Toxic

by Lydia Kang

She's an illegally created girl abandoned in deep space. He's a boy on a death mission.
Created by her geneticist mother in secret, Hana’s grown up alone, cared for by the biological spaceship Cyclo. She’s never even left her room. When the entire crew flees overnight and Hana is abandoned, she realizes something is terribly, violently wrong with Cyclo.
Cyclo is the first of its kind to die, and Fenn is a young mercenary tasked with recording the dying process—but exposure to the toxic ship will kill him. The money for the death mission is the only way his sister will survive. And then he discovers Hana—a girl who’s never really had the chance to live. She’s hell-bent on saving Cyclo and her own life, but if Fenn and the ship don’t die, he can’t save his sister. They only have two weeks before Cyclo implodes—but two weeks isn't nearly enough for Hana or for the life Fenn is finally wishing he could have.

• ISBN10: 164063424X
• ISBN13: 9781640634244
• Publish Date: 1 December 2018 (first published 20 November 2018)
• Publish Status: Active
• Out of Print: 8 May 2022
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Entangled Publishing, LLC
• Format: Paperback
• Pages: 320
• Language: English

Reviews

[bookishzelda]

Toxic is definitely a type of Sci-Fi that I absolutely love. Where it has a little horror and suspense mixed into the story. The kind you can’t stop reading.

So Cyclo is a spaceship that is alive but dying. I found the whole concept of the ship absolutely fascinating and what a great idea. After the main crew evacuated an additional crew is sent to the ship in order to record Cyclo’s last moments. There are so many cool features about the ship and how it worked. I loved reading about it and picture it in my mind. Honestly I think I always picture the Enterprise and just change details but you know. It was pretty cool.

I don’t want to give anything away on the plot but it was definitely fascinating. I had my suspicions early on but it didn’t make the story any less enjoyable. I loved the suspense of what was going to happen next.

As far as the romance is concerned. I didn’t feel like I really needed it. I think the story would have been perfectly fine without out but I also think it makes sense. Especially for someone who has never lived outside a room and someone who thinks this the end of the line for them.

I think as each of the characters back stories come to light. I felt they were really interesting. It’s just a small piece of a giant universe so even though they are different races. I think you kind the main idea of everyone’s cultures.

I really enjoyed Toxic. I thought it was that perfect Sci-Fi thriller story that is fun to read.

[shannonmiz]

You can find the full review and all the fancy and/or randomness that accompanies it at It Starts at Midnight

I have read a few books about sentient spaceships, and my favorite thing about this is that it seemed like a fresh take on sentient ships. Our girl Hana wakes up to find that she's all alone. Her mom, and everyone else on the ship she lived on, are gone. Only, Hana has never been out of her family's quarters before, because oopsie, she's a secret. 

Enter Fenn and his crew, who have taken this one-way trip to Cyclo ship to find out why it is dying. Their mission is to collect all the data they can, and literally go down with the ship. In return, their families might get some money (but probably not because clearly this mission is not on the up-and-up). My one qualm with the book is that Hana acclimates to other people a little more quickly than I'd have thought. I expected a bit more awkwardness, a bit more... social inappropriateness, I suppose. But instead, she finds love in a hopeless place (sing it with me!) and at first I was skeptical because it is a little insta-lovey? But I guess it makes sense. She's never seen a human dude before, and he thinks he's about to die so... why not, right? 

It gets pretty intense as the crew races against time and a dying ship to try to save themselves. But then stuff goes.... off the rails. And that is about all I can say about that. It's definitely high stakes, I really never felt like either main character was safe- and certainly no one else was. There are lots of secrets to uncover, and mysteries to solve, and I was absolutely invested in both the characters and the story itself. 

Bottom Line: Quite an enjoyable ride with sympathetic characters and a really unique sentient ship story. Definitely recommend!