big yikes. i was not expecting the MC in a YA story about an empire colonizing and destroying other worlds....to denounce her identity and side with the empire? and like... that's it. that's the whole story. 🫠 Hwajin's family is murdered by the empire, she's kidnapped by the empire and taken to an orphanage, and all she can think is how cool the spaceships that killed her family are and how bad she wants to fly one? the whole book is about her embedding herself deeper in the empire and participating in murderous colonizer activities against her own people (who she no longer claims and constantly refers to as "the enemy"). i thought surely there would be some redeeming character arc where the clanners (Hwajin's people) are humanized and Hwajin realizes that empire is evil...lol nope. just colonizer nonsense from cover to cover, the end. 

Also, the synopsis on here/the jacket copy is misleading. The clanners are NOT rebels..?? They are adventurers, miners, and scientists who fled to the Moonstorm to escape the Empire's tyrannical rule, and they live peacefully. It's almost like the publisher intentionally marketed it this way because they knew the story arc was hot garbage