Name: Stephanie Cox's review of In the Quick by Kate Hope Day
Item: In the Quick
Rating: 3
Author: Stephanie Cox

Kate Hope Day

"n the Quick is the story of June, a brilliant but difficult girl, unloved by her adoptive family, with a gift for mechanical invention, who leaves home to begin a grueling astronaut training program. Six years later, she has gained a coveted post as an engineer on a space station, but is haunted by the mystery of Inquiry, a revolutionary spacecraft powered by her beloved late uncle's fuel cells. The spacecraft went missing when June was twelve years old, and while the rest of the world has forgotten them, June alone has evidence that makes her believe the crew is still alive. She seeks out James, her uncle's former protégée, also brilliant, also difficult, who has been trying to discover why Inquiry's fuel cells failed. James and June forge an intense intellectual bond that becomes an electric attraction. But the love that develops between them as they work to solve the fuel cell's fatal flaw threatens to destroy everything they've worked so hard to create--and any chance of bringing the Inquiry crew home alive. Equal parts gripping narrative of scientific discovery and charged love story, In the Quick is an exploration of the strength--and limits--of human ability in the face of hardship, and the costs of human ingenuity. Its beating heart is its two central characters, June and James, whose love for each other is eclipsed only by their drive to conquer the challenges of space travel"--

A Novel

In the Quick

Mandi Jayne

Stephanie Cox

Lovely world-building and some interesting ideas. I really enjoyed the first half of the novel; I thought the author was using the main character to explore some thoughts about neurodivergence. But surprise! I guess there was a little bit of a Jane Eyre in space element? The romance and the latter part of the novel didn't work as well for me. I did love the near future ambiance of an abandoned space program and far-off moon bases crumbling back into space dust. An interplanetary demolition by neglect.

Lauren Sullivan

Content warnings: (view spoiler)[death of parents (off-page, before book starts), death of a parental figure, arson, injuries and death (including near drowning and the effects of no gravity on bodies), various space accidents (including one that results in am amputation), child neglect bordering on abuse (hide spoiler)]

Look, I’m going to be completely honest and tell you to ignore the blurb and simply think of this as a Jane-Eyre-as-an-astronaut retelling. It’s not, as some of those pull-quotes would have you believe, a feminist adventure (?) or, heaven forbid, a romance, but it is a competent Jane Eyre coming-of-age story wrapped up in some scifi trappings.

These are schematics for a new kind of fuel cell, he said. One that will power an explorer to the edge of our solar system. He spread them out and explained how to read them, how to understand the markings for the cell’s dimensions and functions, and decipher the schematics’ key.

June’s uncle invented the fuel cells that powered a new type of spacecraft designed for long range exploration, and it’s both a blessing and a curse that June shares her uncle’s engineering-focused mind. After his death, her aunt sends her off to an astronaut training program, where June becomes obsessed with the now-missing spacecraft, with the fuel cells blamed for the tragedy. Even as she herself makes her way to space, she’s convinced that the space program has wrongly abandoned the ship, and enlists her uncle’s former protégées for help.

June’s an interesting character to watch develop, especially from her first-person POV. The book starts with her as a child, following her uncle around and learning the basics of engineering and invention (“What does it do?”) that will encourage her love of space and intention to be an astronaut. While she’s got a mind for mechanics, she’s not as great with people, and struggles sometimes to articulate what’s in her head to others. Even most of her fellow students at the training program overlook or underestimate her. The only exceptions are her uncle’s former proteges, mostly out of fondness for her uncle rather than any particular perceptiveness. James, the Rochester analogue, is one of those proteges, similarly obsessed with fixing the flaw in the fuel cells but hiding a dark secret. One of my favorite parts of the book was watching them work together, especially June’s euphoria at finally finding a like-minded person. As for the romance between them… well, I’m not a big fan of the romance portion of Jane Eyre either, but even more so, very little time was spent on their relationship besides them working together. So the physical portion of their relationship certainly didn’t come out of left field, but it felt like nothing more than proximity and similar mechanically inclined minds.

Behind my eyes the fuel cell worked with a buzzing hum. Worked and worked. I pushed his arm off me and opened my eyes.
Are you sleeping? I asked in the darkness.
I see that damn cell when I close my eyes, he said.
I hear its vents in my ears, I said.
He turned and I felt the heat of his limbs next to mine.

There are some interesting choices made in terms of how close to hew to the original story and where to diverge with the original story, and for the most part I think it worked out quite well. Like horrible Lowood, the astronaut training program involves barracks, some physical privations, and bad food, but rather than simply surviving to adulthood, June’s striving for a spot to train as an astronaut. The Thornfield equivalent felt especially well done, a bleakly rundown station set in the middle of vast nothingness. I also liked where – and how – the book ended, as it solidified that the core of the story was June’s personal journey. There were bits that seemed completely unrealistic (how the fuel cell was discovered, that they’d be able to assemble new ones in isolation with limited materials), but, again, *waves hands* Jane-Eyre-in-space. My biggest issue with the book is that it does have a bit of the “important literary fiction” thing going on. The most noticeable manifestation of that is the complete lack of any dialog punctuation, which you can see from the quotes above. I have no idea what this stylistic choice is meant to do besides annoy the reader.

Overall, I’d give this 3.5 stars because I liked June’s voice and her drive, and I liked comparing this retelling to the original. For me, at least, it was a quick read, so if astronaut Jane Eyre sounds interesting to you, I’d recommend checking it out from the library.

Katelyn Caillouet

DNF.

I got about a third of the way through this novel and found myself frustrated because it was billed as an explosive romance in space between adults, yet everything I'd read thus far was all about June as a child. It focused on her family life and her time at a special school for kids who want to become astronauts. I flew through it, but the prose was very dry - all about training, simulations, and classes. It just wasn't what I signed up for. I wanted to see June as an adult. If I wanted to watch June go through middle school, I would've picked up a YA/MG book about something similar.
I also had a hard time seeing June becoming romantic with anyone — I know I only read her as a kid, but she didn't have a lot of emotion or feeling for me to cling to. The dynamic with her Aunt was pretty heartbreaking and she didn't seem upset about it. And with the alternate history setting, the novel didn't feel very sci-fi (another billing that drew me to it). I think this is on the publisher. The marketing for this book is wildly different from the reading experience.

Jennifer

I had a pretty alright experience with In the Quick. Narrated from the perspective of a science prodigy, this is a story about human resilience. As a STEM major myself, I found June's narrative quite resonating from having to go against the odds of everyone else within the field and the uphill challenge in scientific breakthroughs. So that part and the way June approaches STEM challenges was engaging. On the flipside, I felt that the quotation convention and the side characters didn't exactly take off - so I found the other characters forgettable.

Nevertheless, I think In the Quick felt scientifically believable and features a fascinating main character so if you're accustomed to the space opera subgenre, this book is still worth checking out!

N.B. This book contains following major content warnings: vomit, loss of loved ones, and injuries

Sophia Geron

I loved June and her journey to the “Pink Planet.” This book was a quick and fascinating read.

Mandi Jayne &
In the Quick by Kate Hope Day

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