Saturn Returning

by Kim Narby

A smoldering, soul-splitting debut that tracks three friends through the celestial chaos of adulthood, love, and queer identity.

Jordan Caleb is a freshman at McCallen College when she meets Trace. From the moment the confident, tattooed Trace compliments Jordan's Alanis Morissette T-shirt, their friendship feels fated and electrically charged. When the two friends meet mercurial transfer student Silvia, she catches Trace's eye. Their instant attraction eclipses the nascent pull between Jordan and Trace, forming a messy constellation among the three women.

Over the course of a decade, their orbits send them to opposite Jordan builds a life in New York City, while Trace and Silvia get engaged in Seattle, yet the three remain linked by the gravitational pull of the past. As they approach thirty and the apogee of their Saturn return, their bond splinters when Trace calls Jordan with a shocking revelation, exposing a web of heartache, secrets, and unspoken desires.

Saturn Returning charts the complex paths of human connection and queer friendship, questioning how we define ourselves against the relationships that have shaped our lives.

Genres: Queer, Lesbian, Fiction, LGBT, Contemporary, Adult, Literary Fiction

332 pages, Kindle Edition

Published May 5, 2026

About the author

Kim Narby is a queer fiction writer and essayist from Seattle. She has organized with the New York City Dyke March, is a contributor at Write or Die Magazine, and is an alum of the Tin House Summer Workshop. Kim lives in Brooklyn with her anxious-attached emotional support cocker spaniel, Georgia. You can find her on social media @kimnarby.

Reviews

[Liralen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Trace and Silvia have built a happy life together in Seattle—they're living together, settled, engaged to be married. But then it all comes tumbling down.

The book pulls us between past and present: the present, when Silvia has fled Seattle for New York, where Jordan, their best friend from college—the third of their trio—lives. And the past, as they fall into each other's orbits at their small liberal arts college, come of age, start figuring out who they are. Trace and Silvia are a pair almost from the beginning, and Jordan brings a level of stability and outside perspective that balances the other two out.

It had always been like this with Silvia. She burned bright but went out fast. (loc. 2173*)

It takes a while to see where the book is going—or rather, it takes a while to see how they got where they are when the book opens. Trace and Silvia love each other fiercely, and yet...the shape of that love is not always what either person in the relationship wants. Trace clings, and tries to mold herself into the perfect partner, and sulks when she feels Silvia pulling away; Silvia pulls away and comes back, and keeps secrets, and finds Trace's insecurities and...not exploits them, maybe, but prods at them.

And honestly: That's what made the book. Trace and Silvia aren't always likeable (Jordan, while she of course has her own flaws, exhibits them in a less pointed way), but it's in a way that makes them interesting and human rather than unrelatable. All three have complicated family situations (some more so than others), and each of those situations also has its shades of gray. There was a while when I wondered whether one character was going to be the "bad guy" of the story, but the more I understood the characters and their histories, the hazier that all got, until nobody was the bad guy, and the question became Where do they go from here?

Messy and intense, in a way that makes me glad not to be in my 20s anymore...but also in a way that is very compelling to read.

*Quotes are from an ARC and may not be final.

Thanks to the author and publisher for providing a review copy through NetGalley.

[Nina Haines · Rating 5 out of 5]

SATURN RETURNING is exactly what I love in a sapphic read -- the messiness of DYKETTE, the earnestness of OLD ENOUGH, the complex yet breezy conversations about sexuality of DETRANSITION, BABY. I read this book in one sitting -- it was compulsive, I literally could not put it down. These characters are so complex and interesting and flawed and relatable and vulnerable, I fell in love with them and was rooting for them and chastising them the whole entire story. Narby's prose are so lyrical and cutting, I cried several times and would recommend it to everyone!!

[Leonie · Rating 4 out of 5]

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2 (4.5 stars)

This story was messy! That’s the first thought that comes to my mind when I finished reading it and even while reading, I was constantly thinking “gosh how messy but damn I live for this kind of messiness”.
To start off, the novel is about this about Trace (who is engaged to Silvia but realizes she is in love with Jordan), Jordan (who kind of links them all together from the very beginning while now having to deal with Trace’s confession) and Silvia (who is Trace’s partner and brings her own struggles with her).
Their friendship is the central topic of the story and really, it gets messy.
I loved how we got to see how their friendship started 10 years before Trace’s confession to Jordan. And followed all three characters throughout their journey over the 10 years. I especially loved how the story switched between timelines, so we got to read the present and then in the next chapter something that happened 10 years ago or earlier but was still somehow connected to the previous chapter. I also enjoyed reading all three perspectives though I have to admit that I preferred Jordan’s chapters the most but that’s just my own personal preference.
All of the characters were written so real and complex, it was really a great experience to read about them and experience their struggles and life like that. Besides that, I loved how the story tackled the topics of queer friendship, self discovery, family, in parts also polygamy and the central question how we define ourselves and our relationship with others. I think it was really greatly done and addicting to read about.
Moreover, I also really liked the general pace of the story and the way it was written. I felt like I flew through the novel without even noticing time or place. I was so into the story and the character’s messy lives that I kept forgetting to do anything else.
This novel is especially for people who love messiness and real & complex characters. I would recommend it a million times!

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher Bindery Books for providing me with a free copy of this novel in return for a voluntarily given and honest review.

[alyssa✨ · Rating 3 out of 5]

oh this was MESSYYYY

[andrea · Rating 5 out of 5]

a big effusive thank you to Nina Haines and Sapph-lit for helping this story get out into the world & to NetGalley for the arc.

--

i have to start with a disclosure: i was a producer for this book through sapph-lit, and my name is printed in the back. full transparency. but i'm also not going to pretend i didn't love it.

saturn returning follows jordan, trace, and silvia from their first meeting in college through a decade of messy, tangled love and friendship. the book opens with trace, engaged to silvia, calling jordan to confess she's in love with her. and then we go back to the beginning, to who they were before, to how they got there.

the structure works beautifully. we see these three people as freshmen, raw and figuring themselves out, and we see them in their late twenties, still figuring themselves out but with more scars. the dual timeline doesn't feel gimmicky, it feels necessary, because who you are at eighteen and who you are at twenty-eight are often the same person wearing a different mask.

what makes this book special is that it's queer in a way that feels genuinely queer. that's hard to explain, but if you've read it you know. it's not about coming out or trauma or the usual beats. it's about the specific texture of queer friendship - the way we fall in love with our friends, the way we hold onto each other because losing people is already so built into our lives, the way leaving isn't simple when your community is small and precious.

each character is given real depth. jordan is still grieving her older sister, whose death has frozen her parents in place, trying to mold jordan into a replacement instead of letting her be herself. she wants to make art but hates how it has to be commodified in a world that's only getting more capitalist. trace wears her lesbian masculinity openly, and the book doesn't shy away from what that means. there is loneliness of being visibly queer in spaces where people want you in secret but not out loud. and silvia, who was wild and unboxed in college, finds herself years later tucked into a life she never expected, dealing with the fallout of trace falling in love with someone else.

none of them are villains. that's the thing. they're all just doing their best and hurting each other anyway.

the ending isn't dramatic or romantic in the traditional sense. it's quieter than that. it's about three people and their interconnectedness, and how sometimes the healthiest thing you can do is redefine what a relationship looks like rather than cut it off completely. it honors the complexity of queer attachment.

i loved this book. it's messy and tender and stressful and true. if you've ever been in love with a friend, or wondered if you were, or lost someone and didn't know how to let go. this one will sit with you. i love being gay.

[cyd · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you to netgalley for an advanced readers copy in exchange for an honest review. This book was capital M messy but it was so entertaining. Everyone in this book made horrible decisions repeatedly but it was literally impossible to put down. The time jump sequences fit so perfectly in the book and made it so suspenseful. The ending while being open ending was honestly realistic because life is open ended most of the time. I will say the complete lack of communication between everyone was a bit annoying at times but that’s literally the point of the book. I definitely recommend this book if you are looking for a character driven drama fest.

[Celine · Rating 5 out of 5]

no you don’t understand, these people are everything to me now.

[fede]

messy lesbians and queer friendships… consider me hooked👀

[CJ Alberts · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read for work, really tender and melancholy queer coming of age novel centering queer friendship at its heart

[Lychee · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book during my own Saturn Return, and let me just say, that was BRUTAL.

This book spans from leaving home to go to college, and having to build your own connections and identities from scratch, to fully coming into adulthood and fully realizing what it is you want as an individual person, removed from your past and your friends and your safety nets.

The three characters were so different and have such unique journeys, but there were things about every single character that I absolutely loved and loathed and deeply related to. Watching them go through their own trials and tribulations individually and together was so validating honestly. They are so loving and selfish and codependent and messssyyyy and confused and everything I still remember feeling.

Overall, I think this book felt like a messy, sweet, tender, sloppy, wet kiss on the forehead while I sobbed fetal position in the corner of the kitchen.

I will say though, this is an incredibly white book.

Thank you to Bindery Books and NetGalley for this e-ARC.

[Emmaby Barton Grace · Rating 4 out of 5]

what a gorgeous book - messy lesbians in their twenties is probably my favourite genre <3 really grew to love trace, silvia, and jordan throughout this book. but i think i wanted something more? the ending especially left me very disappointed but overall such an incredible debut (and what a stunning cover!)

can’t wait to discuss this with others/see others opinions!!

thank you netgalley for this arc in exchange for an honest review

escape, growth, identity
- “Oftentimes, she depended on escape a little too much. Removing yourself was such an easy way to get rid of a larger problem.”
- “She would let New York distract her. She would let New York cup her in its palms until she could figure out what to do, who to be angry at, how to let go.”
- [On cutting her hair]: “Trace had never felt more like herself. It took months to get used to the cut. She still sometimes reached up to push phantom strands behind her ears, only to realize they were gone. Trace found herself looking people directly in the eye more often now, appearing much more confident than her inner monologue would suggest.”
- “Sylvia wanted to be the type of person who took a quick spin through an exhibit after work. It felt like something that should be part of her persona.” - Trying to be the person you think you should be.”
- Jordan maybe being asexual? “She thought, maybe I do actually like him, maybe this is what it feels like. It had always been hard for her to tell… She was fascinated by it, but romance was never something that seemed relevant to her.”
- “I think," Jordan said, "that no one person can be good all the time. But that doesn't mean they're bad." Silvia wondered how many times someone could hurt other people before they tipped from good into bad. Was she close? Halfway there? Was there any way to redeem yourself?”
- “Silvia wanted to be disconnected. Now that she'd gotten further than she'd ever been before from everything she knew and everything that knew her, she wanted to sink into it, let the unfamiliar wash over her, cleanse her.”
- "Failure is how you figure out who you are.”

family
- “It was a tenderness she was incapable of giving her mother herself.”
- The complex feelings Jordan had towards her mother dying - the relief, anger, grief…
- “Sometimes I just wanted to be allowed to be fifteen. To scream and slam my door.”
- "I think you kind of sign up for that when you become a parent. They fuck us up, so we get to be cunts to them sometimes. It's a fair trade.”
- “Why were girls so terrible to their mothers? Perhaps because their mothers were the only ones they could trust to keep on loving them in perpetuity, even if, like in Trace's case, that love was for a person who no longer existed.”
- “But the words had churned in her stomach when the yelling stopped, deep into the night. What did attitude problem mean? Was there something wrong with the way she approached the world? At times Silvia felt like she had a filter over her eyes that was impossible to remove, blinding her to reality. The things Jordan said turned over and over in her head, melting together. Was this all her fault?”
- “She longed for affection but didn't trust it. Her mother's had always come with strings. But what Silvia had needed when her mom died was a mom. What she had needed in Lesotho was a mom.”

friendship and love
- “Perhaps this is what they mean by community.”
- the love with which Jordan describes Silvia and Trace in the photos she took of them
- “On one check-in that first winter Silvia was back, she told Trace that it would mean a lot to her if Trace could make her tea in the morning. A bag of herbs, in a cup filled with hot water— such a simple thing for Trace to provide in order to make Silvia feel taken care of. Trace eagerly complied and found that the look on Silvia's face each morning gave Trace more joy than the tea probably did for Silvia, and that was when Trace vowed to keep saying yes to Silvia for the rest of her life.”
- “To lose just a piece of Silvia felt worse than losing Silvia entirely. What if all the pieces eventually slipped through Trace's fingers?”
- “Jordan was thinking about female friendships. She was thinking about queer friendships, and how sex and platonic love can oftentimes be Venn diagrams. She was thinking about how confusing it could be to not know what you wanted from another person, to not understand what role they should take in your life, how it could shift and morph over time, but maybe something about the first time you saw them would always stick.”

to know and be known
- “Jordan felt a similar desperation to be Silvia’s friend that she’d once felt with Trace. It was something she wanted to tamp down inside herself. It seemed so embracing to pine for friendship, but something about Silvia was addictive.”
- “This facet of Trace was ugly. It felt hard for Silvia to unseen.”
- “But as time wore on, the shimmed around Trace has faded into a duller glow. Confronting Trace’s fallacies had been like learning Santa Claus wasn’t real - a shock, and, also, somewhat of a relief.” - the dangers of putting people on pedestals, seeing their true selves…
- “Silvia had never lived with a partner before. She'd never experienced so much responsibility for someone else's well-being She had begun to see, in recent months, how her actions, the tone of her voice when she said "Good morning," could shape Trace's entire day. She felt herself shaped by Trace too. Trace's bad day made her day bad. Sometimes living with a partner felt like too much, utterly overwhelming, suffocating, as she shared her kitchen, her bathroom, her sleeping space. Was this how a relationship was supposed to be? Was compromise supposed to feel so claustrophobic? She'd never entwined her life with someone else's so thoroughly. She was scared she might get to a point where she wouldn't know who she was outside of Trace.”
- “Was it possible to know someone deeply without a specific kind of intimacy? Was it possible to truly understand who someone was without hurting them so badly they were stripped entirely raw, their deepest fears exposed to the air?”

other
- “I want that [Fibonacci sequence as a tattoo]. It feels like a reminder that you are created the way you’re meant to be. Mathematically perfect.”
- “Rare means unique, rare means you’re supposed to be special.”
- “Silvia wasn't sure she entirely believed that, but she knew it was important to think it, even if that meant willing it into existence. But things were already changing. Adulthood felt like a merry-go-round of searing reminders that expectations rarely lined up with reality. It made Silvia want to run even more.”
- Silvia’s time in Lesotho - the experience of moving abroad, feeling like a failure, the exhaustion, culture shock, way you can relate to those others with you that others will never understand, cynicism of the peace corps
- “It took Silvia months too long to acknowledge the crush to herself, but once she did, she kept it tucked away inside her like the Ring of Solomon, something she could slip on when she needed a pick me up, to be transported to a different place, an alternate version of her life.”
- “One thing Silvia had immediately clocked upon arriving in Lesotho was how… the women considered most beautiful were the ones who were unencumbered by hair. They stood taller, their shoulders squared, their eyes pointed towards the horizon line, not the ground. It was so easy to morph her version of pretty. Like switching coats for the transition of seasons, Silvia aligned herself with a different cultural standard of attractiveness.”
- “To some extent, Silvia had been waiting her whole life for this to happen. For some man to take something from her that she hadn't consented to give…. At one point in Silvia's life, she had offered herself to men, possibly in anticipation of this very moment…. She had been pretending to be in control. Women were never in control.”
- “Jordan liked to situate herself on the fringes. It felt safe to be a part of the adventure but not fully sucked down into it.”

[Erin Ericson · Rating 5 out of 5]

(4.5 stars) Extremely messy and unputdownable ! I was fully immersed in the story from the start and honestly was upset at certain characters for the bulk of the story, BUT I couldn’t help but cheer for them in their journey to figure things out. I found the multi POV and time jumps to be very engaging but occasionally wished we could stay in a moment for longer. Would definitely recommend especially for those who like complex characters, relationships, and queer lit fic!

Thank you NetGalley and SapphLit x Bindery Books for the ARC!

[Isabelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a rollercoaster of emotions in all the best and worst ways. The drama was great, and I loved that the story spanned 10 years, giving a lot of valuable background information to how the relationships evolved over a decade. That said, it was A LOT to fit into a 350-page book, and this was reflected in the writing, almost sharing a diary format perspective of each character, rather than diving into detailed scenes.

Featuring a group of three very close friends who met in college, we get to follow their tangled relationships and codependencies as they fall in love, fall out of love, hurt and heal one another. It constantly kept me wondering how these characters would figure things out. It also felt like a realistic retelling of a couple deciding whether or not to open their relationship to more people, having important conversations that I feel are often overlooked in many poly books.

That said, from the first few chapters, I had a vision of how I thought everything would end up, and that did not happen. It was great to be surprised by a book this way, as I read a lot of sapphic romances that tend to follow similar "recipes" and this was very different and unique (which makes sense as this is literary fiction with a romantic subplot, but is not a sapphic romance). The HEA was not what I had expected, and some may argue it wasn’t even an HEA. The characters got their HEA in their own ways, but it certainly wasn’t one rooted in romance.

Thank you to NetGalley and Bindery Books for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

[Cadence Boudreaux · Rating 2 out of 5]

My brain honestly feels very muddled . I don’t know what I just read . I think based on others reviews i’m the very clear outsider here !

I found the timelines confusing , at first it wasn’t even completely clear that we switched timelines . Everything felt like a big mush and the ending threw me off !

Clearly not the story for me , overall it had very nice quotes interwoven into the storyline and I’d love to see these characters outside of this story.

[my scary library]

Honestly I’m a bit disappointed on how aloof Jordan was. Silvia is a piece of shit with trauma but that doesn’t change the fact that she’s a piece of shit. And Trace has no backbone. Loser lesbians galore.

[ketsy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Saturn Returning by Kim Narby is my favorite type of book. It’s less focused on leading us from point A to point B, and more so on how its characters feel throughout that journey. Narby does a wonderful job in writing three incredibly complex women in Trace, Silvia, and Jordan, and letting their emotions breathe on every page. I also think there’s a wonderful intentional dissonance between how the characters see themselves and what the text is actually communicating.

With Trace, we’re given massive lover girl energy but in her relationships with both Jordan and Silvia it’s almost as if it doesn’t matter who she’s thinking about. She just wants an anchor who will remind her time and time again that she is making the right choices and is in the right spot. Narby writes that she’s passionate and loyal, particularly in her early pining for Silvia. But it's clear to see that Trace is adrift when there’s nobody to cling to and she's not as interested in who that body is as she may think. As long as that person is willing to accept the dependency Trace brings to the table, she's good.

With Silvia, we clearly have a character who is as self-sabotaging as the mother she has resented her whole life. Narby writes that there’s a rage beneath the halo of curls and strawberry tattoos. But Silvia is so avoidant of her own life we rarely get to actually see that. We just see the actions that those feelings lead to (i.e. running away, numbing herself with sex, hurting herself by hurting her loved ones).

And then there’s Jordan, who Narby tells us is the passive one. But that’s not really the case. She chooses to leave home, engage with the women who end up being her friends, and to continually explore, never knowing what the outcome will be. She just isn’t loud about it. Similarly to Silvia, there’s parental resentment. Her mother has forced her into the shadow of her deceased sister her entire life, leading Jordan to believe that despite everything she’s done for herself, she’ll never be more than a secondary character in other people's stories. But Jordan is very clearly the most independent one of the bunch.

Now, I think this is all intentional. I think we’re meant to sit in the discomfort of the women's lack of self-awareness. And if not, then that’s kind of even more fun because it is that terrifying to be seen so openly, whether you're a real person or a character in a book.

Whatever it is, all the imperfections and conflicting feelings just makes me like everyone in this story that much more. Saturn Returning excels in its raw and complicated exploration of love, friendship, and adulthood. It’s quite an impressive debut and I genuinely look forward to Narby’s future work.

My one big critique is that I kind of hate the whole thing being framed around Saturn’s return. It makes the events that unfold seem inevitable rather than brought about by the very real decisions and actions the girls have taken. And it’s just not strong enough of a motif throughout the story to feel fully earned. I do think if this particular idea of planetary alignment means that much to the author, it should have been something to explore earlier in the novel. The only big conversation about it happens so close to the end I could physically feel the ill-fitting “neat bow” being tied around the whole thing.

[Marlo Bowman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you NetGallery for the eARC!!

Holy messy lesbians.

This novel was quite the journey, yet all of their struggles and thoughts felt very, very real. This story felt like someone’s reality, which is both terrifying and captivating.

It was very character driven, so if you are looking for plot when starting this novel, don’t start this novel. It is extremely focused on the three main characters and how their lives have defined/continue to define them. I was intrigued every step of the way.

To be honest, I wish there was more. I appreciate the conclusion not being entirely satisfying, as life rarely is, yet I yearned for that neat conclusion. Perhaps this is the point, however, as life continues to throw curveballs.

Would recommend, especially as a queer person that knows the drama we can get into.

[Salena · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 rating

LOVED EVERYTHING ABOUT THIS BOOK UNTIL THE END??
this book is so unapologetically queer AND the lesbian representation we needed...but at what cost. messy messy lesbians with a VERY messed up queer friend group dynamic. the last thirty pages had me STRESSED. holy hell. literally had to stop mid paragraph and go for a two hour walk before picking the book back up because it was that INTENSE. the ending was so...???? all the build up just for that?

"It felt so wrong to be so dependent on a friend, to feel so bereft about a platonic friendship. Saturn returning. It blows up your life."

[clarah rae · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love a book where I’m not sure how I feel about the characters until the last 20 pages. Absolutely beautiful read, covers the ups and downs of friendship and being in your 20s with an unhinged elegance (if that makes sense?).

very proud to be apart of the bindery supporters for sapph-lit after reading the imprint’s debut 🫶🏻

[Brittany]

Arc from NetGalley

I ended up dropping this after only six chapters, because I was not connecting with the writers or the characters. As someone queer and near these characters ages I could not relate to them and I was disliking them as well.

[Mia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you NetGalley and Bindery Books for providing an e-ARC of this book!

As many others have mentioned before, this is a book about messy people and relationships. While this could easily become frustrating, Narby writes incredibly generously. Narby's prose is gorgeous and these characters were relatable, honest, and deeply human. The ending fell a little flat for me and I wish we got to understand more about Trace and Jordan's romantic relationship, but apart from that, I really enjoyed this book!

[Kiara · Rating 4 out of 5]

banger. mark your calendars for may 5!

[erin · Rating 4 out of 5]

this was ramping up to be a 5-star until the ending just… huh

[Hunter Green · Rating 5 out of 5]

⭐️4.5, rounding up // felt a kinship w/ these three characters as someone in the midst of my own saturn return (& ensuing Friendship Breakup). i was anticipating a much messier ending but i think it speaks to the characters’ histories w/ & love for each other, as well as the open-endness of the new beginnings born out of watching something explode before your eyes

[kaitlin peck · Rating 2 out of 5]

”It had already ended, Silvia realized, and it had only just begun. They had the rest of their lives to define themselves. They had the rest of their lives to become.”

Jordan, Silvia, and Trace are three friends who, after first meeting at McCallen College, have spent over the past decade forming their found family. When Jordan, who has always been a third wheel to Silvia and Trace’s (at times messy) relationship, gets a text confessing that Trace secretly loves her and Silvia shows up at her door unannounced, this relationship is threatened. Follow this story as it uncovers secrets from the past and shows just how complicated friendships and love triangles can be.

This book felt very intimate (not in the sexy way but more in the sense that you are right there with these characters) as you watched the characters make their choices. I did struggle with the fact that there is a lot more literary-description than there is dialogue. I was constantly frustrated with all the choices the characters were making and how there wasn’t much dialogue or internal monologue to describe what in the world they were thinking. Upon further reflection, maybe this was left out because they also were not communicating with each other (and we are also pulled into the messy relationship of no one telling each other what they really feel or think or even want). Overall, I did enjoy being able to see what this book had to offer and think it would be good for anyone wanting to have a thought-provoking read on the complexity of relationships.

Thank you Net Galley for the ARC. 2.5 stars.

Content warnings: sexual assault

[Pastelsparkles · Rating 2 out of 5]

Thank you to NetGalley, Kim Narby and Bindery Books for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I feel very conflicted writing this because ultimately I think we should have more sapphic stories being told but I think people deserve a book that is at least fairly decently written.

I think the bones of this story are something quite good but it probably needed a few more rounds of editing to catch some clumsy paragraphs. The time skips were kinda largely unnecessary. I think this book would have benefited from being simpler and more linear, kinda in the same vein as Normal People. The sentences were so short and lacked any real depth.

I was really hoping to enjoy this one. The cover is beautiful and I love the concept of a Saturn returns.

Hopefully between now and this book’s release, it gets a few more careful edits.

[Kate Connell · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book kept me interested enough to finish, but it wasn’t worth finishing.

None of the three main characters felt fully fleshed out or likeable and I honestly couldn’t figure out why Silvia and Trace were even together. The ending was rushed and tied up nothing at all.

Thank you to NetGalley for an eARC of this novel.

[ciara :) · Rating 4 out of 5]

thank you to netgalley and bindery books for providing me with an e-ARC of saturn returning in exchange for an honest review!

now this is what i'm talking about when it comes to literary fictions following a messy group of friends! i absolutely loved this book. the writing style and narration for each of our FMCs felt unique and beautiful, and it felt like the book was very balanced in their perspectives as well. this book explores themes of depression, sexuality, coming of age, identity, platonic and romantic love, and really focused on the lines that can blur after years of friendship and romantic relationships with the same people. it is also told in dual timelines from all three POVs which was so fun!

when it came to our main characters, i really did love them all equally. trace was just a woman who was really struggling to find herself and accept herself after years of a romantic relationship with a very unique woman, whom her parents do not approve of. she has so many battles that she needed to face within this book and i feel like they were all addressed with care in this story. silvia, trace's girlfriend and another one of our FMCs felt like the most "messy" to me out of the three FMCs, but not necessarily in a bad way. at first i really didn't understand how her character's past actions were going to lead to the present situation, but as time went on i began to come to know why she was the way she was. i feel very satisfied with the ending that her character received, but i wish i saw a bit more of her personal journey and personal work along this story. finally, the last FMC in this odd trio of friends, jordan. i feel like she was easily the most compelling FMC of the three, and her story was just so easily understandable to me. her explorations of sexuality, past trauma, and being in the middle of a complex relationship while also maintaining strong friendships with both of these women was so interesting to me!

this is certainly a great literary fiction if you love to read about women and queer stories!

[Kelli · Rating 2 out of 5]

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

Hmm so this was just not for me, and it was because I could not relate to any of the main characters. Despite also being a queer millenial (they are clearly millenials) who has also dated women, idk I think the audience who would enjoy this is just too specific. I think this would really appeal specifically to American, queer, white women who either went to art college or some other elite school in the mid-2000s, or experienced their queer awakening in a big city (NYC, Chicago, etc.). If that sounds like you then you probably would get a lot from this book so please don't let me discourage you!

There were just soooo many ultra-specific descriptions of like clothing brands, famous bars, how characters dressed, what music they liked, and SO MUCH on the "USA college experience" that just immediately dated the story for me and made it less relatable. Spending so much time on specific descriptions like this also made it boring because it was a lot of telling not showing. I was not able to relate to these things or didn't experience my queer coming of age in the same way, and so I just lost interest.

I was hoping for the ending to come together and resolve things nicely, but I was kinda unsatisfied and found the characters all a bit annoying. The weird love triangle between business butch Trace, mysterious selfish Silvia, and quiet wallflower Jordan was never really resolved, but I guess if you have experience with this kind of are-we-friends-or-lovers dynamic in your queer friend group then you would probably like the messiness of this story. Anyway it just wasn't for me!

[Montes · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think the best way to describe this book is MESSY from start to finish.

The characters each had their insecurities, made mistakes, hid secrets, in short they were complex, relatable and real. One could find similarities between oneself and parts of each of the three main characters. It was just an absolutely insane timeline and yet I could follow the storyline without a problem, despite going back and forth in time.

The only thing I wished we had a bit more of was Trace after confessing her love and Silvia leaving but before arriving in New York. I also really wanted Trace to stand up for herself. I wished Silvia had been able to report her assault without any fear. I wished Jordan hadn’t had to live in the shadow of her sister. 

Listening to this book also allowed me to check myself and my prejudices. There’s a line in which Silvia asks Jordan if she thinks she’s a bad person for not disclosing to Trace something that happened during her time at the Peace Corps and I immediately answered yes but Jordan’s answer really resonated with me: “I think that no one person can be good all the time. But that doesn’t mean they’re bad.”

If you always root for and defend the messiest of characters in any show and you feel like crying, then you should absolutely read or listen to this book. 

I really enjoyed the work of the narrator Tessa Stavers, it felt like I was being told the story like a chisme, with its serious and humorous parts.

Thank you to Kim Narby, Bindery Books, Tantor Media and NetGalley for providing me with an eARC and an ALC.