pavese
9/3/2013
I really enjoyed the story at the base of this. Normally I don't like passive female main characters, but I felt that she made sense and her motivations were clear, so I was okay with it. I thought the concept was good, and I liked that it was the artsy girl with the science parents, instead of the other way around.
I just didn't think the whole story felt fully fleshed out. The setting was vague, there was some sort of disaster event that happened that is never dealt with or explained though referenced fairly frequently. Some parts seem futuristic, like the robots and Mars colonization, then other parts feel dated, like when Cat's mother tells her about the opportunities for women that are now available or the fact that everyone smokes. Cat's relationships with particularly her parents are not developed enough for them to have suitable emotional impact or to explain how they impact her decision making, and almost no one felt like a fully realized and developed character. The issue of robot sentience and government impacts and regulations and people's prejudices towards the robots also felt like a hanging thread, mentioned, but not really developed into anything. "They're taking our jobs and are inhuman and are somehow related to the disaster that happened" really doesn't cut it. Also, the font size on this book was ridiculously large, it's really more like 250 pages than 400.
A short sweet romance story, if you want a quick read for before bed or vacation, a good book to pick up and take along.