I mean, it's all about space, and it's pink. I loved Kate Hope Day's previous novel, If, Then, so my expectations for In The Quick were high indeed.įirst of all, I seriously love the cover. All opinions expressed are my own.Ī young, ambitious female astronaut’s life is upended by a love affair that threatens the rescue of a lost crew in this brilliantly imagined novel, in the tradition of Station Eleven and The Martian. Thank you Random House for a complimentary copy. This review can also be found at A Take From Two Cities. ** I received an ARC from NetGalley and the publisher (thank you!) in exchange for an honest review. This is a story I wish I could've loved because of the interesting plot/themes but the execution, and main character, and lack of punctuation, really dragged down. I didn't hate it but it didn't salvage this, either.

It doesn't stick to said plot 100% - it couldn't - but where it can, it does. What I did find interesting were the literary paralells to a beloved classic, which I did not pick up on until quite far into the story, but once I saw I couldn't unsee. But where I hear the book THE MARTIAN is as good as the movie, in this case, were this ever to be adapted, the same would not be said. This would probably make a great movie as there is some THE MARTIAN-esque similarities as far as disaster and thinking on your feet but in space. But if that's a deal breaker for you, now you know. You have to pay attention and filter out action from words and all I'll say is I'm glad this was a short read. The worst part? The dialogue has no quotation marks.

The best part of this story is the synopsis.

But the relationship 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. James and June forge an intense intellectual bond that becomes an electric attraction. She seeks out James, her uncle’s former protégé, also brilliant, also difficult, who has been trying to discover why Inquiry’s fuel cells failed. The spacecraft went missing when June was twelve years old, and while the rest of the world seems to have forgotten the crew, June alone has evidence that makes her believe they are still alive. Six years later, she has gained a coveted post as an engineer on a space station-and a hard-won sense of belonging-but is haunted by the mystery of Inquiry, a revolutionary spacecraft powered by her beloved late uncle’s fuel cells. Younger by two years than her classmates at Peter Reed, the school on campus named for her uncle, she flourishes in her classes but struggles to make friends and find true intellectual peers. June is a brilliant but difficult girl with a gift for mechanical invention who leaves home to begin grueling astronaut training at the National Space Program.

In the quick kate hope day