I've read a few books by Cecil Castellucci before. Boy Proof, The Plain Janes, and The Queen of Cool being notable favorites.
I was a bit delighted and thrown that Castellucci wrote a science fiction novel.
If I'm not mistaken, it is their first one.
They did pretty damn well, I have only minor issues with some of the author's choices, but I think I will understand them if/when the second book is released.
Anyways, onto the amazon summary, "On their way to start a new life, Tula and her family travel on the Prairie Rose, a colony ship headed to a planet in the outer reaches of the galaxy. All is going well until the ship makes a stop at a remote space station, the Yertina Feray, and the colonist's leader, Brother Blue, beats Tula within an inch of her life. An alien, Heckleck, saves her and teaches her the ways of life on the space station.
When three humans crash land onto the station, Tula's desire for escape becomes irresistible, and her desire for companionship becomes unavoidable. But just as Tula begins to concoct a plan to get off the space station and kill Brother Blue, everything goes awry, and suddenly romance is the farthest thing from her mind." AMAZON LINK OF JUSTICE
Ehhhhhhhh, I think I could do better than the summary.
The book begins with Tula, accompanied by her sister and mother, on a colony ship from Earth heading into the stars to begin on a new planet.
Tula has picked up some of the universal language of the stars, the leader of the colony expedition (Brother Blue) knows this, and requests her help to deal with some of the aliens. Tula helps out as she has a great and deep respect for Brother Blue (as do all the colonists).
Their colony ship, the Prairie Rose, makes a stop at the Yertina Feray station. The colonists are allowed to get off the ship temporarily, but they need to stay close to where the ship is docked. Tula doesn't wander far, but she stumbles across the precious grains from their cargo now on the space station. Tula brings it to Brother Blue's attention; he regards her for a moment before he speaks to her privately.
He beats the snot out of her.
He leaves her for dead.
He tells the colonists that he has some stuff to take care of and he'll be along to the colony planet later. He tells Tula's family that Tula would go with Brother Blue.
But he leaves her dead.
Tula fades in and out of consciousness until some aliens find her and take her to sick bay. She's nursed back to health, sees the supervisor of the ship (who she steals a plant from), and retreats to the bowels of the station (essentially).
There she meets Hecklock and begins an interesting friendship that teaches her how to survive in an alien station, and tries to caution her away from the revenge she holds in her heart towards Brother Blue.
Tula's journey is a survival journey in space, and I pretty much loved it.
Now a questionable choice the author made (to me) was the abstract descriptions of the aliens presented. There were a handful of details given out about each species encountered, but there was never enough to paint a concrete picture. I would have really liked to see the entire alien rather than know it had antennas, an abdomen, or bartered/spoke with swift hand motions. I mean, those details were cool, but I wanted more.
However, I wonder if the author will reveal that in later books as we're given a (hopefully) more complete picture of the universe, all the politics at play, and if Tula will ever meet up with Brother Blue.
Happy reading!
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