I couldn’t put it down! 

It’s remarkable how enthralling the plot and pace of this novel was. I’m satisfied with it as a stand alone, but am absolutely invested if Ellis decides to ever write a follow up, 

Cora was such a fun protagonist. She really embodied the adventure of first contact, and her view point as a fish-out-of-water, or maybe fish-adjacent-to-water, coming from a background of government distrust and frustration over conspiracy theories with her famous, estranged, Alex Jones-esque father. What an an excellent background detail and incredible character and worldbuilding. 

I also enjoyed the humor of this novel, and I thought the trope of humans being scary to the alien species was handled extremely well. Ampersand is hilarious and lovable and I was lo-key rooting for there to be an inter-galactic romance from the first moment

he snuck her into the Google campus and he was just so bad at communicating with humans that he gave Cora (and me!) second-hand embarrassment.

Powerful alien. Adorable doofus. 

Loved this book!