Squid's Grief

by D.K. Mok

Aurealis Award-Nominated for Best Science Fiction Novel.
Ditmar Award-Nominated for Best Novel.

In the seething metropolis of Baltus City, car-hacker Squid is desperate for a fresh start. She dreams of a normal life and a respectable job, where retirement comes with a pension plan, not an exit wound. Determined to break free from the criminal syndicate that commands her, she agrees to one last heist. But when she rescues a cheerful amnesiac from the trunk of a stolen car, her decision to help him sends her own plans into a tailspin.

Squid and the amnesiac--soon nicknamed Grief--rapidly find themselves caught between warring criminal factions, shadowy vigilantes, and Squid’s own hopes for a better future.

As she investigates deeper into the mystery of Grief’s true identity, Squid begins to uncover a past darker than her own, setting her on a collision course with the enigmatic crime lords who rule Baltus City.

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction, Science Fiction Fantasy

360 pages, Kindle Edition

Published March 8, 2016

About the author

DK Mok is a fantasy and science fiction author whose novels include Squid's Grief, Hunt for Valamon, and The Other Tree. DK has been shortlisted for seven Aurealis Awards, three Ditmars, and two Washington Science Fiction Association Small Press Awards.

DK grew up in libraries, immersed in lost cities and fantastic worlds populated by quirky bandits and giant squid. DK is based in Australia, and her favourite fossil deposit is the Burgess Shale.

Website: www.dkmok.com

Reviews

[Matthew · Rating 4 out of 5]

I remember the first time I saw Bladerunner. I sat down with my dad, snacks within reach, and we watched it from start to finish without a word spoken between us. At the end, my dad turned to me and asked me what I thought. Still buzzing, and my brain still racing over what I had just witnessed, all I could manage was a soft whisper.

"That was awesome..."

I was reminded of that moment when I read Squid's Grief. Both Bladerunner and Squid's Grief share a heritage. A sprawling metropolitan... a dystopian society... and gangs and crime out of control. I'm a sucker for that sort of thing. I love cyberpunk stories... their fusion of high tech with low life... societal breakdown alongside wondrous things like cybernetics. And when Mok introduced touches of noir to the mix I knew I was going to enjoy this book. And enjoy it I did!

Squid's Grief is a wonderful example of a character driven story. Everything revolves around Squid and Grief, and their evolving relationship interaction with other characters as the story unfolds. And as I ripped through this book I was constantly amazed by Mok's ability to write a riveting tale without too much exposition or explanation. There is very little telling, but a helluva lot of showing. Both Squid and Grief themselves are amazing characters. Both provoke deep sympathy and emotion from the reader, and both have incredibly powerful agency throughout the story. I was especially impressed with Mok's ability to portray an amnesiac (Grief) slowly learning about himself and his latent abilities as events spiral out of control around him. The other points of view are also impressive. I really enjoyed Casey and her friendship with Squid, despite the fact that they are the opposites (Casey is a cop) of each other.

What took this story to another level however was the depiction of Baltus City. Mok takes a setting, and brings it alive to the point where it becomes another 'character' in the book. I was riveted by the tidbits about this environment, and its futuristic vividness placed alongside its seething slums and crime regions really drove home how organic and alive it was.

The action sequences were also brilliantly conceived and choreographed, and the pace relentless and uncompromising. Where this book is let down, in my opinion, is that the pace is TOO relentless towards the end. As I blazed through the final third I just felt that the story came off the tracks a little and went over the top with its ending. Mok could have arguably reined it in and finished with story with just as much impact without the disjointed feeling. Overall though this was a minor issue, and didn't really detract too much from my enjoyment of this well crafted tale. I still am amazed at how well Mok writes, despite being relatively new on the scene.

If you love cyberpunk fiction you will adore this book. If you enjoy noir stories with shifting allegiances and twists you will adore this story. Frankly, if you love good fiction you will find something in this exciting tale.

A scintillating cyberpunk tale with impressive elements of noir fiction and action thrillers, Squid's Grief continues to showcase the rise of a future mainstay of Australian speculative fiction.

[Shecky · Rating 5 out of 5]

Full disclosure: I copyedited this book. That said, I'm very able to look past being paid to read a thing and determine how much I enjoyed the thing...and in this case, "how much" is answered by "You're kidding, right?" I enjoyed the HELL out of this book. Smart, hilarious, touching, clever, profound, all of these in turn (and sometimes simultaneously).

If you don't read this book, you have only yourself to blame.

[Stephanie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Baltus City is dominated by crime syndicates, each pushing constantly for a larger share of the city. Working for one of these syndicates is Squid, a young woman whose speciality is the stealing of cars. Squid is watched over by police officer Casey, who has given Squid a deal – go clean by her next birthday, or be put in jail. Squid takes one last job to clear her slate with her boss, and is looking forward to moving on to her new life, even as she has no real idea of how to live without crime. Desperate to make her numbers, she steals a car about to be pushed into the harbour. When she opens the trunk, she finds a man inside, bound and unable to remember who he is or why someone was trying to kill him. When he follows her, Squid nicknames him Grief, and the two of them begin a search for Grief’s true identity, a search which will ultimately tear Baltus City apart.

There is so much to love about this book. Squid and Grief are both amazing characters in their own right, and Baltus City feels like a living, breathing place (albeit one in which it is very dangerous to live – or to own a car, if Squid is around!). There’s an almost cinematic vividness to the settings and people in the book, to the point where I could easily see this story translating to the screen.

Squid herself is an amazing protagonist. She’s utterly capable, and despite living a life dependent upon crime, she is also a deeply sympathetic character. There’s a particular scene near the end of the book that made my heart hurt for her (if I mention chocolate hazelnuts, you’ll understand which one). My only issue with her is that for me, a lot of the time she reads as a character younger than her stated years. This may have been deliberate choice on the part of Mok, or simply an effect of some of the humour in the book. Either way, it wasn’t a massive detriment, apart from the fact that it made the relationship between Squid and Grief read feel slightly different than it she reads older (and don’t take that to mean in a bad way at all, it’s just different).

And where to even start with Grief? As much as I liked Squid, I loved Grief. Mok has pulled out all of the stops with this character. His childish innocence as an amnesiac reads as utterly believable, as does how he begins to change over the course of the book as he learns about the man he was before Squid rescued him from a stolen car. The two sides of him could not have been more opposite, and yet Mok makes it all work so well. He and Squid together are two sides of the one coin in some ways, and it’s little wonder that they work so well together in this book.

The background of Baltus City is extremely vivid, and it’s fun following Squid and Grief around it, from the poorest slums to the richest apartments. All of the minor characters were brilliant, and Mok writes most of them in such a way that it really seems as if you’re getting a glimpse of only a part of their greater stories. Against this vividness, the figures of the crime lords (and I’m using lord as a gender neutral term here) running the syndicates unfortunately sometimes feel sketched in. I feel like this is something that almost couldn’t have been avoided without making the book twice as long, however, and it isn’t something that detracted from my enjoyment of the book. After all, this story is about Squid and Grief, not about the crime lords.

It is worth noting that this book contains a variety of female characters in various positions of power (and lack of power), and that there is a very welcome lack of sexual violence in the story. There are other kinds of violence, but none of them are dwelt upon in too much detail.

This is Mok’s third novel, continuing a diverse career. Both of her previous novels have been great, but I feel that with Squid’s Grief she’s really hitting her stride and reaching a new level as a writer of complex, character-driven work. If you’ve never read her work before, and are a fan of cyberpunk flavoured settings with a good dash of humanity and humour, this is a great place to start.

[Kelly Hager · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oh, you guys, this book. This amazing, perfect book. This book that I am going to make everyone I have ever met read.

Okay, yes, I love heist books and this is an amazing one. It's sort of Gone in 60 Seconds but set in a world not unlike The Godfather (crime syndicates run EVERYTHING) and there's also the sweetest love story, but it's also not at all sappy or eye-rolling.

I can't even talk about it like a rational human being. Just picture me brandishing it like the street preacher in Little Nicky. And then get this book, which is something like $6 on Kindle.

You'll thank me later.

Highly recommended.

[Martin Murd · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not a review, just a reminder - reading is a skill. You will become rusty, if it is not constantly practiced.

[Fraser Simons · Rating 4 out of 5]

“You don’t belong in a world that sees you as useless.”

While Squid’s Grief begins like many cyberpunk novels, it diverges fairly quickly and ends aligned with a more solarpunk ideological standpoint than a traditional cyberpunk one.

Squid is relatable and likable. Probably the only way she is synonymous with the traditional cyberpunk anti-heroes is that she’s poor. Her poverty is ingrained and felt in the narrative in a way that is often not in traditional CP, though. In fact, for most of the book, we see the car thief attempting to get out of the life, touching on the one-last-job trope, but actually spends substantial time on it; making it the main focus of the story. This cleverly reinforces the systemic oppression those in poverty within the fictitious Baltus City feel on a daily basis. It’s more relatable passages of ones concerning job searches and the parallel to service work. Demeaning. Dehumanizing, unsatisfying. Only making a living via tips in establishments that have a prized rule: “do not retaliate”. Which certainly telegraphs what your treatment is going to be like in such places.

“Baltus City was a nation unto itself, a city-state where extremes were crammed into uncomfortable proximity. The obscenely wealthy, the devastatingly poor, towering skyscrapers and sleepy suburbia, all pressed together beneath the massive orbital highways that laced the city like Celtic knots of steel and concrete. And within the borders of the teeming state, all were equally ruled by the enigmatic crime lords of Baltus City.”

To flog this normal life along, a hyper altruistic cop named Casey gives Squid until her 18th birthday to get out of the life. After that, her “free passes”, so to speak, are up, and she’s considered to be another person who enters the system. Casey is incorruptible and naïve. Some people just aren’t prosecuted in the city, she knows this. It’s an insurmountable fact. Those connected to an omnipresence named Pearce, simply walk. But while the system is not perfect, it’s also all they’ve got. Giving up would mean letting go of any sense of accountability for criminals. And she just can’t abide it at a fundamental level.

People mess up. They’re not infallible. But given enough time and care, people can change and do “the right thing”. And that is her hope for young Squid.

“History isn’t destiny if you learn from your mistakes.”

In the last few days Squid has before she’s absorbed completely into the criminal underworld, Grief comes into her life. A man with a mysterious past (even to himself!). He’s an amnesiac who is found in the trunk of a car with a head injury. He’s also the thing that unwittingly keeps pulling her back to the underworld, as his past continually seems to come back and haunt him. Squid being caught in the crossfire.

Now, to my knowledge, aside from perhaps Almost Human, the “buddy cop” genre hasn’t largely been introduced to cyberpunk literature. That is, until now.

Squid and Grief’s relationship dynamic is very much reminiscent of this. It’s often funny and easy, and a lot of the fiction is dedicated to building their characterization through small, quiet moments as they navigate a new, awkward, and strange life. It is very effective in having the reader invest in these characters.

“Memories were funny like that. Squid could remember her old life, but she remembered it like someone else’s dream. It played through her mind like a silent film, so distant she could almost believe it had never happened. But once in a while, a half-remembered emotion would hit her, so visceral it stole her breath away.”

The most compelling part for me was that the thing keeping the people like Squid down was the system itself, which by itself, is not abnormal for cyberpunk, but the way in which it is conveyed is entirely so. It’s essentially a slice of life for the entire middle half of the book.

There aren’t any jobs for Squid that don’t commodify the qualities she finds intrinsic in herself and refuses to trade, despite her pretty dire situation. Living without heat and power, relying on the kindness of people within the system, like Casey, to squeak by with some modicum of freedom. Both outside of jail, but also simply existing as she is, unchanged by the demands of working the way up in the underworld, or a more legitimate job; both strips away aspects of her identity. In a sense, it’s a coming of age story, of sorts. There is no safety to be found in any space she navigates.

“There were no quick fixes, no magic pills, no waking up and becoming someone else. But there was hope, and determination, and sometimes, a little faith from someone who could see the person you were trying to become.”

Paralleling this is Grief’s story. A loss of innocence tale unspooling and foreshadowing what the demands of the criminal underworld are as it becomes clear Grief belongs to it in ways Squid hasn’t. Where she dabbles for the thrill and to pay rent, Grief embodies the darker elements of it and wishes to expel them from him. But cannot do so without first acknowledging that they are a part of him, which he refuses to do. This darkness reveals Casey’s “free pass” is an almost immeasurable kindness toward Squid, who may otherwise be consumed by the underworld if she can’t figure out how to truly get out.

“Possessions, places, people—they came and went, grew old, fell apart, and changed. But experiences formed the fabric of your life, woven into memories that helped you understand who you were, and why you were. Memories were a gift you could hold on to when everything else had been taken away. They were a scrapbook of emotions, triumphs and setbacks, that line of ink that told your story, stopping at the point where you stood right now.”

The law serves a purpose in this fiction and there is morality assigned to it. There are tonal shifts very often, which for me undermined some of the systemic issues it explores. There is a sense of hope despite the cyberpunk underpinnings of the setting.

In a time when cyberpunk should be diverging from the original motifs and explorations, there is this fun and well written, strange book which does so in the most surprising ways. Ordinarily, I can’t stand jokes and fiction that is to self-aware. But while it is funny, it is also sad. Life is a joke when there’s no real verticality in social structures to be had by the majority of the people in it. Living without joy is just another thing taken away from you. And so, sometimes, it really can be thematically on point to laugh at it.

“All those things he’d done were still inside him. All that violence and inhumanity, soaking through him like cheap rum in a Christmas cake. It wasn’t enough to change. You had to make amends.”

[Darby Karchut · Rating 5 out of 5]

DK Mok has written a snappy cyberpunk noir with spot-on characters and a “oh, no, you didn’t just do that” plot. Each time I thought I figured out everyone’s motives and secret agendas, the author slipped in another twist. I really liked the Blade Runner meets Oliver Twist feel of the book, too.


Squid. What a great character. She is such a hot mess. The lovable street urchin with the heart of gold. And Grief. Lordy, what a name. His naïve innocence mixed with latent not-so-innocent abilities reminds me of Castiel from Supernatural. And the secondary characters were just as strong and fleshed out.


I recommend this book for folks who like sci fi mixed with a whiff of film noir. Five out of this world stars.

[PageTurner · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had previously enjoyed the author's fantasy book, Hunt for Valamon, and when I finished that wanted to check out more of their work. That's when I found Squid's Grief. This one, however, wasn't in my library. Having been impressed by the Valamon characters, I decided to take a gamble and buy the book. And glad to say, I don't regret it at all!

"Why do people call you Squid?" said Grief.
"Because I was always..." She mimed being pressed against a window. "...On the outside, looking in."
"There's more freedom outside," said Grief.

The two main characters, Squid and Grief, were endearing, and other characters' POV was also interesting to read. Like Valamon, despite being about gang wars, this was also a good mix of humour, action and backstory.
But for some reason, some pf the humour/quips flew over my head a bit this time... But that was probably me -I was still willing to go with four stars. The hook of the MC finding a tied-up guy in the boot of a car she's stealing and the two of them being thrust together still hooked me, however.
Then the Grief-Squid dynamics began. Grief's sunshine personality to Squid's don't-bother-me came off naturally. Also why is Grief so cute?! He's clearly a grown-up and a- I'm getting ahead of myself. Then begins the mystery of who Grief was before his amnesia. That's when things get interesting, so much so I have to use spoiler tags.
At first I thought Grief was, in fact, Werner and a fake body was found for the latter. I also thought Pearce's Rottweiler was an actual dog. Then we find out Grief aka Raphael was the feared Rottweiler? And turns out perhaps he wanted redemption and was planning to take down Pearce? Mind blown...but then it turns out he was actually a double-agent this whole time? Gotta say that storyline was both suspenseful and heart-wrenching, even with the glimpses we get of Grief's past.

"You cared enough about someone to buy them a ring you could sink the Titanic with. Don't you want to remember them?"
"They can't have been that special if they wanted something that tacky."

Squid was also a likeable MC. I have to say, there was a tiny bit of telling-not-showing with Squid's situation. We were told a few times how she ended up on this path rather than really feeling she inevitably fell into it. But apart from that she was always engaging. She was "not like other girls" but this was genuinely shown without being told to us. Similarly, the fact that Grief is quite a stunner is shown rather than the typical attractive-male descriptions I've read so often.
And also Squid and Grief's bonding. It was very sweet, funny and touching both. I still don't know if the author intended it to be a romance or friendship/strong bond. But it works either way. As all the cards were being revealed, I was like, you know what this was a good, stand-alone journey. 5 stars it is!

[S · Rating 5 out of 5]

I received an ARC of this book and I am leaving a voluntary review.

Squid’s Grief captured my interest right away with the fast pace and snarky dialogue. We are introduced to Squid as she places a losing bet on “red”. Then we tumble down the rabbit hole and are spun out into a roller coaster of a ride trying to stay one step ahead of exploding cars getting splattered by some mean thugs or just ending as a red smear on someone’s windshield. Just as her night couldn’t get any worse she meets someone who’s night had gone worse than hers in an amnesiac she nicknames Grief trussed up in the trunk of a car she just stole.

Baltus City is in the middle of a cartel power struggle, combating the tenacity of good cops and crooked politicians all trying to claim a part of the city. Squid is more like a parallelogram trying to fit into a square box. While her heart is good she seems to have a knack for ending up on the losing end more times than not. She so desperately wants to be seen as good but she seems to keep finding herself in situations where she has to do one bad thing to fix another bad thing, which leads to another bad thing. You feel her sense of frustration and anger at just seeming to miss the hook that will pull her out of the stink.

When she saved Grief it was during her working to pay off an owed bad debt with a bad deed. Grief was the only positive thing that came from that deed. Squid tries to help Grief quickly figure out who he is and to get him to leave her to her own devices. However Grief likes being around Squid and keeps popping up and giving her his support whether or not she likes it. Grief has his own share of secrets he is hiding from and likes the feeling of taking care of Squid despite her objections. In the end you wonder who is saving whom?

This is fast paced, with characters you keep rooting for action packed loaded with nicknames galore speeding train of a read. It’s like a mix of Dick Tracy, meets Robocop, meets Minority Report and Smokin Aces with all of the varied characters, tech speak, over the top elites and a level above road kill mix that makes this such a snorting, laugh out loud great read.

[Allyson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an entertaining read with snappy dialogue, quirky characters and a truly evocative city landscape. Many have indicated that this portrayal of the city is cyberpunk, but this seems somewhat backward looking. Whilst we have Urban fantasy, we have not yet found a more contemporary concept for the city in science fiction. The gritty, almost realistic, urbanscapes that are central to much contemporary science fiction, and seem to mirror that in Urban fantasy, and Squid's Grief blends the technological, the dystopic, noir detective and the breakdown of the old social order and the installation of something new. At the same time there is the overlay of humour, which lightens the violence and the dystopic aspects of poverty, societal misfits, corruption and mafia-like crime syndicates. The technological aspects are not as pronounced as in cyberpunk, but more subtly interwoven into the plot. All in all a really fun read.

[Daniell Marsh · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved how this book pulled you right in and kept you there. I have to say I really liked Grief and the humor him and Squid shared. It was intense story with twist and turns. Squid’s plans and how she keeps to her rules is something that just tickled me. I actually had to turn off my computer as had to get up early in the morning and couldn’t stop reading. Finished the next morning as soon as I could. This would be a book that I will buy and recommend to family and friends. First time reading this author and won’t be the last time as really enjoyed the book. I was lucky to get this book as an ARC from Hidden Gems for an honest review.

[Mandy · Rating 5 out of 5]

4 1/2 stars

I loved this book! I have never read a cyber punk novel before, but this was great. So enjoyable. The characters were awesome; well-written, engaging, messes that you hated and loved in turns. I love characters written as if they could be real, every day people, even in this kind of setting.

The story line was great. I loved the crime, sometimes gritty and despairing feel from Squid's point of view. I definitely recommend this book!

[Sarah · Rating 1 out of 5]

The reveal of the amnesiac character's true identity retroactively ruined the rest of the book for me. There were other things that kind of nagged at me about it - Squid felt very young for allegedly being 24 and I don't think the cyberpunk stuff was implemented very well - but that twist brought the book from 3 stars to 1.

[Rivqa · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is for when you want your cyberpunk with a sense of humour. And with characters who aren't all grizzled, cynical veterans and OH MY GOODNESS Squid is just the best and I will love her forever. A delightful, pacy story of second chances and found family.

[Felicia Allen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I voluntarily received an advanced reader copy of this book.
I loved it! I wasn't to sure about it at first, but once I got into it, I couldn't put it down!

[Katharine (Ventureadlaxre) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Squid's Grief is a roller-coaster of life events that would have most people saying 'to heck with that'. Poor Squid has had one bad day after another and just wants a break, a fresh start, a chance that everything will turn out okay for her just once. Though she tries to do the right thing, and has a list of rules while she breaks the law (only steal cars that belong to criminals, or are double-parked, or something), the poor thing just gets into worse and worse trouble.

In one particular car heist she unluckily discovers that someone's tried up in the boot. She frees him and tries to shoo him on his way, however he suffers from amnesia and follows her around like a slightly dumb puppy for the next few days. Although she doesn't exactly have much to share in her ramshackled life, she gives away her last few coins in order to feed him. Since he doesn't leave and can't remember anything, she nicknames him Grief and it sticks.

Throughout the book she tries to get her life back on track to less than stellar results, and instead focuses on figuring out Grief's story, as they joke he must be a rock god or prince or at least someone who has a hot tub and nice clothes somewhere. As the truth starts to come out, we're left reading with a bitten lip as we hope somehow, they pull through this somehow... and possibly even together.

What I loved about this book was the dialogue. The book is full of weird and excellent humour; Mok isn't afraid to just be weirdly random at times, and it works (for me, at least, known to my own peers as someone who says weird and zany shit a little too often). The book also has lovely yet concise descriptions, such as 'Infinity Mall was a shopping superhighway. It was bigger than Buckingham Palace and busier than Tokyo in peak hour.'

The characters are what drives this piece. You deeply care for Squid and Grief, even though you wouldn't exactly what Squid near you (smells bad, steals shit, super unlucky life etc), and as more comes out about Grief you certainly wouldn't want him close either.

However, the plot is driven by how you want Squid to get a lucky break, and that you hope everything gets sorted out for Grief somehow, too. Squid is a hugely sympathetic character, and Grief starts out by being so sweetly innocent and shows he cares for Squid in a way that she deserves, that you want them to come through this okay.

Once I started this book it was very easy to read in under a day. Highly recommended for futuristic cyberpunk of loveable characters and a quick plot.

[Dion Perry · Rating 4 out of 5]

Squid is a car thief who works for a crime syndicate. She is acquainted with a Detective Casey, who has given her until her next birthday to change her ways or she will be arrested. Squid cannot simply leave the syndicate. Confronted by her immediate supervisor Ferret, he tells her that if she steals twenty-two he’ll consider letting her go. Things get interesting for Squid when she discovers a man, Grief, with amnesia in the boot of the first car she steals. Although she offers him a dodgy sandwich as a bribe, she can’t afford anything else, he refuses to leave.

Squid’s Greif is a fun story that is an easy read. I certainly had no difficulty finishing it. Overall, I found it a bit of a disappointment. The story promised black humour and it was funny up until about the quarter mark. After that it descended into weird analogies which just left me going huh. The plot was drawn into four directions: Squid trying to get a “real” job, Casey trying to solve a murder case, Grief trying to remember who he is and finally the three of them trying to bring down the crime syndicate. I thought that these aspects did not fit together properly so there were scenes that did not seem to have any relevance with the overall story.

The ending was a disappointment. Throughout the book, Grief does his best to court Squid, but when she finally concedes to drive off into the sunset with him, his response is not now I’m busy. Squid and Casey do not make up after their fight even though it’s clear they want to. Squid is not seen as the hero, leaving us without one. Finally, there were lose ends that weren’t tied up properly.

Having said all this, I still think it was a good read and I certainly won’t be abandoning the author.

[Nebula Books · Rating 4 out of 5]

Set in the near future, Squids Grief is a crime thriller with some cyberpunk elements. Squid is a thief with morals who has 'one last job' before she goes clean, but everything goes wrong when she finds Grief, a man with no memories, inside the boot of a car she steals. Meanwhile, the gangs are in upheaval as they are restructured and gang-war begins to break out and Police officer Casey is trying to tackle the rising gang violence in the city of Baltus; but the harder she fights, the more intricate the web of corruption ensnaring the city and it's officials becomes.

D.K. Mok's third novel, Squid's Grief is thoughtfully written; fast-paced with excellent action and consistent humor throughout, it also manages to deal with strong themes without being preachy.

For the rest of this review, or for more reviews and author interviews, visit my blog http://tinyurl.com/jnmhuh3 or follow me on twitter for news and updates https://twitter.com/Nebula_Books

[P.L. Matthews · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is DK Mok's third book and I am fan. I have read them all and whilst not the same, every single one of them has been fabulous.

The story line has enough twists in it to keep you interested the whole way through, it doesn't really stop for a breather, to be honest. I love the characters and their development and whilst they are adults, at times it reads as if they were teenagers; yet it works. It leaves you feeling good, despite a dark undertone. I won't spoil it but there is one scene where the stereotypes really go out the window and I loved it. Fully recommend it.

[Liz · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars. Pacy, intriguing characters and an engaging read.
After whinging that the last book I finished had not enough resolution, I'm going to sound really hard-to-please when I say there might be *too* much resolution here. I didn't need every single thread tied up. Nevertheless, that's being picky, when this book is pretty great all round.

[Jānis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Man riktīgi patika... Par zinātnisko fantastiku es šito nesauktu, bet nu jau par zinātnisko faktu.

Plottwisti un spriedze bija tik daudz, lai lasīšanas kāri konstanto uzturētu.

Vairāk krimiķis kā fantastika ar savu psiholoģiju, amnēzijām, vardarbību un taisnības meklējumiem.

[Bekki Fahrer · Rating 4 out of 5]

sleepy start and explosive finish. Half dystopian, half sci-fi.