I’m so glad I was wrong about Rocky! I absolutely LOVED his and Graces relationship. It was not what I expected at all. This book made me go through the range of emotions, so caught up in wondering if Rocky was ok and wanting answers to everything. The ending was sweet too, that he goes back to being a teacher. I do wonder how Earth fared though. Still curious about what happened, but I guess we can’t have the answers to everything!
Only took 0.5 off due to some extensive science talk that at times was hard to understand.
I appreciated how we had the flashbacks to give us more context and a better understanding of Grace's character. Plus, they helped break up those long chapters, so I was all for them, lol. The highlight of the whole book was definitely Rocky! I was so happy when Grace decided to turn back and save him and his species, and I found it cute that Grace is now a teacher on Erid. I do think Watney from The Martian was more personable and entertaining as a main character, and I also like biology more than physics, so that's definitely part of why I find PHM lacking that it factor.
Overall I did enjoy this book and really appreciate all the details on Rocky/Eridians, astrophages and taumoeba!Rocky and Grace's relationship and the ending is just soooooooooooooooooo wholesome. I thought the narration style was interesting with the flashbacks that did make sense with the plot twist reveal. Stratt was so hatable but in a good way and I felt like I was there in space at some moments which gave me a bit of those anxious feels. I loved how there were parralels in the Eridians and humans, but that the differences made sense. There were definitely moments that took me out of the story when Grace did things that just seem... out of place? I also got lost a lot on all the mechanics of the ship yawing, rolling, switching between different gravities, spin drive on and off, and Grace trying to find different buttons... I'm honestly very excited to watch the movie (I hear there will be one??) and just see it visualized cuz my lil brain certainly is having a hard time processing it lol.