I loved the characters and their connections. I loved this world built with life itself, yet lacking fundamental connections to life and other. That was intriguing and well developed. The bin chicken insult- delightful. The characters and their relationships are well established. The world building is well done. 
Spoiler: The only thing I didn't get was

why Sibby was so mad at the main character for going back, as if the antagonist wouldn't have started releasing the spores and killing the city if she hadn't (cause he already was).

Maybe 3.5 stars for me, but I'm rounding up because Sascha Stronach has written a great bisexual woman protagonist and cast of diverse characters that I really appreciate.  
I feel complicatedly about this one.  I liked quite a bit about it: original world-building, well-executed weird, and really thoughtful representation.  The system of... magic? science? is interesting and the action scenes are well written.  What didn't work for me at all was the pacing -- sometimes scenes felt like they were drawn out longer than they needed to be, while at other times there seemed to be significant jumps that left me wondering if I'd perhaps missed something.  All in all: reads like a debut, but a promising one; I'll read the sequel.  

This had a lot of potential - it’s a techno-punk fantasy adventure infused with elements of Māori mythology. It’s about the queer experience, bi erasure; how to navigate a world where you are not acknowledged, not even with other marginalized groups. I was very excited to read this, but left a little confused at what was actually going on. I think there were zombies maybe, and there were definitely pirates. Maybe I couldn’t click with the writing style, but to my disappointment it lacked cohesion with all of these cool elements.