A genetic multiple and an artificial intelligence encased in a manufactured body walk into a bar . . .

This is yet another review where I’m putting up the white flag. It’s been months since I finished it and for whatever reason I’ve been having a hell of a time trying to figure out what I want to say about it. So I’m just not going to say much at all and this will be more of a mini-review than a real one.

I liked this book, but not as much as the first one. It’s really more of a companion novel to A Long Way to A Small Angry Planet than it is a straight sequel, though some characters cross from that book to this one and it does follow chronologically. We aren’t following our ragtag crew here, but the A.I. who replaced Lovey at the end of book one (who names herself Sidra in this book). She has gained herself an illegal body and has to learn to live in it. It’s way more of an intimate character study than the first book, although it is similarly paced (not much happens, and that’s totally okay). Both Sidra and Pepper have arcs that examine what it means to be a person, and finding places to belong, and it was very satisfying, though I will admit I wasn’t super compelled to pick it up when I wasn’t reading it (this also happened to me with the first book).

I will definitely be reading the third book when it comes out next year, but I’m going to know going in that I need to be in the right mood, and not want something flashy or loud.