It’s the beginning of a new year at university, and students old and new prepare for a new term. Jahir is a freshman. His unusual looks attract attention, as he is the first of his species to set foot outside of his home planet for a long time. Things don’t start so well as his condition requires him to have a room by himself, which isn’t possible. Enters Vasiht'h, in his second year, whose roommate has just left. He invites Jahir in and the two of them form a timid but strong friendship. As the year unfolds, they find themselves sharing lots of activities from the lightest to the deepest, including visits at a local children’s hospital. Side by side they define the path of their studies until the day may come when those paths have to separate.

This cosy science-fantasy novel was quite charming. Despite a strange opening scene, the two protagonists are quite endearing with their kindness and deep respect for people around them. We alternate between each point of view, getting to know them both and witnessing the bond they share grow stronger. This book was a beautiful depiction of a queerplatonic relationship.

I wasn’t entirely at ease, though, while I was reading, because of a few details here and there that troubled me. For a universe in which there are so many different species, I found things to be quite binary and often considered from a human perspective when it didn’t make sense to me. Then, there was welcome aro/ace representation, but this characteristic was explained as having been engineered through a reduction of hormones and I felt it sad that aro/ace orientation would be explained again as a lack of something when it’s everything but. This type of discomfort would have been alleviated with diverse representation of queer characters, but unfortunately that wasn’t the case. Admittedly, I was also a bit wary because I’d had a look at the author’s twitter account and I strongly disagreed with some of her statements, so I may not have been in the best headspace to read her book. However, it won’t be said that I failed my TBR-reading challenge, so I gave this book a try and will say it is mostly on the positive side, if you can deal with many scenes featuring children in hospitals.

Rep : aro/ace character.