As You Wake, Break the Shell [book]

Love, grief, connection and plants.

This was a really endearing story of love unfolding. Sure, it's a bit twee, but it's a nice change from doom. Solarpunk I think. It makes me smile when I read the touching moments between Cora and Signey.

There's a nice technical feature of this book that I've not encountered before. The early chapters are in the 50s, I can't remember exactly, but it might been chapter 52, then the following chapter would be 741, then we might go back to the 50s or continue in the 700s.

I've read books that jump back and forth in time, but I find it really hard to keep track, because dates have meaning - whereas the jump in chapters simply indicated we've moved in a significant amount through time. I thought this was a brilliant method.

My review is bouncing around quite a bit, but this really lived up to my expectations of a Becky Chambers book (I loved The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet). There were so many moments I found myself smiling in a way that you might observing a tiny loving moment between two people.

There's some interesting ideas brought up, specifically around what life and love is, but also in the context of plants, which did make me think a little (though I don't think that was particularly the purpose). Some of these ideas are similar to the idea that we might kill and eat a cow, but not kill and eat a cat, and the book doesn't try to explain it, but rather points to these contradictions.

Also, the way it ends definitely lends itself to a further chapter in the story. I do hope we can follow these characters more (unlike the Wayfarers series which abandoned the characters of each previous book).

I loved the story. This was a book that filled my cup.

Originally published on Remy Sharp's b:log