A complicated love story set in space

Review by Booklist Review

There may be worse ways to wake than floating in space with your memories missing and the voice of a stranger piped into your helmet, but 16-year-old Noa can't think of one, especially when he learns he has to repair a coolant leak or the ship will explode. After DJ, the teen speaking through his HUD, talks him through this sudden responsibility, they explore their no-longer-about-to-explode ship for answers. Instead, they find another teen, Jenny. None of them know how they ended up on the spaceship Qriosity, which lacks a crew, a working navigation system, or any records. The reluctant trio search for a way home while navigating increasingly bananas episodic adventures, such as a murder mystery, a time loop, a monster attack, and a run-in with an ominously normal planet-wide high school, all linked together by the realistic romance brewing between Noa and DJ. To explain further would be to spoil it, so settle in for a thrilling, funny, and moving ride. Questions about death and the afterlife, identity, and the role of memories, as well as rebuilding one's self after trauma, mingle with clever meta commentary on how we consume and critique media (such as Hutchinson's cheeky nod to the "bury your gays" trope). The vulnerable, empathetic characters are full of personality and ground the high-concept premise with relatable issues.

From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.

---

Review by Publisher's Weekly Review

This queer sci-fi romance from Hutchinson (The State of Us) finds three teens in space with no clue how they got there. Noa North fell asleep in Seattle before abruptly awakening in a spacesuit outside the starship Qriosity. DJ Storm was showering in Florida one minute, and in the ship's reactor room the next. And Jenny Price went from reading in Rhode Island to being trapped in Qriosity's bathroom. After DJ and Noa save the vessel from an imminent explosion--and Jenny escapes the latrine--the trio attempts to reboot the main computer. Doing so initiates the ship's Phone Home protocol, which uses the Quantum Fold Drive to send them randomly through space every 19 hours until they happen across Earth. Their situation devolves into a string of increasingly bizarre mysteries that stymie sleuth Jenny, and though sparks fly between DJ and Noa, inner demons and actual monsters threaten their shared future. Through Noa's first-person narrative, Hutchinson skillfully balances high-stakes action and mind-bending plot twists with humor and profundity. The result is a wildly ambitious, wackily imaginative tale that will leave readers craving a sequel. Ages 14--up. Agent: Katie Shea Boutillier, Donald Maass Literary. (Jan.)■

(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

---

Review by School Library Journal Review

Gr 9 Up--For Noa, waking up in a spacesuit floating outside of a spaceship called Qriosity is just the beginning of a strange cycle of mysteries that begin and end with a boy named DJ. Noa doesn't know why or how he got onto Qriosity, or why he's stuck there with DJ and the frenetic Jenny, but he knows a few things: The days all feel the same on board the spaceship, someone is playing some very elaborate tricks on them, and DJ's dimples are getting more irresistible each hour. Toss in some aliens, a stowaway, a dead body, and some delicious spaghetti, and it is indeed a complicated love story set in space. Noa's tumultuous past makes him wonder if he can really fall in love while trying to escape a mysterious spaceship. Strong language and descriptions of assault are included, so this may be better suited for mature readers. Main characters are white. VERDICT When events get curioser and curioser, love seems to conquer all. A great addition for those who enjoy mixed-up romance stories.--Amanda C. Buschmann, Carroll Elem. Sch., Houston

(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

---

Review by Horn Book Review

Noa wakes up to find himself, inexplicably, in a spacesuit floating outside a spaceship, with no recollection of how he got there. Neither does DJ, another boy aboard the ship, who helps bring Noa in, nor Jenny, whom they find locked inside a bathroom. The teens' immediate concerns are survival and trying to figure out what resources are available, how the ship works, and how they might get back home. Once they settle in for the long haul -- as they learn from a recurring hologram of an annoying erstwhile child star, it could be six to nine months before they are rescued -- they turn their attention toward one another, becoming friends even as a romance blossoms between Noa and DJ. An already bizarre and complicated plot adds a recurring time loop, an alien monster attack, and a visit to a mysterious high school in space before things start to make sense. In the meantime, the development of the quirky, unusual characters and their growing relationships should keep readers engaged. Hutchinson (The Apocalypse of Elena Mendoza, rev. 3/18; The Past and Other Things That Should Stay Buried, rev. 3/19) writes with witty humor and a great ear for dialogue, and he addresses some big existential questions about love, loss, and identity. Jonathan Hunt March/April 2021 p.92(c) Copyright 2021. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

---

Review by Kirkus Book Review

Teenagers wake up in space, with no memory of how they got there, on a ship that's out of their control and with no coordinates for charting a course home. Impossibly far away from Seattle, 16-year-old Noa North wakes up floating outside the spaceship Qriosity. According to the voice inside his helmet, that of a Florida boy called DJ Storm, the ship will explode in 17 minutes unless they repair the leaking coolant conduit and shut off the reactor. Although neither can remember how they ended up in space, they have little choice but to try to survive. Joined by Jenny, a girl from Rhode Island, the three teens navigate threats of explosion, a Quantum Fold Drive that flings them across the galaxy every 19 hours, a time loop, and a monster invasion, all while searching for answers about how they arrived in space in the first place. The plot maintains a fast pace: Every time the team finds a moment of comfort, a new danger throws them back into action. Thrilling twists keep the conflict surprising, and, as the title suggests, a romance simmers between Noa and DJ. Through their love story, Hutchinson explores topics of consent, trauma survival, and the significance of #ownvoices storytelling. While this book stands alone, the openness of the resolution leaves room for further adventures. All main characters seem to be White. A riveting ride through the stars. (Science fiction. 14-18) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

---

1. One ONE I WOKE UP ON A spaceship. I'd crawled into bed, my hair still damp from the rain, and shut my eyes, expecting to wake up in the same place I fell asleep. As one tends to do. But, no. When I opened my eyes, I was most definitely not in my room any longer. Nor was I in my apartment in Seattle or even still on Earth. I didn't actually wake up on the spaceship. Rather, I woke up outside it, wearing a spacesuit. Drifting in the vacuum where there's no oxygen or gravity, and basically everything wants to kill you. You might be thinking that I knew I was in space because I saw stars. It's a good guess, but wrong. The first thing I saw was a note on the heads-up display inside my helmet. You are wearing a Beekman-Hauser X-300 Vacuum-Rated Spacesuit. You are in space, floating outside a ship called Qriosity. There is no reason to panic. My name is Noa North, and I am not ashamed to admit that I panicked. "Help!" I screamed so loudly that my voice cracked. Not that it mattered--there was nowhere for the sound to go. It's a common misconception that sound doesn't travel in space. It does; it just doesn't travel well. That didn't stop me from screaming, though. And flailing my arms and legs as if doing either was going to help. Cut me some slack. It was my first time in space. Also, hopefully my last. Warning! Your heart rate is exceeding the maximum recommended beats per minute. Please attempt thirty seconds of relaxed breathing. "Are you kidding me?" Your health and well-being are no laughing matter. This alert has been a courtesy of Vedette Biometrics, a subsidiary of Gleeson Foods. "I'm sorry, what?" The notification disappeared, replaced by a series of readouts that were no doubt intended to be helpful but which meant nothing to me. I wasn't totally useless. I could build any piece of furniture from IKEA without committing murder in the process, I played a mean game of Mario Kart , and I could whip up a salted caramel buttercream that would blow your mind, but I had no business being in a spacesuit. And, yet, there I was. I did manage to locate the suit's oxygen levels in the mess of information overload. I supposedly had seventy-four minutes remaining. I hoped that was enough time to get somewhere safe, though I wasn't sure what "safe" even meant anymore. "This is fine. I'm not going to die. I am not going to die." My helmet was transparent on three sides and let me get a good look at my suit, which was pea-soup green with eggplant accents. "I am not going to die in this outfit." Being in space seemed unlikely. People didn't just wake up in space. But I had two choices: one, accept that this was real and that I wasn't dreaming or on drugs or in hell being punished for the time in sixth grade that I tied tampons I'd stolen from Mrs. Russo's desk to Luke Smith's shoes; or two, do nothing, wait to run out of oxygen, and pray that I hadn't made a horrible mistake. I was tempted to do nothing, don't think I wasn't. It was the path of least resistance, which my mom and all of my teachers from first grade on would agree was my favorite. But I wanted to live, which meant I needed to stop freaking out and start trying to save myself. I patted the suit down and discovered a tether attached to my belt around the back. The ship my hud had named " Qriosity " was immediately in front of me within reach, so I fumbled about, using the hull to slowly turn myself around. That's when the harsh, unrelenting reality of my situation hit me. I wasn't looking at the stars, I was surrounded by them. Space was empty and filled with shards of light. It was terrifying and brilliant, and I was just a minuscule part of creation. I choked on the beauty of it, and I was strangled by fear. Immediately, my brain short-circuited. It couldn't process that I was floating when it thought I should obviously be falling. Wave after wave of nausea flowed through me, threatening to overwhelm my senses. "Don't puke in the suit. Don't puke in the suit. Don't puke, don't puke, don't puke." I squeezed my eyes shut even though that was the worst thing I could do, but I didn't care. All I knew for certain was that vomiting inside the suit was probably an awful idea that I should avoid at any cost. I quietly repeated Mrs. Blum's macaron recipe until the sick, dizzy sensation subsided enough that I could open my eyes. Nothing had changed. The stars were still there; I was still outside the ship. It was time to remedy that. I grabbed hold of the tether and pulled myself along it hand over hand. Despite the stars, most of the useful light was coming from lamps on my suit, and those did little more than create a weak bubble of illumination that extended about a meter around me. I could see the hull of the ship as I passed it, but I couldn't see the entire ship. I didn't even know what the other end of the tether was connected to. "This is ridiculous. Who the hell wakes up in space?" I'd heard of waking up in Vegas, and once, the year my mom sent me to summer camp, Danny Forge woke up in the middle of Stonecana Reservoir in a canoe, but no one ever woke up in space. Except that I had. My brain kept trying to point out that it was impossible that I'd gone to bed in Seattle and woken up in space, but I couldn't deny what I was seeing with my own eyes. "This is how people lose their minds, isn't it?" I said aloud. Talking helped keep my stomach calm. "You have to consider the possibility that you're actually sitting on the forty-four bus in your jammies, mumbling to yourself, and that a bunch of strangers are filming you so they can post it online for the likes." That scenario seemed more likely than me being in space, but I had to assume that this was real until I had proof that it wasn't, or I'd spend all my time questioning everything. Ahead of me, pale orange lights bloomed around an open hatch that I prayed was an airlock. The tether was connected to the hull on the side of the opening. I pulled as quickly as I could in the suit. It wasn't as bulky as movies had led me to believe it should be, but it was still awkward to move in. Gentle blue lights filled the airlock as I floated inside. The moment my boots touched the floor, a notification appeared on my hud. Lithos Inc. Mag Boots have engaged. I shifted from leg to leg, grateful to no longer feel that I was going to spin off into the dark nothing. I detached my tether and watched as it was slurped up by a mechanism outside and disappeared. The airlock was about the size of a small elevator, but I'd take its cramped confines over the endless expanse of space any day. I just needed to figure out how to shut the door and fill the room with oxygen so that I could get out of the suit, which was growing more claustrophobic by the second. I spied a palm-size touchscreen built into the wall that looked promising. I tapped it with my finger to wake it. Cycle airlock? I had never wanted anything more in my life. I was going to get out of the suit and breathe air that didn't smell and taste faintly of tin and sweat. I was going to get on my hands and knees and kiss the floor. I didn't know if there was gravity in the ship, but if there was, I was going to jump up just so that I could fall back down. Sure, zero-G sounds fun in theory, but the reality sucked and I wanted off the ride. I reached out to tap the button that would affirm my deeply held desire to cycle the airlock when a voice spoke to me in a soothing Southern accent. "Uh, hello? Is anyone out there?" I turned my head, trying to pinpoint the voice's source. "Anyway, my name's DJ. I don't know how I got on this ship--at least, I think it's a ship--but I'm pretty sure it's going to blow up." Excerpted from A Complicated Love Story Set in Space by Shaun David Hutchinson All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.

---