In a World of Choices

Hi! It's @crazy-loca-blog here! Replaying books is an adventure by itself. Welcome to my side project, creating a reading journal for Choices' books!

[inaworldofchoices]

LIST OF REPLAYED BOOKS

So, I won't be posting much in this blog as this is more of a notepad to myself, but I've decided I'll replay old books in alphabetic order. I'll also be playing newer books and posting reviews/making some notes here.

Currently reading:

America's Most Eligible: Season 10 Replayed books:

A Across The Void All Of Us All Of Us - Her Story All Of Us - His Story Along Came Treble Alpha Alpha II Alpha III Alpha - Moonlit Masquerade

W Wolf Bride

[inaworldofchoices]

Along Came Treble: Book Review

Let me channel my inner Estrella Villanueva and start by saying: “Ohmigod, what a headache this book is!” (I’ve been wanting to get if off my chest for a while now… now I can continue).

Along Came Treble is the return to Hollywood-based books in Choices. It tells the story of Estrella Villanueva, an intern at Infinity Records whose dream is to become a manager, and Cai Kennedy, a former boy band member (or girl band member if you decide to romance a girl) turned into a successful, but problematic solo artist who has been given a last opportunity to save his career by going on tour. Of course, things won’t be easy because Gene, Cai’s former manager, will use every resource at his disposal to try to end Cai’s career, including Cai’s own ex-girlfriend, Veronique Blanchet.

I must admit I was intrigued by the premise of this book at first. Hollywood-based books in general tend to be focused on the talents, leaving the managers and the team behind the star as secondary characters, so this approach seemed interesting, different, and even fresh. But most of the time the story felt like a nightmare. Just like every book, it had good and bad moments. But most of the time, I felt like I was reading a plot made solely to please the so-called “Facebook moms” (and to get their money, of course), full of inconsistencies, nonsense, and lack of knowledge about how a tour is supposed to work. I kept waiting to see some real evolution and growth of two characters with a lot of potential to become a fan-favorite couple in Choices, but the truth is that most of the time, the book felt like mediocre writing with just some glimpses of good ideas.

I wish I could tell I liked the romance between Estrella and Cai. In fact, I was all for Cai’s confidence when he said, “I know you like me, but you won’t admit it”, because those types of dialogs that imply confidence without being cocky make me swoon. But I didn’t enjoy the romance. Not at all. In fact, 98% of the time I wanted to send Estrella and Cai (but mostly Estrella) to horny jail. I know this is a 17+ rated book, so you could expect some dirty thoughts now and then, but the amount of sex in this book was excessive, annoying, and exhausting. It left little to the imagination. There are so many clever ways to represent the evident sexual tension between the characters that are sexier than being explicit. However, it seems the writers didn’t care much about overcomplicating things and decided to turn them into two people incapable of thinking with their brains or even their hearts, which I believe is super important for the characters to reach the real connection that most readers like to feel when they’re reading. This wasn’t a love story; this was a lust story hidden behind a fame and stardom plot.

I also missed the factor that made this story different to other similar books. Because yes, comparing Along Came Treble and Platinum is inevitable. Cai is a cool guy, he’s interesting, and he’s far from being a bad or a mediocre character, but the writers made him so similar to Raleigh Carrera (the boyband past, the tattoos, the rebel side) that it’s impossible to not compare them both. And as a huge Platinum fan, I must say, “sorry, but Cai is not Raleigh”. Did you want to do something different using the same characteristics? Just do some research on boy bands, and you’ll find out most of them (if not all of them) have gone through some type of psychological, emotional and/or financial abuse, and the most vulnerable guys are the ones who come from dysfunctional families, just like Cai. Limiting him to “I don’t trust anyone because everyone has betrayed me” was dull.

But what annoyed me the most was the inconsistencies, the nonsense, and the unanswered questions. There were too many to simply ignore them:

In Chapter 7, Estrella’s belongings were stolen, including her laptop. However, in chapter 8, she’s back at the tour bus and, apparently, the writers forgot about the fact that she doesn’t have a laptop anymore, because it magically appeared!

Again, in Chapter 7, Cai is punched at a bar when trying to defend Estrella. As a consequence, he gets this big bruise under his eye. It’s funny that no one seemed to have noticed the bruise for at least three chapters, even though he performed live, had a meeting at the record label and even appeared on national TV! The only person who noticed it, besides Estrella, was his mom. The player in me who still has some faith in Choices wants to think there is an idea here to highlight that everybody seems to watch Cai’s every move, but the only people who truly see him are Estrella and his mom (aka, “the people who love him”). However, even if this is a cute message, it’s super unrealistic, especially for a guy who’s followed by paparazzi all the time.

The No Rest for the Teachers reunion was nice (and very predictable), but again, it was a “make it make sense” situation. It seems whenever the band performed, they were an opening act for Cai… with Cai on stage! So, are you telling me Cai ended up performing twice? As part of the band and then as a solo artist? Make it make sense, please!

What happened to Veronique? She was one of Cai’s antagonists, but it seems her plot never reached a real climax. Reducing her final participation to a tantrum because her roast didn’t work the way she intended it to be was not the “wow” moment I was expecting. She used Cai’s songs in an album that was awarded a Jammie, but besides her being roasted by Cai, her career was far from being ruined (or at least damaged) by the end of the book.

There were also two specific scenes that I consider were a waste of time and resources:

The sex club scene: Cai takes Estrella to a sex club in Vegas, after he performed as the opening act for Veronique, who’s having her own residency. First mistake, Vegas residencies are not regular concerts, they don’t have opening acts. Second mistake, the whole club thing. I know this one is a paywalled scene and that it was probably made to grab some diamonds from horny players, but I also think it’s important not to lose the focus if they’re including these elements (or any other element) that may add something to the characters’ backstory. The scene sets the pace for the reader to believe Cai is into BDSM. In fact, he gives some hints even in casual conversations throughout the book. However, in the end, nothing happens and the writers seem to forget about it, making the scene look as out of place as THAT scene in Open Heart 3.

Visiting Cai’s mom: to me, this should have been a pivotal moment in the story. Cai taking Estrella to Chicago could have been understood as THE moment when Cai finally realizes he wants Estrella to know all about him as a person, not as a musician. I mean… Estrella convincing Cai of visiting his mom, even when he was reluctant to do it, should have been HUGE. As he left the household when he was a teenager, he didn’t have a relationship or anything in common with his mom, so the dialogs between them were on point, they were as uncomfortable as we could have expected them to be. However, this conflict never had a closure. Cai and Estrella left Chicago and then what? We never knew if they were on speaking terms by the end of the book. Did they ever have that heart-to-heart Estrella was implying they should have? Did they fix their relationship? Why weren’t they reunited at a show? I would’ve loved seeing Cai’s mom at a show! Even Salas got more screen time!

Of course, as always, not everything about this book is terrible. There are some nice, quality moments, and even a brilliant move in one of the final scenes… I don’t know how it is that I didn’t catch that during my first reading, as it was super obvious. Unfortunately, when you don’t have an engaging story, it’s hard to enjoy (and even to identify) these moments. They just look like glimpses of good scenes inside some major mess.

For example, one of the things I value the most about this story is how the writers never try to put Estrella against Veronique on a personal level. If we analyze it, Estrella was never jealous of Ver, she just wanted to understand why Cai acted the way he did around her. It’s 2026, it’s not OK for women to fight for a significant other. Thumbs up for that.

Also, the writers did manage to leave a “this is brilliant” moment by the end of the book. When going back to LA for the final stop of the tour, Estrella asks Cai to finish the last song of the album, with Cai answering it was all in his brain. However, Cai knew exactly what was happening, even though Estrella didn’t. By writing the song, he would’ve given the rights over it to Infinity Records. That’s why he memorized it. By singing it live, people would be recording it with their phones, so he’d have the song recorded without writing it or having to go to the studio. By only singing it live with no written notes, the song belonged to him. It was so obvious I can’t believe I didn’t see it!

Finally, some of my favorite dialogs are those that were focused on Estrella and Cai getting to know each other. My favorite by far is the mirrors scene, when Cai reflects on how fame can destroy you if you’re not truly aware of who you are. I also enjoyed it when Cai asks Estrella why she wants to become a manager, why it’s so important for her to succeed, as it helps us to kind of understand her background and why she values her job so much. These are such intimate moments, and they show the real essence behind these characters. But these are also way too brief. And this led me to a final reflection on Estrella and Cai’s romantic relationship: they are not endgame. They’re just too different. If I leave the horniness behind, they’re both good characters who work great as a team and keep each other good company. You can tell they have each other’s back. Estrella is super smart, and Cai knows his business very well. But at the same time, she is an intern who’s trying to become a manager because she wants fame and recognition, and he is a guy who only cares about his music because he already went through all that and is tired of that lifestyle. He wants to move back to Chicago, and Estrella is an LA girl. They are at different stages of their lives, and the book is a constant reminder of that. So, it’s hard for me to envision this relationship as a long-lasting one.

Is this book not what I expected? Yes. Is this book the worst that has been released on the app? Absolutely not. Overall, the general idea of the book is interesting. Having a superstar and his manager fighting the system and the people who want to see them fail will always be an attractive plot, but the execution of it was plain awful. With Choices already having a music book in their catalog, the least I expected was to see some real crossover, and not Jaylen having her screen time reduced to 5 seconds. However, kudos to the team for bringing back Zoey Wade (and for letting us know that, by this point, she has been a very successful artist for YEARS!!). With a little more content and a little less horniness, this book could have been a decent one. Good riddance, Along Came Treble, Estrella and Cai deserved better.

[inaworldofchoices]

All Of Us – His Story: Book Review

Disclaimer: This is a book I’m playing for the very first time, not a replay. This is also a shorter review specifically dedicated to His Story. An extensive review of the All Of Us series may be found here.

Right when everything at PB seemed to be recycled ideas and AI art, I didn’t expect some MLM story to catch my attention like His Story did. You know, I’m a girl, so the ups and downs and the dynamics in a relationship between two guys is something I will never get to know first-hand. So yeah, I did feel super curious about what I was going to find, and I did feel like I was exploring some unknown ground at times. However, I was pleasantly surprised with what I saw.

His Story tells us the love story between Dex Lawrence (MC), a waiter at LG Bean & Tea, and Brad (LI), a canonically bisexual character who is a frequent customer at the restaurant. This is my first time playing an MLM romance, and I was genuinely surprised by how much I enjoyed it. Seeing an adult relationship with two guys that are walking green flags and don’t seem to have any major dramas is a refreshing approach. Overall, this was a great reading, mostly because of the great characters in it.

However, even though I loved the characters (I don’t think there are weak characters in the story), reading His Story right after reading Her Story was complicated. I was so waiting to see different scenes and interactions from what I had already read in Her Story. Instead, most of the time, the same dialogs and situations were recycled. And that was such a big letdown, because I was expecting to see something different, like having the same scenes from different POVs (meaning Jo's and Dex's) or having different scenes from the same situation. For example, in chapter 3, Yaz sends Jo/Dex to buy the stuff they needed for the coffee-making class. It was as easy as giving them different lists, so that they could go to different places. Instead, the exact same scene was recreated in both books. That’s lazy! Luckily, these similarities were disappearing as the plot progressed and the relationship developed, and by the end of it, His Story did have its own characteristics that made the book unique. I was able to see that Jo/Dex and Tess/Brad were different characters, with their own personalities and their own stories. And that felt perfect.

[inaworldofchoices]

All Of Us – Her Story: Book Review

Disclaimer: This is a book I’m playing for the very first time, not a replay. This is also a shorter review specifically dedicated to Her Story. An extensive review of the All Of Us series may be found here.

In a world where Choices became an app that focuses on steamy romances that don’t leave much space for good (or at least, decent) plots, I was genuinely scared to see how they had approached a topic that readers have been asking for since what seems forever now. Well, I’m glad to say they did not disappoint me.

In Her Story, we may witness the development of the love story between Jo Williams (MC), a waitress at LG Bean & Tea, and Tess (LI), a frequent customer at the restaurant. This isn’t my first time playing a WLW romance in Choices, but it’s the first time I felt the dynamic between the characters in a WLW story as something natural, like they were always meant to be. So, if I had to describe Her Story in three words, I’d simply say: “Cute, cute, cute!”.

The story starts a little slowly (even for me that I’m a sucker for slow burns!), but after a few chapters, I ended up becoming a fan of how Jo and Tess really took the time to get to know each other, how open they are to share their fears and what went wrong in the past, and how their relationship evolved chapter after chapter. I also adored how Jo gets SO nervous when she's around Tess... in a world that's full of super confident MCs and LIs, having these two girls who navigate the relationship as adults, but keeping that touch of “innocence” not only feels like a breath of fresh air, but it also feels REAL.

The fantastic group of people surrounding them only makes this book more wholesome than it already is. The absence of drama between the characters just lets everyone shine and allows them to face every problem together, avoiding silly conflicts or unsurprising villains. Because sometimes, you don’t need to have antagonists to deliver a good story. And that's one of the things that makes Her Story stand out from other books.

[inaworldofchoices]

All Of Us: Book Review

I had to think a lot about how to do a review for All Of Us. And it has nothing to do with the story itself, but with this new concept that Pixelberry tried to introduce in Choices: two parallel stories that overlap and occur at the same time (and in the same settings), with characters who interact in both stories. So, I decided to do something different and write three different reviews: a general one (that is, this one), and two extra parts that are meant to be specifically made for Her Story and His Story (in this order, as this is how I read them).

All of Us is the first fully gay story in Choices. It consists of two books: Her Story, the volume that narrates a story centered on Jo and Tess, and His Story, which is a parallel plot that narrates the story of Dex and Brad. Overall, I must admit I LOVED both stories! I loved the plot of each book, I loved every character in this story (well, except for Stuart, I’m glad he only got a cameo), I loved the slow burns, and I loved the positive vibe surrounding the whole story (not having to deal with homophobic characters was a delight!). But I especially loved how the writers managed to give Jo, Dex, Tess and Brad completely different personalities. You can see these books were made with love and a lot of respect for the LGTBQ+ community.

However, there was one aspect of this series that didn’t allow me to enjoy His Story as I should have. And maybe it’s my fault. Because when Pixelberry explained Her Story and His Story were supposed to be “parallel stories that overlap”, I think I expected something different, at least in terms of the narrative. At first, I expected both MCs and LIs to have different interactions when they were in the same settings (for example, at the café). But after reading a few chapters of His Story, I started to notice certain situations were way too similar to the ones in Her Story (the problem with Stuart) and even some of the dialogs had remained the same or they only had very minor changes (like Jo saying “Just because I think some customer is cute doesn’t make it a crush” and then Dex saying “I can think a guy is cute without it being a crush” in the same scene in their respective books). Sorry Pixelberry, but I don’t think these are “parallel stories that overlap”. These are stories where the same situations are repeated, but with different characters (I don’t want to call it “lazy writing”, but yeah). Fortunately, it seems the writers noticed they were going too far with it and made some changes well into the stories. But it was too late for me, they had already killed my mood (but don’t panic! By the end of His Story, I had already left that bittersweet taste behind and my perception of the book had positively changed).

The fact the MCs and the LIs (as well as the cat) can’t be exported in between books was another let down. I first noticed this while playing Her Story, when Dex and Brad had the default names (in the case of Dex) and sprites shown on the cover of the book. So, when reading His Story, I felt like I had no choice but to keep the same sprites for the characters (and the story) to make sense… only to find out Jo and Tess weren’t the same sprites I had originally chosen, but the ones in the cover. Those weren’t my Jo and my Tess, but some random characters I didn’t recognize at all. I’m assuming the problem was even worse for those players who don’t use the default names as I do. I don’t think it’s that hard to give us the possibility to choose and name all four characters in both books, how is that no one thought about it? But yeah, it sucks. As much as it sucks having to pay for the cat twice. It’s the same damn cat!

Despite these issues (for the record, I don’t think these are minor details, no matter how much I love the love the team put into this project. In my opinion, these are some cases of very lazy coding and writing) and the disappointment I originally felt, I ended up enjoying both stories a lot, much more than I expected. I was prepared to read a lot of clichés. Instead, I got two really cute slow burns that melted my heart. In a Choicesverse that’s currently full of smut and horny characters, having these stories of real friendships and adults looking for a serious relationship with deep connections instead of just a hook-up was beautiful and refreshing. And on a personal note, these stories reminded me a lot of a conversation I had with a gay friend when we were in our 20s about how hard it is for gay people of a certain age to find stability in a relationship. At that moment, his words resonated a lot, so seeing them many years later in these books was a nice reminder of how things tend to be.

Overall, these stories feel real, and I’m so thankful for that. As an asexual person myself, I missed having some representation of the spectrum (even though Tess’ jacket was certainly inspired by the ace flag, and you can’t convince me otherwise), but I can live with it, the fact that we were able to choose the sexual orientation of our MCs was already awesome. The concept is fantastic, and I wouldn’t dare to change it. I wish we had more books like these.

[inaworldofchoices]

Across The Void: Book Review

When it comes to a book like Across the Void, the first idea that comes to my mind is that there is no doubt Pixelberry tried to repeat a well-known formula that worked great in the very first days of the app through Rules of Engagement. That is, the story of the main character (Nova), plus their siblings (Pax and Eos) and their stories told from all these three different points of view. Unfortunately, this time the results weren’t even close to what Rules of Engagement was back in 2016.

The book tells the story of Nova Elara, in my case a woman (or cyber) whose dream is to become the captain of a luxury cruise. The premise sounds pretty boring until we realize the galaxy is in the middle of a war between two factions, the Jura and the Vanguard, and the route where we have to pilot our ship (the Atlas) is really close to the war zone. Of course, as we may expect, Nova, her crew, the passengers, and the Atlas not only end up getting trapped in the middle of the war for different reasons and events that occur throughout the book, but in a surprising plot twist, we end up discovering (in the final chapter) that the ship was always meant to be a part of the war itself, in the form of a bomb. Yes, I didn’t see that coming, and I dare to say this must be one of the most underrated plot twists in Choices.

Overall, the book is different to what Choices usually offers their players. The backgrounds are stunning, lots of pink, blue and vivid colors in general, lots of neon, and everything is very futuristic and gorgeous. We also got many, many new sprites (I’d say some of them haven’t even been reused yet, I guess it’s because of their uniqueness). However, when you don’t have a strong plot, everything else seems to be overlooked. And that’s the main problem Across the Void faces. Despite having a super promising premise, the story itself has so many voids (no pun intended) that most of the time the book left me way too many unanswered questions or even wondering why the writers decided to add certain situations to the narrative.

For example, I decided to help Pax hide Izar, the Jura guy who suddenly appeared in the Atlas… only for us to never see him again. Why was this relevant? What was the point of it? Not even Pax knew why this guy was onboard the Atlas! How did he board the ship without any radars noticing he was coming? Did he receive help from Artemis? It’s not like he was there at the beginning of the trip. Same with Nova and Eos helping Heze, the Vanguard pilot. I decided to let her go back to the Vanguards, but then what? We never saw her again. Was the only reason for these scenes to exist to help us decide whether we were pro Jura or pro Vanguard? Pure fillers, if you ask me.

Another example: what happened during the peace talks between Lyra and Prince Barlow in the Atlas? Are you telling me Barlow didn’t try to do anything to her when only a few chapters before he had destroyed Matara trying to kill her, in order to stop the peace talks that would lead to the end of the war from happening? And when did Prince Barlow leave the Atlas? Because by the end of the book, he just appeared on another ship. Weird.

And I don’t know if I was reading this part while I was half asleep, but when did Oberon board the Atlas? I assume it was after the incident in Matara, but it was like he suddenly appeared on the bridge of the ship, and no one seemed to question why he was there. Also, who protected the astradust during and after the attack in Matara? Where did that astradust go? I know the existence of it was supersecret, but Oberon was in charge of overseeing it as Head of Security. And it’s not like this is the same astradust they used at the end of the book, because that one had been hidden by Nova’s parents in Cyber.

Another problem I noticed was the excess of characters, which led to us having an excessive number of storylines and extralong chapters. I can’t even remember how many times I had to restart chapters because I got lost in between plots (not even One Hundred Years of Solitude in my teens gave me these many headaches!). Then, I understood the structure was to show 3 or more subplots that, later in the chapter, would be combined into the main storyline. This was completely unnecessary, it only ended up adding filler stories to the book.

But what would I have erased? I wouldn’t have included any of the plots involving passengers. If the idea was to show some people were pro Jura and some people were pro Vanguard, then we had enough with our siblings and our crew. But why does Nova have to help people solve their family issues, especially when she already has a fair amount of problems with her siblings? Or why does she have to take some rich women’s pet to have a spa day, as if they couldn’t do it by themselves? Girl, you’re the captain of the ship, not a psychologist or a servant! I would also have gotten rid of Argo and Corvus. Super nice crew members, but zero relevance in the story (in fact, they were so irrelevant that they were the only crew members who didn’t even participate in the final battle). And finally, Oberon. I loved the guy, and I even chose him as the ultimate LI for Eos, but I’d be lying if I said he was a pivotal addition to the story when compared to characters such as Prince Barlow. Same with Aquarius. I decided to save her because the story promised she was going to be a big help to us during the battle if we saved her, but in the end, she was only helpful in saving Vee from dying in the final chapter.

With the amount of characters the story has (32 if we count the pets), it was quite obvious that we would have many LIs to choose from. And at first, I loved the idea, because it was something the fandom had been asking for a long time. But then I realized not every idea the fandom has is actually a good idea. Why? Because Nova had 5 LIs (one of them shared with Eos… I mean, really PB?), Pax had 2 LIs, and Eos had 4 LIs (counting the one he shared with Nova). So that’s 10 out of 32 characters that are considered LIs, not to mention Nova also has an opportunity to flirt with Prince Barlow. So sorry, no matter how much I liked the LIs (in my opinion, they were great characters), having the opportunity to romance this amount of people seems like a lot, especially when they all live under the same roof.

But in the end, I did manage to have a decent love life for my characters, even though at times it looked like a telenovela:

Nova dated Meridian. And the replay completely changed my perception of their relationship. Fun fact, this has been the only time I’ve chosen a LI based on their looks, as I tend to choose them based on who I feel is the most compatible with my MC. So, I used to complain a lot about how Meridian seemed to have so little screen time when compared to the rest of the LIs. But now I realize he gets not only a more than decent amount of screen time… he gets quality screen time, and that’s just awesome. There are no random appearances and the relationship with Nova, despite being short-lived, seemed to be way deeper than I remember from when I played the book for the first time. I genuinely enjoyed this match.

A part of me regrets pairing Pax and Holmes. In fact, I don’t think she should have had LIs options. Maybe it’s because she’s shown as a rebellious character who’s more focused on the war and defending the Jura, but it’s hard for me to picture Pax with anyone. It’s easier for me to see her as an aroace girl having platonic feelings for Holmes. Their relationship kind of comes from a place of caring for someone who feels alone in the world. And that’s it. There is love, but I don’t see passion. I can see partners, but not lovers. Something about this match just never convinced me, but I wanted to give it a try.

As per Eos, I liked the fact that he’s canonically bisexual. For some reason, I think it suits him well. However, a part of me believes that behind his flirty ass, there is a guy who was never able to move on from Oberon. In fact, I had originally paired Eos and Lyra (they gave me all the Bodyguard vibes), but when Oberon appeared for the first time, I felt like it was impossible to just overlook the fact they might have been a couple in the past (in my story, Eos didn’t admit they were a couple when he had the chance to do it in earlier chapters). The sparks were there, and they were inevitable. So yes, they were my perfect match, and I’m more than happy with my decision.

Special mention to Zekei, for being the only LI in the history of Choices that has been shared by two siblings. Please, Pixelberry, don’t you dare do this ever again. I have no idea what the writers were thinking about. The guy was so evidently in love with Nova that trying to pair him and Eos must be one of the most “what the fuck” moments in the book. Did Eos have feelings for Zekei? Maybe he did (or he forced himself to have them in an attempt to forget Oberon), but I like to think the Zekei + Eos relationship is one of mutual respect. And that none of them would disrespect Nova that way. That’s just too low for both of them.

Even though I’ve already mentioned several things I enjoyed and didn’t enjoy about the story, I wanted to save the best, and of course, the worst, for last.

I’d say the most disappointing aspect of the book is how the topic of war was addressed. I feel we never got to understand why there was a war in the first place. We never got to really know what the Jura and the Vanguard stood for and why they had been fighting for so long in a war that evidently affected every single character in this story. I have no idea how the writers missed that, when it was some vital information for us to not only understand the plot, but also for us to be able to make some choices throughout the book. I managed to remain neutral 95% of the time, but then one choice sent me towards the Jura (even though my Nova would have probably agreed more with the Vanguard, mainly because the fact that she and Zekei were classmates gives me the idea that the training she received was actually the same the Marshalls received, that has to have some effect on the way you think about the situation). Luckily, I was able to go back to neutral at the end of the book.

Despite everything I’ve already mentioned, I’ve always thought that replaying a book gives you a whole new perspective on things, and Across the Void is not the exception. In fact, while replaying the story I noticed situations I may have overlooked the first time (maybe because I was too overwhelmed trying to understand everything that was going on).

One of my favorites is how the writers play with the idea of destiny and how the topic seems to be present everywhere! The book is full of references to the future and how we have plenty of time to do certain things when, in fact, life may change in a matter of moments. And not only that. Every single character seems to have a certain destiny written for them, too! For example, Zekei was not meant to have knowledge because he was a technical cyber. Zaniah had constellations that told her purpose in life. Prince Barlow was able to see many futures (Dr. Strange is that you?). Nova herself claims at some point in the story that she felt she wasn’t able to guide her own life. When I discovered it, it blew my mind. How is it that I never saw this before?

The fact that our siblings were annoying also had some very interesting turns. The amount of mistakes they made was almost unforgivable. Like Pax hiding a Jura guy in the ship despite knowing how important the job was for Nova. Or Eos not telling Nova about the importance of Lyra, despite Nova being the captain of the ship. We may have wanted to kill these two, but every single time something like this happened, we could see that no matter how big the argument was, none of them would put the Jura and the Vanguard interests over their family. Their loyalties were clear, and even though they explicitly said the opposite, I’m pretty sure they’d always put their family first. In fact, you could even see them breaking their own rules when it came to helping or protecting their siblings! The best example is probably when Eos helps Pax hide Zaniah’s wrongdoing and to keep their secret safe. Or when Pax questioned Artemis for having her brother as a prisoner of war for so long even though she knew who he was. So, no matter how hard the story tries to convince us Pax and Eos are willing to kill each other for defending their ideals. That’s not going to happen.

And this is where I want to stop for a moment to talk about Pax. Because after replaying the story I have some mixed feelings towards her. She’s annoying, that’s for sure. But at the same time, I feel sorry for her. It was sad to see how many times she was disappointed by the Jura. I could feel her heart being broken over and over again. In fact, if you ask me, I’d say by the end of the book, she had questioned her loyalties a lot. Did she defect the Jura once the war was over? I like to think she did. Did I get the same vibe from Eos? Absolutely not. His personality was more like Nova’s than we give him credit for. In the end, he just wanted to protect the ones he loved. His methods weren’t the best, though. Especially because at times it felt impossible to have a serious conversation with him. I mean… grow up, dude!

Finally, Across the Void felt different after the replay. It didn’t feel better or worse, it was simply different. I found out this was more than a story about a war we never got to understand. This was the story about a bunch of broken characters who found in the Atlas not only a crew, but also a family. And that’s why Nova’s sacrifice in the end makes sense to me. In her own words, “most of us would do anything for the ones we love”. And that’s exactly what she did for her biological and her chosen family.

For a really long time, I felt this wasn’t the ending she deserved, especially because she didn’t ask to be part of this war. She deserved to be happy. She deserved to keep exploring her relationship with Meridian and to see her siblings in peace. But happy endings are not always wholesome. And this is one of those cases where the saddest ending was most definitely the best one.