Nick Lake

A teenage boy born in space makes his first trip to Earth in this engrossing sci-fi adventure from the Printz award-winning author of "In Darkness."

Satellite

jess

in honour of this book's writing style, i am going to write in all lowercase for this review. satellite isn't your typical sci-fi. it's slow and very character-focused, and a lot more scientific than i was expecting; a lot of the actual science stuff went over my head. but it was good. it reminded me of a sort of reverse gravity, in fact. 

satellite focuses on three teenagers - libra, orion, and the narrator leo, who were born in space and their quest to go back down to earth. as far as i could tell it was set in the near future, which was really interesting, but since it was so character-focused there really wasn't too much worldbuilding - just enough to get you situated, but it kept you fully focused on the characters. the characterization was really wonderful for almost everyone, especially leo. i really liked his character, and his personality, and he had a really strong voice - though that may be in part the writing style. 

lake did a really good job of setting the tone, too - it was so wistful and nostalgic and soft, and there's a lot of waiting around but it really goes with the book. it might have been slow, but it wasn't boring. 

now: the writing style. i know that a lot of people hated it, and it does take a bit to get into. my critique isn't that it was written in lowercase and text-speak, it's that it wasn't cohesive enough to sound authentic. proper nouns like names were capitalized, but "i" wasn't; abbreviations like "c" and "u're" felt clunky, because they're just ... not used. for me, who spends a lot of the time writing in lowercase, thinking in lowercase and internet vernacular - it just felt weird. and i couldn't figure out why it was written like that - though it did set the tone for the book from the start as one that was going to be softer than most sci-fi we think of. 

satellite is a beautiful book. even if you're not a fan of sci-fi you might like this because it's so character driven that the sci-fi aspect isnt overwhelming.

The Martian for teens - an epic, highly original space thriller with real science and heartbreaking beauty. Leo has never set foot on Earth. Born and raised with twins Orion and Libra on the Moon 2 Space Station, they have grown up together in the most extraordinary of ways. Now, they are preparing to make their first trip home - their first journey to Earth. But Leo, Orion and Libra cannot possibly imagine the irreversible consequences that their return will set into motion...

“flight: the noun for flying & the noun for fleeing.” 
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born and raised with twins orion and libra on the moon 2 space station, leo has grown up in the most extraordinary way. the time has now come for the trio to make their first flight home to earth, but they cannot imagine the terrible consequences that their return will set into motion. 
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i loved how this book read like a soft contemporary, but IN SPACE. usually, i don’t read space books (and i don’t read many contemporary books either!), but this one just seemed like it would be good. and it was! i loved the mc, leo. he was a soft-space-boy-kinda-genius, and he was super sweet. and the formatting was really unique - it’s written all in text speak - which just adds to his character. 
this book was just so raw and emotional. i felt like sometimes i didn’t get much detail of what was going on outside of leo’s life, like the details of what was going on with other characters - which made it a little confusing at times. but the story was so uniquely leo’s that i didn’t really mind that much. 
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the reason why this book isn’t getting five stars is because i didn’t really feel attached to it, or really LOVE it. i liked the ideas of the characters, especially orion and libra, but i don’t feel like i got to know them enough to love them. i didn’t really feel much excitement for this book, so sometimes i had to force myself to read it; i thought it was quite long winded. but i did end up enjoying it in the end, and some parts were really good. i’m glad i read it, but i wouldn’t re-read. 

Dorian Avers

** spoiler alert **
            2.5 I've never been a sci-fi person, but after reading the first couple pages I was optimistic about this book. Normally I would be bothered by the way this was written, "text speak". The lowercase "i" and "u" instead of you, but it flowed naturally. There weren't screenshots or text bubbles so I was fine with it. I think science fiction is cool because a lot of the time it deals with morals and ethics, but in a ridiculously hazardous way. Like having children in space and climate change and all that. 
 The start of the novel was promising, but then it felt like the author was just trying to finish it up. I was so bored by the end. Also, is it expected that the U.S. will be cool with Russia in the future? But putting politics in here would've taken it in a whole new direction. The beginning was all clean and shiny, then things got messy. There were so many unrealistic parts to this book that have nothing to do with the science part, I talked about them in my notes. Like why were these children not monitored more closely when they got to Earth? They've already said that they're not going to do this experiment again. Did they just realize they were dying and write it off? Also, I was really hoping they'd have a bit of a normal life for awhile. Like make a friend or something, but ehhh. Also, there was no twist. I think every reader realized what was going on and the author tried to have a thrilling reveal anyway. Maybe YA sci-fi isn't my thing. 
 I had a problem with Orion's ending conversation with Leo. I don't know if I read it wrong, but he apologizes for being straight and not being into Leo like he wants, but it was like really weird and unnecessary. I didn't feel anything. In the beginning I liked that most chapters ended with a bit of foreshadowing, but I think that petered out towards the end too.


Quotes:
* "anyplace where there are no people but there are things that people have made, to tell stories" (11)
* "i know she doesn't c me the way other mothers c their children: i'm her shadow, not her reflection" (230)

Satellite

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