequences.
Without spoilers, there are some elements about the setting which go unexplained, and I would've liked to see them explained a bit more because they were really cool. But I also understand the characters themselves have no explanation for them and they might not even fit their worldview. I'd love to read a sequel where this is investigated a bit more. The book does end on a satisfactory note, not a cliffhanger.
Psychopomp is one of my favorite books of 2025 so far, I really recommend it. It does have a strong focus on trauma, so please keep that in mind (it does come with content warnings).
____
Source of the book: I got a review ebook from the author because I reviewed some of her short fiction. I really appreciated getting the ebook, but because I generally read most books in print, I ended up requesting a print copy as a purchase from my public library, and they got it for me. (Thank you Lawrence Public Library, I appreciate you too!)
I really liked this novel - it was pacy, exciting, but also had a lot of interiority. The worldbuilding with a space elevator between tidally locked planets was cool too. (Is it me or are space elevators making a comeback? I've seen them in a bunch of recent works. I am here for space elevators :D )
Possibly most importantly out of all the aspects I loved, I felt that finally there was something in science fiction in particular where we could see the perspective of a traumatized person not sanitized and made palatable by the narrative. This does happen, but it is increasingly rare in recently published SFF, I feel, so I very much want to highlight it. Here, Young makes suboptimal decisions, she cannot deal with various situations, she endlessly second-guesses who might want to hurt her and why (the list is quite long). The story also made me as a reader endlessly guess and one of my guesses was very wrong :) The novel has a paranoid ambience, but more than that, an it's-not-really-paranoia-if-they-really-want-to-hurt-you ambience. Very much up my alley.
I also appreciated that the plot tackled abuse in a teaching environment (among many other things) - a lot of books that have this as an element include it in an almost parodistic way, but here it was believable and relatable to me, and actually showed the psychological consequences.
Without spoilers, there are some elements about the setting which go unexplained, and I would've liked to see them explained a bit more because they were really cool. But I also understand the characters themselves have no explanation for them and they might not even fit their worldview. I'd love to read a sequel where this is investigated a bit more. The book does end on a satisfactory note, not a cliffhanger.
Psychopomp is one of my favorite books of 2025 so far, I really recommend it. It does have a strong focus on trauma, so please keep that in mind (it does come with content warnings).
____
Source of the book: I got a review ebook from the author because I reviewed some of her short fiction. I really appreciated getting the ebook, but because I generally read most books in print, I ended up requesting a print copy as a purchase from my public library, and they got it for me. (Thank you Lawrence Public Library, I appreciate you too!)
May 25, 2025
What a downer of a read. and yet so very, very good. The building tension left me at physical unease and even making me breath funny from time to time. And what a satisfyingly unsatisfying end. With a very confusing epilouge...
April 13, 2025
Psychopomp takes place in a prison labor camp on a moon that’s tidally locked to a planet that is itself tidally locked to the local star. The lead has been abandoned by her parents, has failed out of training to be one of the Pomps that help map out valuable ore deposits, and has failed in a suicide attempt. Now she’s assigned to work underground with a group of unfamiliar miners, but their efforts are undone by dangers seemingly only she can see. There’s a piece that will make the puzzle make sense, but with no idea who to trust, the question is whether she’ll be able to find it while there’s still something to be done.
If that sounds like a lot stuffed into one medium-length sci-fi novel, it is. In fact, I’d go as far to say it’s too much on at least two axes. First, the lead’s life is horrible almost to the point of parody. A few of the bigger pieces—like the abandonment by her parents—offer hints at future explanation, but a significant chunk feels like an endless succession of casual cruelty. There’s a scene early in the book, in which a teammate badgers her for details about her suicide attempt and acts surprised when greeted with an emotional outburst, that had me wondering whether the secondary characters had ever met other human beings. Losing one’s parents, being imprisoned, failing the test for a key position, and being thrust into a new work role with no support network is plenty of cause for emotional distress. The rest feels like an unnecessary play for pathos that’s so over-the-top that it backfires, pulling me out of the story.
In addition to the tragic backstory, there’s also a lot going on from a plot perspective. Seemingly every major character has hidden motivations, and coupled with the obvious fact that the lead has some sort of special trait that no one has told her about, it gives the novel the feeling of a secret around every corner. Which can certainly work, but Psychopomp doesn’t give these elements enough room to breathe, instead delivering cascading revelations with little time for the characters or readers to sort through the implications. It’s not necessarily a bad thing for every character to have secrets, it just develops too quickly for each one to generate full emotional impact. That does help the reader get into the mindset of a lead who is overwhelmed and struggles to tell what’s true and what’s not, and the lingering chaos at the end feels true to the major climactic actions. But at the same time, it doesn’t do enough to pull things together into a satisfying resolution. Some uncertainty at the end can be well and good, but the ending comes too suddenly for my tastes, with a flurry of changes and revelations that don’t have time to settle before it’s all over.
But for all that the story feels overstuffed, there are still plenty of ways in which Dong’s writing chops are on full display. She builds the tension from the first chapter and keeps it high throughout, peppering small revelations into increasing layers of uncertainty, so that there’s always a big danger or a big question driving the reader to keep turning the pages. And just as much as it’s a page-turner, Psychopomp is an exploration of a traumatized main character, desperately searching for ways to cope with a life she’s not even sure she wants to live, yet struggling to find any with even a glimmer of hope. There are times that watching her can be maddening, but it’s hard to say it’s not realistic for someone so deep in a psychological hole.
Overall, Psychopomp is a novel that tries to do a bit too much, with a proliferation of subplots and intrigues that don’t have enough time to breathe and a lead with enemies behind every corner. But it’s also a compelling dive into the world of a traumatized lead, a sci-fi thriller that’s gripping even in the midst of the chaos. It would benefit from a bit more subtlety and a steadier finish, but it’s a book that will keep the reader engaged through its many twists and turns.
12/20
If that sounds like a lot stuffed into one medium-length sci-fi novel, it is. In fact, I’d go as far to say it’s too much on at least two axes. First, the lead’s life is horrible almost to the point of parody. A few of the bigger pieces—like the abandonment by her parents—offer hints at future explanation, but a significant chunk feels like an endless succession of casual cruelty. There’s a scene early in the book, in which a teammate badgers her for details about her suicide attempt and acts surprised when greeted with an emotional outburst, that had me wondering whether the secondary characters had ever met other human beings. Losing one’s parents, being imprisoned, failing the test for a key position, and being thrust into a new work role with no support network is plenty of cause for emotional distress. The rest feels like an unnecessary play for pathos that’s so over-the-top that it backfires, pulling me out of the story.
In addition to the tragic backstory, there’s also a lot going on from a plot perspective. Seemingly every major character has hidden motivations, and coupled with the obvious fact that the lead has some sort of special trait that no one has told her about, it gives the novel the feeling of a secret around every corner. Which can certainly work, but Psychopomp doesn’t give these elements enough room to breathe, instead delivering cascading revelations with little time for the characters or readers to sort through the implications. It’s not necessarily a bad thing for every character to have secrets, it just develops too quickly for each one to generate full emotional impact. That does help the reader get into the mindset of a lead who is overwhelmed and struggles to tell what’s true and what’s not, and the lingering chaos at the end feels true to the major climactic actions. But at the same time, it doesn’t do enough to pull things together into a satisfying resolution. Some uncertainty at the end can be well and good, but the ending comes too suddenly for my tastes, with a flurry of changes and revelations that don’t have time to settle before it’s all over.
But for all that the story feels overstuffed, there are still plenty of ways in which Dong’s writing chops are on full display. She builds the tension from the first chapter and keeps it high throughout, peppering small revelations into increasing layers of uncertainty, so that there’s always a big danger or a big question driving the reader to keep turning the pages. And just as much as it’s a page-turner, Psychopomp is an exploration of a traumatized main character, desperately searching for ways to cope with a life she’s not even sure she wants to live, yet struggling to find any with even a glimmer of hope. There are times that watching her can be maddening, but it’s hard to say it’s not realistic for someone so deep in a psychological hole.
Overall, Psychopomp is a novel that tries to do a bit too much, with a proliferation of subplots and intrigues that don’t have enough time to breathe and a lead with enemies behind every corner. But it’s also a compelling dive into the world of a traumatized lead, a sci-fi thriller that’s gripping even in the midst of the chaos. It would benefit from a bit more subtlety and a steadier finish, but it’s a book that will keep the reader engaged through its many twists and turns.
12/20
Read
December 22, 2024N.B. I do not rate on Goodreads.
In all honesty, I never read sci-fi, so when I was asked to read an ARC of Psychopomp I hesitated, as I felt a bit out of my depth.
However, it's such a clever read that I found myself effortlessly drawn in to the MCs situation.
Psychopomp is a cinematic sci-fi thriller that cleverly combines action with tension and certainty with doubt. A cast of complex characters propel the reader along a journey of secrets and self-discovery.
Sincere thanks to the author and publisher for the ARC!
In all honesty, I never read sci-fi, so when I was asked to read an ARC of Psychopomp I hesitated, as I felt a bit out of my depth.
However, it's such a clever read that I found myself effortlessly drawn in to the MCs situation.
Psychopomp is a cinematic sci-fi thriller that cleverly combines action with tension and certainty with doubt. A cast of complex characters propel the reader along a journey of secrets and self-discovery.
Sincere thanks to the author and publisher for the ARC!
December 18, 2024
I had the honor of reading an eARC copy of this book.
Psychopomp is a riveting page-turner set in an intriguing and tidally locked planet-moon system.
Dong is clearly a master of the craft, skillfully infusing science fiction with the harsh realities of work exploitation, mental breakdown, and gaslighting. The multiple-layered main character, Young, felt vivid enough that I kept thinking about her long after I put down the book. Her plight will leave you clenching your teeth all along as the world around Young unfurls and reveals to be something else entirely. Gyu feels so uncomfortably real that you'll feel a degree of uneasiness as he talks and acts.
Looking forward to Maria's next works!
Psychopomp is a riveting page-turner set in an intriguing and tidally locked planet-moon system.
Dong is clearly a master of the craft, skillfully infusing science fiction with the harsh realities of work exploitation, mental breakdown, and gaslighting. The multiple-layered main character, Young, felt vivid enough that I kept thinking about her long after I put down the book. Her plight will leave you clenching your teeth all along as the world around Young unfurls and reveals to be something else entirely. Gyu feels so uncomfortably real that you'll feel a degree of uneasiness as he talks and acts.
Looking forward to Maria's next works!
May 18, 2025
Thanks to NetGalley and Dark Matter INK for the ARC copy of "Psychopomp". This has not affected my review at all, which are my own thoughts.
Young is a miner with a debt to pay, working at Hibiscus Station and dealing with a heavy mental toll derived from parental abandonment, previous mental breaks and just life, in general. She used to train to be a Pomp, the person in charge of directing the miners crew to extract the precious metal of Hib, but she failed. Until her mining crew dies in an explosion, with Adda's death taking a toll on her, and which she might or not might have anticipated due to strange visions, and she gets a second chance at becoming a Pomp through her lover, Gyu, an engineer. But, of course, her paranoia keeps getting worse and Young doesn't know who she can really trust when she starts getting strange abilities and finding secrets about every person in her life.
Even though I kind of liked "Psychopomp", I must admit that this one left me quite confuse at the end and a bit disappointed throughout the whole book. In fact, I'm still not sure if I can confirm 100% that I liked it😂 But I wasn't bored about it or put off by conflicting content, so it wasn't that bad, but it could have been so much better and, in the end, that's what makes me rate it kind of low and write this review.
So, as the summary says, Young's mining crew dies and she's given a second chance at finishing her Pomp training and becoming one. Except, it takes her half the book to even accept the offer Gyu makes and, then, finally start her training. But, the way the official blurb frames it, I expected this to happen sooner in the book, to be honest, more over because they spent a good number of chapters going back and for at it until Young says yes. So, yes, the fist half of the book drag a lot, slowly but surely getting to the point, but, at least, presenting Young in different lights and making sure we (the reader) would understand her and get to know her. Painting Young more as a person and a well developed character than an idea of it. So, even though I think we got to getting trained as a Pomp quite slow, at least that part of the book did something with its characters and setting.
And then, the second half of it went downhill pretty fast, without giving us a second to breathe. Like a rollercoaster: you go slowly at to the top and then it speeds up as it goes down, leaving you breathless. It felt like entering a new book due to how fast things starting to develop once Young accepted being a Pomp and finishing her training. Like, we rescue characters from the first half and give them some prominence, giving them ideals and goals and morals that conflict and intertwined with Young's to the point of changing the course of her plot. Like, yes, it all added conflict and most of it derived from red herrings and details implanted at the first half of the book, but maybe, some of them could have started to develop a bit sooner. For my taste, at least.
And all of this amalgamation of characters and subplots and lies from every direction to Young at the center, lead to an end that felt a bit weak for me. It made sense thematically speaking and with the arc of the plot, but it didn't give me much of an emotional impact as it should have, I'm sure. Maybe it was Young's personality, her avoidance of people, that make it seem like she just did what she did because she was there and it was the only option, or because this was the peak of her strange abilities and it could safe... I wonder who, really, because it wouldn't be her, that for sure😂 Something, something, people still develop cancer when expose to alien radioactive crystals, something something. I'm pretty sure she was doomed from the start. Though, the way she's written, it didn't make me feel sad for her when it looked like she wouldn't make it. On the other hand, and even though I didn't feel bad for him either, they could never make me hate Gyu😌
Hannah, Adda's girlfriend, as little participation as she had on the first half of the novel, and gaining more of a prominent role in the second, was the only character I cared for. Justice for her. Because she lost the person she loved the most and yet she kept going to fulfill her promised to Adda though grief was eating her alive. In fact, I wished Hannah's character had been explore more even if it would have been through Young's point of view. I found her, Hannah, interesting, with clear goals and ideals and motivation. For a secondary character, she was well developed for her role and felt quite realistic. That¡s something I'm giving the author: her characters were complete, three dimensional and intriguing in their own way. even Young with her bit of a victim complex and delirious personality. Though, I must say, that her unreliable fact as the narrator had hit deeper. Sure, she didn't trust not even her shadow most time, but it could have been better, in my opinion, 'cause I didn't doubt as much as her the word from the characters that were telling her to mind someone else that was watching her. Like, I would have liked it if we had seen strange behavior from some secondary characters to make Young doubt them before they went around and advise her. Is all.
I'm going to end this review with some commentary about the world, because, in a book, moreover when it is a science fiction book, the world is as important as the characters inhabiting it. And the world Young and the others live in was quite realistic, specially the greedy capitalism that governs Hib, the moon the prisoners are kept and were they mine the piezanite, precious metal that CPI (the governing class) uses for everything now so they control everything and everyone. Good thing we don't live in a world like the one proposed in Psychopomp, but it definitely has roots in some of our ways of leaving and it could happen, which is the scarier part of worlds so well done like this one.
Overall, while I enjoyed some parts of the book and I connected with Young on some parts, I didn't liked Psychopomp as much as I anticipated when I read the blurb and decided to request it at NetGalley. It had potential, and the writing is objectively good, my congratulations to the author for this book. I think I can recommend it for fans of the genre, or if some parts of my review convinced y'all to read it. It's not the best book out there, but it is definitely better than other novels I've read, and it has a sick ass cover.
Young is a miner with a debt to pay, working at Hibiscus Station and dealing with a heavy mental toll derived from parental abandonment, previous mental breaks and just life, in general. She used to train to be a Pomp, the person in charge of directing the miners crew to extract the precious metal of Hib, but she failed. Until her mining crew dies in an explosion, with Adda's death taking a toll on her, and which she might or not might have anticipated due to strange visions, and she gets a second chance at becoming a Pomp through her lover, Gyu, an engineer. But, of course, her paranoia keeps getting worse and Young doesn't know who she can really trust when she starts getting strange abilities and finding secrets about every person in her life.
Even though I kind of liked "Psychopomp", I must admit that this one left me quite confuse at the end and a bit disappointed throughout the whole book. In fact, I'm still not sure if I can confirm 100% that I liked it😂 But I wasn't bored about it or put off by conflicting content, so it wasn't that bad, but it could have been so much better and, in the end, that's what makes me rate it kind of low and write this review.
So, as the summary says, Young's mining crew dies and she's given a second chance at finishing her Pomp training and becoming one. Except, it takes her half the book to even accept the offer Gyu makes and, then, finally start her training. But, the way the official blurb frames it, I expected this to happen sooner in the book, to be honest, more over because they spent a good number of chapters going back and for at it until Young says yes. So, yes, the fist half of the book drag a lot, slowly but surely getting to the point, but, at least, presenting Young in different lights and making sure we (the reader) would understand her and get to know her. Painting Young more as a person and a well developed character than an idea of it. So, even though I think we got to getting trained as a Pomp quite slow, at least that part of the book did something with its characters and setting.
And then, the second half of it went downhill pretty fast, without giving us a second to breathe. Like a rollercoaster: you go slowly at to the top and then it speeds up as it goes down, leaving you breathless. It felt like entering a new book due to how fast things starting to develop once Young accepted being a Pomp and finishing her training. Like, we rescue characters from the first half and give them some prominence, giving them ideals and goals and morals that conflict and intertwined with Young's to the point of changing the course of her plot. Like, yes, it all added conflict and most of it derived from red herrings and details implanted at the first half of the book, but maybe, some of them could have started to develop a bit sooner. For my taste, at least.
And all of this amalgamation of characters and subplots and lies from every direction to Young at the center, lead to an end that felt a bit weak for me. It made sense thematically speaking and with the arc of the plot, but it didn't give me much of an emotional impact as it should have, I'm sure. Maybe it was Young's personality, her avoidance of people, that make it seem like she just did what she did because she was there and it was the only option, or because this was the peak of her strange abilities and it could safe... I wonder who, really, because it wouldn't be her, that for sure😂 Something, something, people still develop cancer when expose to alien radioactive crystals, something something. I'm pretty sure she was doomed from the start. Though, the way she's written, it didn't make me feel sad for her when it looked like she wouldn't make it. On the other hand, and even though I didn't feel bad for him either, they could never make me hate Gyu😌
Hannah, Adda's girlfriend, as little participation as she had on the first half of the novel, and gaining more of a prominent role in the second, was the only character I cared for. Justice for her. Because she lost the person she loved the most and yet she kept going to fulfill her promised to Adda though grief was eating her alive. In fact, I wished Hannah's character had been explore more even if it would have been through Young's point of view. I found her, Hannah, interesting, with clear goals and ideals and motivation. For a secondary character, she was well developed for her role and felt quite realistic. That¡s something I'm giving the author: her characters were complete, three dimensional and intriguing in their own way. even Young with her bit of a victim complex and delirious personality. Though, I must say, that her unreliable fact as the narrator had hit deeper. Sure, she didn't trust not even her shadow most time, but it could have been better, in my opinion, 'cause I didn't doubt as much as her the word from the characters that were telling her to mind someone else that was watching her. Like, I would have liked it if we had seen strange behavior from some secondary characters to make Young doubt them before they went around and advise her. Is all.
I'm going to end this review with some commentary about the world, because, in a book, moreover when it is a science fiction book, the world is as important as the characters inhabiting it. And the world Young and the others live in was quite realistic, specially the greedy capitalism that governs Hib, the moon the prisoners are kept and were they mine the piezanite, precious metal that CPI (the governing class) uses for everything now so they control everything and everyone. Good thing we don't live in a world like the one proposed in Psychopomp, but it definitely has roots in some of our ways of leaving and it could happen, which is the scarier part of worlds so well done like this one.
Overall, while I enjoyed some parts of the book and I connected with Young on some parts, I didn't liked Psychopomp as much as I anticipated when I read the blurb and decided to request it at NetGalley. It had potential, and the writing is objectively good, my congratulations to the author for this book. I think I can recommend it for fans of the genre, or if some parts of my review convinced y'all to read it. It's not the best book out there, but it is definitely better than other novels I've read, and it has a sick ass cover.
February 16, 2025
Thank you to Edelweiss, Maria Dong, and Dark Matter INK for the E-ARC!
Maria Dong crafts a striking sci-fi story that keeps the reader on their toes, unsure what is true to the main character, Young, and what's not. When catastrophe strikes, leaving Young guilt-ridden and lost, she has to figure out who she can call ally and foe. Her mind getting muddied with what's reality and what's falsehoods, answers have to be unraveled, even those that she would rather keep hidden from herself. When tensions finally arise, Young must face her past traumas or risk losing herself entirely. Get ready to be enraptured by this world of mysteries as Young's fate is thrust into her hands and she's left to piece everything together.
Maria Dong crafts a striking sci-fi story that keeps the reader on their toes, unsure what is true to the main character, Young, and what's not. When catastrophe strikes, leaving Young guilt-ridden and lost, she has to figure out who she can call ally and foe. Her mind getting muddied with what's reality and what's falsehoods, answers have to be unraveled, even those that she would rather keep hidden from herself. When tensions finally arise, Young must face her past traumas or risk losing herself entirely. Get ready to be enraptured by this world of mysteries as Young's fate is thrust into her hands and she's left to piece everything together.
June 22, 2025
Thanks to NetGalley and Dark Matter INK for the ARC.
It was an ok scifi thriller, but I felt like this was trying to do too much all at once. There's the pomp work and the training that we get snippets of, there's the underground resistance that we only know through one or two characters before that falls off, theres the stuff with the parents that I feel like I'm missing info on, and then the weak relationship with the boyfriend. There are so many different directions that don't feel complete, so the overall theme got watered down. It was left to a fairly basic thriller plot to hold it together, and it wasn't quite enough.
It was an ok scifi thriller, but I felt like this was trying to do too much all at once. There's the pomp work and the training that we get snippets of, there's the underground resistance that we only know through one or two characters before that falls off, theres the stuff with the parents that I feel like I'm missing info on, and then the weak relationship with the boyfriend. There are so many different directions that don't feel complete, so the overall theme got watered down. It was left to a fairly basic thriller plot to hold it together, and it wasn't quite enough.
February 26, 2025
I don't have too much to say for this one. It was good and fun. I thought the world building was neat (loved the idea of a tidally-locked planet, very fun for a guy who grew up on that episode of "The Universe" where they explained what would happen if the Earth stopped spinning). I really loved Young as a protagonist, and Dong does a fantastic job of getting you inside her thought process and making her decisions understandable, even if you are on your hands and knees begging for Young to maybe be a little less self-destructive. She never felt unintentially whiny to me.
I was really impressed by Dong's ability to keep the narrative tense, which was absolutely critical for this to work even a little bit. The reader needs to be kept unsure of the reality of the situation, even when there are a couple of facts about the situation that they're going to grasp well before Young is (e.g. her parents did not just abandon her, she isn't having random hallucinations) due to genre and narrative conventions. If not, the whole thing becomes a slog where the reader is waiting for the point-of-view character to play catch-up. Fortunately, everything worked great here! I'm a seasoned sci-fi/fantasy reader, and I could guess what was getting put down by the blurb, but I still felt like I was getting through for a loop just as hard as Young was. The text did a wonderful job of getting the reader just as confused as Young often is, yet when Young really gets in the zone and feels good, you can feel that ease in the prose as well. It's all very well done.
My only complaint is that the ending was rather rushed and a bit too ambiguous for my taste. It doesn't ruin the whole experience, but I would have liked a little more time on the last events in the book.
Thank you to NetGalley and Dark Matter INK for the ARC!
I was really impressed by Dong's ability to keep the narrative tense, which was absolutely critical for this to work even a little bit. The reader needs to be kept unsure of the reality of the situation, even when there are a couple of facts about the situation that they're going to grasp well before Young is (e.g. her parents did not just abandon her, she isn't having random hallucinations) due to genre and narrative conventions. If not, the whole thing becomes a slog where the reader is waiting for the point-of-view character to play catch-up. Fortunately, everything worked great here! I'm a seasoned sci-fi/fantasy reader, and I could guess what was getting put down by the blurb, but I still felt like I was getting through for a loop just as hard as Young was. The text did a wonderful job of getting the reader just as confused as Young often is, yet when Young really gets in the zone and feels good, you can feel that ease in the prose as well. It's all very well done.
My only complaint is that the ending was rather rushed and a bit too ambiguous for my taste. It doesn't ruin the whole experience, but I would have liked a little more time on the last events in the book.
Thank you to NetGalley and Dark Matter INK for the ARC!
May 17, 2025
Serving a potentially endless sentence in a lunar penal colony, Young, a failed Pomp, works on a mining crew. Hallucinations, murders, and paranoia abound as she struggles to get herself together, and off Hibiscus Station.
The self-loathing protagonist spends most of the book brooding, and interacts with a sketchily drawn world, and flat supporting characters. I didn’t care for this, it wasn’t sci-fi enough for me, it uses tropes I dislike, and I absolutely despise excessive rumination on self-worth by characters who lack any. Not for me.
The self-loathing protagonist spends most of the book brooding, and interacts with a sketchily drawn world, and flat supporting characters. I didn’t care for this, it wasn’t sci-fi enough for me, it uses tropes I dislike, and I absolutely despise excessive rumination on self-worth by characters who lack any. Not for me.
May 30, 2025
wtf was that 😭
i’m sorry but there were so many paragraphs describing small things it just got boring :(
n it was kind of hard to imagine the world in this
i’m sorry but there were so many paragraphs describing small things it just got boring :(
n it was kind of hard to imagine the world in this
December 18, 2025
Odd, but interesting. Frustratingly, you come to realize that the story was definitely more about the journey than the destination, but you're not quite sure either was worth the time.
February 26, 2025
I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own :)
This is a tense, dramatic sci-fi set on a penal colony on the moon, following Young, a former trainee Pomp (these specialists who remotely lead mining teams) who washed out due to a mental breakdown and attempted suicide. Now, she’s just a miner, stuck in a cycle of work that will never pay off her debt and hallucinations that leave you questioning what’s real. Is she mentally ill or is there a conspiracy here? As an unreliable narrator, she keeps you guessing—but also I found her absolutely exhausting.
Young is a deeply flawed character in a way that really works for the story. Dystopias should mess people up, and this book actually shows the weight of trauma rather than giving us another protagonist who’s weirdly just fine despite a horrific backstory. That said, I wouldn’t recommend this to anyone who isn’t feeling mentally strong - it goes to some dark places.
For me, the book felt a bit repetitive up until about the 2/3 mark. Young cycles through the same routine - sleeping with Gyu, going to work, and then having another minor psychotic break. While the mysteries surrounding her past, her abilities, and the colony kept me going, the pacing dragged at times. But the last third? Really rather exciting. The payoff for the side plots came together in an exciting way, and the story finally hit its stride. The main story is left on a slightly hopeful note which is always nice in a dystopia.
This book is heavy, tense, and packed with high-stakes drama. If you like slow-burn, particularly bleak sci-fi and protagonists who actually feel the weight of their world, I do recommend this. Just be prepared for a bit of a slog before the real payoff.
Trigger warnings include suicide, mental illness, trauma, hallucinations, and generally heavy dystopian themes.
This is a tense, dramatic sci-fi set on a penal colony on the moon, following Young, a former trainee Pomp (these specialists who remotely lead mining teams) who washed out due to a mental breakdown and attempted suicide. Now, she’s just a miner, stuck in a cycle of work that will never pay off her debt and hallucinations that leave you questioning what’s real. Is she mentally ill or is there a conspiracy here? As an unreliable narrator, she keeps you guessing—but also I found her absolutely exhausting.
Young is a deeply flawed character in a way that really works for the story. Dystopias should mess people up, and this book actually shows the weight of trauma rather than giving us another protagonist who’s weirdly just fine despite a horrific backstory. That said, I wouldn’t recommend this to anyone who isn’t feeling mentally strong - it goes to some dark places.
For me, the book felt a bit repetitive up until about the 2/3 mark. Young cycles through the same routine - sleeping with Gyu, going to work, and then having another minor psychotic break. While the mysteries surrounding her past, her abilities, and the colony kept me going, the pacing dragged at times. But the last third? Really rather exciting. The payoff for the side plots came together in an exciting way, and the story finally hit its stride. The main story is left on a slightly hopeful note which is always nice in a dystopia.
This book is heavy, tense, and packed with high-stakes drama. If you like slow-burn, particularly bleak sci-fi and protagonists who actually feel the weight of their world, I do recommend this. Just be prepared for a bit of a slog before the real payoff.
Trigger warnings include suicide, mental illness, trauma, hallucinations, and generally heavy dystopian themes.
June 29, 2025
Weird.
March 30, 2025
Thank you to NetGalley and Publisher for the arc!
Oof. This hit way way WAY too close to home, and it’s too real. This is something only people in a decent mental state and with a decent foundation should read. I could not handle this right now. This is obviously personal.
I do also think this book was stream of consciousness to the point of near (and at some times) incoherence. That’s all I got, folks
Oof. This hit way way WAY too close to home, and it’s too real. This is something only people in a decent mental state and with a decent foundation should read. I could not handle this right now. This is obviously personal.
I do also think this book was stream of consciousness to the point of near (and at some times) incoherence. That’s all I got, folks
August 6, 2025
3.5 stars.
I fell head over heels in love with Maria Dong's genre-bending debut Liar, Dreamer, Thief, so when Ms Dong herself reached out asking if I'd like a copy of her follow-up novel, the more sci-fi Psychopomp, I was absolutely gasping to say yes.
Psychopomp has lots of the same themes that LDT did, tho set on a planet and moon far, far away in space and, presumably, time. There's an unreliable narrator suffering from mental illness who feels as tho she's been abandoned by her struggling parents. Employment is a precarious situation, and the threat of betrayal by others is harder to process when you can't trust your own facilities. But whereas LDT stays firmly rooted in logic to present its gorgeously satisfying puzzle box of a story, Psychopomp leaves several important questions unanswered, and I'm not entirely sure why.
The story itself is narrated by Young, a prison laborer on the moon Hibiscus. She was caught stealing on the connected planet Ung-Nyeo, and sent to the lunar penal colony to work off her debt to society. The prison actually isn't terrible as far as incarceration goes, tho it does have big company town energy. Everything is expensive, and everything is charged to the account that the prisoner eventually has to pay off, if they stand any chance of making it back planetside. It's a very accurate portrayal of the trajectory of the prison-industrial complex under late-stage capitalism, as is the entire politico-economic setting.
When Young accidentally rips through her work glove while on a drilling assignment one day, she starts to have what she thinks are the same kinds of hallucination that drove her parents away from her down on Ung-Nyeo. But when she accepts a reassignment to the very same cushy program that she'd previously washed out from, she starts to wonder whether she's actually at the heart of a conspiracy that could rewrite everything for everyone living on both Ung-Nyeo and Hibiscus. Someone is definitely out to get her, but who can she trust when she can't even trust her own brain?
Young winds up doing a lot of strange and terrible things in her quest for both the truth and a way out of what she learns is most likely a death sentence. I was 100% along for the ride right until the end, when I felt that there were far too many unanswered questions about Cable and the tether that connected moon and planet. Overall, however, I thought that this was a worthy exploration of the themes that have occupied Ms Dong's writing to date, even if I didn't feel that the plot threads were tied up as neatly as in her earlier novel.
But even if we never get an answer on the tether and the voices -- I'm okay with not knowing things that are unknowable to the protagonist -- I think this book would have really benefited from a discussion regarding the aftermath of what happens, given that Young had specifically rejected the idea earlier in the book as being inhumane. I would've happily read thirty pages more of her reconciling her beliefs with her actions, especially since she'd done that quite a bit with other topics in the preceding narrative. Perhaps those questions will be answered in a sequel, tho I'm definitely holding out more hope for a follow-up to the superlative LDT.
Psychopomp by Maria Dong was published March 25 2025 by Dark Matter Ink and is available from all good booksellers, including Bookshop!
This review originally appeared at TheFrumiousConsortium.net.
I fell head over heels in love with Maria Dong's genre-bending debut Liar, Dreamer, Thief, so when Ms Dong herself reached out asking if I'd like a copy of her follow-up novel, the more sci-fi Psychopomp, I was absolutely gasping to say yes.
Psychopomp has lots of the same themes that LDT did, tho set on a planet and moon far, far away in space and, presumably, time. There's an unreliable narrator suffering from mental illness who feels as tho she's been abandoned by her struggling parents. Employment is a precarious situation, and the threat of betrayal by others is harder to process when you can't trust your own facilities. But whereas LDT stays firmly rooted in logic to present its gorgeously satisfying puzzle box of a story, Psychopomp leaves several important questions unanswered, and I'm not entirely sure why.
The story itself is narrated by Young, a prison laborer on the moon Hibiscus. She was caught stealing on the connected planet Ung-Nyeo, and sent to the lunar penal colony to work off her debt to society. The prison actually isn't terrible as far as incarceration goes, tho it does have big company town energy. Everything is expensive, and everything is charged to the account that the prisoner eventually has to pay off, if they stand any chance of making it back planetside. It's a very accurate portrayal of the trajectory of the prison-industrial complex under late-stage capitalism, as is the entire politico-economic setting.
When Young accidentally rips through her work glove while on a drilling assignment one day, she starts to have what she thinks are the same kinds of hallucination that drove her parents away from her down on Ung-Nyeo. But when she accepts a reassignment to the very same cushy program that she'd previously washed out from, she starts to wonder whether she's actually at the heart of a conspiracy that could rewrite everything for everyone living on both Ung-Nyeo and Hibiscus. Someone is definitely out to get her, but who can she trust when she can't even trust her own brain?
Young winds up doing a lot of strange and terrible things in her quest for both the truth and a way out of what she learns is most likely a death sentence. I was 100% along for the ride right until the end, when I felt that there were far too many unanswered questions about Cable and the tether that connected moon and planet. Overall, however, I thought that this was a worthy exploration of the themes that have occupied Ms Dong's writing to date, even if I didn't feel that the plot threads were tied up as neatly as in her earlier novel.
But even if we never get an answer on the tether and the voices -- I'm okay with not knowing things that are unknowable to the protagonist -- I think this book would have really benefited from a discussion regarding the aftermath of what happens, given that Young had specifically rejected the idea earlier in the book as being inhumane. I would've happily read thirty pages more of her reconciling her beliefs with her actions, especially since she'd done that quite a bit with other topics in the preceding narrative. Perhaps those questions will be answered in a sequel, tho I'm definitely holding out more hope for a follow-up to the superlative LDT.
Psychopomp by Maria Dong was published March 25 2025 by Dark Matter Ink and is available from all good booksellers, including Bookshop!
This review originally appeared at TheFrumiousConsortium.net.
March 13, 2025
3.5 stars, Drill Team
PSYCHOPOMP
by Maria Dong
The 18th word in this book is the f word. That doesn't usually bode very well towards liking a book. Thankfully, the book wasn't chocked full of those sorts of 4 letter words.
We follow the strong female protagonist Young as she lives out her sentence in on a prison on the moon. It's a hard life, they women are expected to work long and hard hours in the mines. All Young has wanted since she's been there is to work as a Pomp, which is a guide in another place, giving drilling advice from the safety of an office. A Pomp is completely in tune with her team.
There is the usual mental health issues that are in most of today's new releases. I think the book would have been better without it.
Young was abandoned by her parents, her mother's deafness giving her extra skills that the average person might not have.
Young's boyfriend Gyu helps her get back into the Pomp program, after she had failed the course. Circumstances change, Young doesn't know who she can trust and who she shouldn't.
There were several passages that I highlighted, that seemed interesting. ...if I really am cracking up, it's my own fault....there might not be any coming back. ...as the spirit that possesses me tears out with incredible fury.
I received a complimentary copy of #psychopomp from #mariadong #netgalley #darkmatterINK I wasn't required to post a review.
#strongfemaleprotagonist #sciencefiction #fantasy #sff #space #mentalhealthissues #cancer #abandonment #deafness #mystery #horror
PSYCHOPOMP
by Maria Dong
The 18th word in this book is the f word. That doesn't usually bode very well towards liking a book. Thankfully, the book wasn't chocked full of those sorts of 4 letter words.
We follow the strong female protagonist Young as she lives out her sentence in on a prison on the moon. It's a hard life, they women are expected to work long and hard hours in the mines. All Young has wanted since she's been there is to work as a Pomp, which is a guide in another place, giving drilling advice from the safety of an office. A Pomp is completely in tune with her team.
There is the usual mental health issues that are in most of today's new releases. I think the book would have been better without it.
Young was abandoned by her parents, her mother's deafness giving her extra skills that the average person might not have.
Young's boyfriend Gyu helps her get back into the Pomp program, after she had failed the course. Circumstances change, Young doesn't know who she can trust and who she shouldn't.
There were several passages that I highlighted, that seemed interesting. ...if I really am cracking up, it's my own fault....there might not be any coming back. ...as the spirit that possesses me tears out with incredible fury.
I received a complimentary copy of #psychopomp from #mariadong #netgalley #darkmatterINK I wasn't required to post a review.
#strongfemaleprotagonist #sciencefiction #fantasy #sff #space #mentalhealthissues #cancer #abandonment #deafness #mystery #horror
April 12, 2025
Science fiction at its best is a very bold claim and should maybe not be used so lightly...
I'm going to rant a bit, but honestly this wasn't terrible. It just wasn't stellar.
Almost instantly I was not a fan of the writing style, and other goodreads reviews did not set me on a good foot with this ARC. I would also like to never read the word "circadian" ever again, thank you very much. Less than 2 full chapters in and I'm so annoyed by it, especially with the word "day" still being used sometimes so just. say. day.
There were things that just didn't line up either, like Young going off to the hatch early on with a missing glove? She realizes on her next shift she still only has one glove but apparently her taking a little mental breakdown outside the station and exposure to the elements was just cool and not of note in anyway? This happens repeatedly where things just don't line up and not in an unreliable narrator type of way, just a "didn't keep track of things" way.
Character personality is entirely dependent on what is convenient for the story in that moment, if a character has any personality at all. And for being in a moon base filled with prisoners, you would think you would be bunping into people constantly but nope! It feels like there are maybe 5 people total on this moon.
This failed to have the creepiness or awe factor needed for the weird mind-melding rock stuff going on, and instead just fell flat for me.
As always, thanks to NetGalley and Dark Matter INK for providing an eARC of Psychopomp in exchange for this honest review!
I'm going to rant a bit, but honestly this wasn't terrible. It just wasn't stellar.
Almost instantly I was not a fan of the writing style, and other goodreads reviews did not set me on a good foot with this ARC. I would also like to never read the word "circadian" ever again, thank you very much. Less than 2 full chapters in and I'm so annoyed by it, especially with the word "day" still being used sometimes so just. say. day.
There were things that just didn't line up either, like Young going off to the hatch early on with a missing glove? She realizes on her next shift she still only has one glove but apparently her taking a little mental breakdown outside the station and exposure to the elements was just cool and not of note in anyway? This happens repeatedly where things just don't line up and not in an unreliable narrator type of way, just a "didn't keep track of things" way.
Character personality is entirely dependent on what is convenient for the story in that moment, if a character has any personality at all. And for being in a moon base filled with prisoners, you would think you would be bunping into people constantly but nope! It feels like there are maybe 5 people total on this moon.
This failed to have the creepiness or awe factor needed for the weird mind-melding rock stuff going on, and instead just fell flat for me.
As always, thanks to NetGalley and Dark Matter INK for providing an eARC of Psychopomp in exchange for this honest review!
January 30, 2025
I got a review copy of this from the publisher - thank you very much! It has a great concept - I don't want to describe the twist, because that would spoil things for a lot of readers, but suffice to say that it involves a space elevator.
The book is also fairly dystopian, and that's very much reflected in the main character. Often with dystopias, I find, the protagonists frequently feel as if they don't come from a crapsack word. They're too often mentally healthy, are capable of forming solid and rewarding relationships, and so forth. This is not the case with Young. She's desperately fucked-up in any number of ways, which can admittedly be frustrating to read at times except that she is exactly the type of person who should exist in a world as terrible as this one. She gives a real sense of verisimilitude to the story, is what I'm saying, and it's a brave choice to make her so difficult to like. Brave and absolutely consistent.
Finally - and this is skirting around the spoiler again - I liked that there was, at the end, the possibility of a more hopeful future. I won't say for who, but that sense-of-wonder twist brings a sense of expansion and marvel into the text that was much appreciated.
The book is also fairly dystopian, and that's very much reflected in the main character. Often with dystopias, I find, the protagonists frequently feel as if they don't come from a crapsack word. They're too often mentally healthy, are capable of forming solid and rewarding relationships, and so forth. This is not the case with Young. She's desperately fucked-up in any number of ways, which can admittedly be frustrating to read at times except that she is exactly the type of person who should exist in a world as terrible as this one. She gives a real sense of verisimilitude to the story, is what I'm saying, and it's a brave choice to make her so difficult to like. Brave and absolutely consistent.
Finally - and this is skirting around the spoiler again - I liked that there was, at the end, the possibility of a more hopeful future. I won't say for who, but that sense-of-wonder twist brings a sense of expansion and marvel into the text that was much appreciated.
March 4, 2025
Huge thank you to Dark Matter INK for providing this book for review consideration via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.
Thank Almighty Cake, a sci-fi novel that doesn’t bury the reader in deep political landscapes. I am so unbelievably happy to a real, honest sci-fi story to dig into!
Welcome to Hibiscus, or Hib. The first pages immediately launch you into the world of Young, who’s working as a miner in a penal colony. Her crime? Trying to kill herself. Her story is revealed slowly and reluctantly not unlike Young herself. Battling with her past, flunking out of pomp training, and coming to terms with her new existence, Young has a lot of issues to work through. Everything changes the morning she’s late to work and an explosion takes out the cave her team is in, sparing her. And everything Young thought she knew was wrong, even about herself.
This world is so well-built and detailed I can’t help but feel as if I’ve been plopped down in the middle of a book series. I’m not mad about it, though. Maria Dong’s writing pulls you into the story and does not let you go. I was more than halfway through the book before I knew it. It was a single day read for me, I just couldn’t put it down. This is true sci-fi and I’m thrilled to have it front and center again!
Thank Almighty Cake, a sci-fi novel that doesn’t bury the reader in deep political landscapes. I am so unbelievably happy to a real, honest sci-fi story to dig into!
Welcome to Hibiscus, or Hib. The first pages immediately launch you into the world of Young, who’s working as a miner in a penal colony. Her crime? Trying to kill herself. Her story is revealed slowly and reluctantly not unlike Young herself. Battling with her past, flunking out of pomp training, and coming to terms with her new existence, Young has a lot of issues to work through. Everything changes the morning she’s late to work and an explosion takes out the cave her team is in, sparing her. And everything Young thought she knew was wrong, even about herself.
This world is so well-built and detailed I can’t help but feel as if I’ve been plopped down in the middle of a book series. I’m not mad about it, though. Maria Dong’s writing pulls you into the story and does not let you go. I was more than halfway through the book before I knew it. It was a single day read for me, I just couldn’t put it down. This is true sci-fi and I’m thrilled to have it front and center again!
April 22, 2025
A powerful, profoundly unsettling science fiction novel that also plays out as a psychological thriller. Young, the story's narrator, has been convicted and sent to a penal mining colony on a moon. Her traumatic past, her insecurities, and her depression keep her in a constant state of paranoia and doubt in her own abilities, but something about the mining colony, and several of the people she meets there, feels wrong. Problem is, Young can't trust her own instincts, until something below the surface, something inside the mining tunnels, speaks to her.
Trapped in an unjust system hellbent on extracting every ounce of labour and profit from the people trapped in its machinery, Young tries her hardest to find a way out, but the game is stacked against her. The story tightens and sharpens with every chapter, and by the end, I was racing through the book to find out what was going to happen. One of the most fascinating aspects of this story is that Young is an unreliable narrator, not just for the reader, but for herself because her past, and her insecurities, make it so difficult for her to trust herself. This is sci-fi with a disturbing, off-kilter vibe.
Trapped in an unjust system hellbent on extracting every ounce of labour and profit from the people trapped in its machinery, Young tries her hardest to find a way out, but the game is stacked against her. The story tightens and sharpens with every chapter, and by the end, I was racing through the book to find out what was going to happen. One of the most fascinating aspects of this story is that Young is an unreliable narrator, not just for the reader, but for herself because her past, and her insecurities, make it so difficult for her to trust herself. This is sci-fi with a disturbing, off-kilter vibe.
October 4, 2025
This was quite a ride. It took me a while to get there but now I kinda like that the main character was so unlikeable - she and many of the other characters felt complex, even those we only saw a little of. The whole bit with Cable felt a bit fantasy-ish though (not a complaint, I'm of the view that technology advanced enough is basically the same as fantasy), however I did wish we could have gotten some more answers regarding the Cable and Youngs connection to it.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 60 reviews