ARC REVIEW : The Disasters by M.K. England

If you think the idea of 5 rejects (including a snarky MC) trying to save themselves and some planets in space sounds cool, then this is the book for you!

All of my reviews are made to be as spoiler-free as possible.

SYNOPSIS:

From Goodreads:

Hotshot pilot Nax Hall has a history of making poor life choices. So it’s not exactly a surprise when he’s kicked out of the elite Ellis Station Academy in less than twenty-four hours.

But Nax’s one-way trip back to Earth is cut short when a terrorist group attacks the Academy. Nax and three other washouts escape—barely—but they’re also the sole witnesses to the biggest crime in the history of space colonization. And the perfect scapegoats.

On the run and framed for atrocities they didn’t commit, Nax and his fellow failures execute a dangerous heist to spread the truth about what happened at the Academy.

They may not be “Academy material,” and they may not get along, but they’re the only ones left to step up and fight.

MY THOUGHTS:

I’m not sure what drew me to this book in the first place, but I definitely needed to read it.

I mean, after a whole University semester of a class in “Science Fiction”, you’d think I would be tired of Sci-Fi. But nope! This book came to me at exactly the right time 🙂

(I recieved an ARC from Edelweiss+ in exchange for an honest review.)

First of all, the main character – Nax Hall – was really the selling point for me. He sounded like the kind of main character who was going to be kind of unreliable but hilarious. And I was right! Nax was my favorite character the whole time, hands down. I liked finding out more about his family, especially because I’m not usually an “epic space battle” kind of person. I’ll start reading a book for the character development, the background stories, and the world building. This book had all of those.

However, I also think that Nax’s side of the story was the most fleshed-out. Because the story is told from Nax’s POV, the audience is not really able to connect with the other characters as much. The other members of the crew were also good characters, but a lot of the time, they felt a little flat by themselves. When they were interacting with Nax, they were better. ~~(Does that make sense? I don’t know.)~~

I think that going into the book after reading the synopsis, I pretty much knew what I was getting into. There were no major surprises here, just your typical YA sci-fi about a ragtag group of teens. It was good! But not, like, mind-blowing.

I generally really enjoyed the middle of the book. This was when the characters were really starting to get to know each other better, and their friendships were being tested. We get to learn more about them, too, so that’s always nice! (I promise it’s good, I’m just trying to not be spoilery.)

In the end, I didn’t really like the climax of the book… it was okay. I think it was one of those endings where you read it, and you’re like, “That’s it? Alright, cool.” This book was overall okay.

Other things I liked:

The only major thing that made this book special was the amount of LGBT+ and POC representation. There have been very few times when I’ve read such a diverse book (which doesn’t have a focus/plot on diversity)!
In addition to friendship goals, this book also talks about the importance of family. I love fictional families which are supporting/caring of each other.