Earthlings

Earthlings came highly recommended to me on vegan Twitter and, having now read this insightful dystopian fantasy for myself, I can completely see why. It's brilliant! From meeting homicidally deranged chicken, Alan, out for revenge on behalf of all chickenkind, in the very first chapter, I was hooked and my only real disappointment in the whole of Earthlings was that I read it far too quickly meaning that I had to depart from Peridot's world long before I wanted to. On that note, Earthlings does finish on somewhat of a cliffhanger which is normally one of my pet hates, but I've spotted that its sequel, Dominion, will be published in mid-November so I am excited that I don't have to wait too long to continue this adventure.

I particularly appreciated how Star portrays Peridot's fraught relationship with her overprotective mother. Although Peridot's circumstances are far from anything I can imagine experiencing myself, her teenage yearning for greater freedom and to no longer be thought of as a child is something I think most of us can easily identify with. As an older reader, I could also empathise with Vallaeartha's need to keep her daughter safe although it did soon become apparent that raising Peridot in complete ignorance of the outside world, and of her own powers, was going to spectacularly backfire

Star's clever, thoughtful world-building gives Earthlings such strong roots to grow from that, to me, the whole novel demonstrated a greater depth than I have come to expect from coming-of-age fantasy adventures. Viewing aspects of our present-day world in reverse shows just how bizarre much of what we consider 'normal' actually is so I think Earthlings will encourage its readers to question their own preconceptions.

Alongside that depth though, Earthlings is also quite simply a cracking good read. Star knows just when to switch pace and how to crank up the tension so I was glued to the pages pretty much continuously. There's strong characters to root for, good dialogue, and a well-planned narrative that felt plausible but still kept me guessing. I'm so glad to have discovered this series!