Review: Very interesting concept!
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 06 24, 2012
When I read the synopsis, I thought, wow a story set in a space station, that's really cool, so of course I accepted the author's review request. The world-building in this one is phenomenal. Every part of Cassie's life and the workings of the space station were made crystal clear through her everyday life. When I read the descriptions of the space station and Cassie's living quarters, I felt claustrophobic in a way because of how rigid everything was on the space station.The ending was a total shocker!! I didn't expect it at all! Let me just say Melanie threw in some twists and turns that completely changed my expectations of the book. Once I started on the last 40% of the book, I couldn't put it down. Needless to say I stayed up later than I should in order to finish this book. All the questions were answered, but there was enough left unsaid or uncertain that there will be a 2nd book!However, the beginning half of this book dragged a bit. A lot of the beginning we just follow Cassie around the space station. While this is part of the world-building, nothing exciting was really happening. We see Balik and Cassie falling in love. I love how real the descriptions of Cassie's feelings were - her shyness, the awkward silences, and the nervousness and not knowing what to say when being next to Balik. It all felt very real and sweet in a way. While this is all good, it became too repetitive after the 2nd time.Cassie is also the usual shy girl who's totally insecure and unaware of her attractiveness. Because I obviously know Balik liked her, I skimmed a lot of her insecure moments and her back and forth doubt. Of course Balik thinks she's beautiful. Why wouldn't he? Also there's the beautiful girl who's in love with Balik and whom Cassie always compares herself to. One thing I didn't like is how Cassie and Balik had known each other for 12 years and didn't really interact, but suddenly they talked once and they're really good friends. Why did Balik suddenly decide on that day to talk to Cassie? And if you knew someone for 12 years, I think you'd notice that he was handsome, not suddenly have an epiphany about it.The writing style was straightforward and very easy to read. It also flowed very well, but when I was reading it I always felt like something wasn't right. At the end I realized that all the sentences are perfect. I mean 99% of the book is written in completely and correct sentences. While this is great in a way, there was not much variety to the sentence structure and a lack of excitement from the language itself.There was just one logical inconsistency that bothered me. Balik mentioned that they never work with metal and that everything is made of plastic. It seems like Balik and Cassie had never really seen metal before. However, electronics need metals to work. Since technology was pretty advanced on the space station, it was weird to say that there was no metal. Anyway, just something I noticed.Overall, a very solid book with a truly unexpected ending. I'm happy I got a chance to read it and would recommend it to those who enjoy a good teenage love story with a good dose of suspense and action!