My review of Dreams Bigger than Heartbreak (Book 2 of Unstoppable) by Charlie Jane Anders
YA novel (e-book and audiobook), Science Fiction, Adventure, LGBQTA+
5 of 5 (heck yes!)
I loved how all the characters interact with each other. Everyone’s dealing with all their hang-ups and everything and it’s not always easy for them to talk with each other, but I love how they always try to manage to work through the issues as best they can. The characters and the worlds they inhabit are so beautifully realized. I had as much with this book as with the first one. Keep in mind, this is definitely a middle book—you better have read the first one if you’re reading this, and it’s certainly a setup for what comes next. But I really enjoyed seeing these characters grow after what they went through in the first book.
I also enjoyed how, despite being full of positivity and awareness of how to better engage with each other, the book didn’t shy away from the reality of people being ugly or misused—there’s definitely some of that for the characters to deal with in this book (and in whatever comes next).
Regarding the audiobook: the narrators were clear and excellent choices for each character. That said, I would not recommend experiencing this book as audio only. There’s a lot going on and a ton of places and characters and details, so personally I had to review what I listened to in my ebook version of the book. I’ll probably get the hardback later on to pair with my hardback version of the first book.
As for the cover art, beautiful. I'm a huge fan of the cover art for the first book, so I was glad to see a nice follow-up. The hardcover of the first book had some amazing inside cover art as well, but unfortunately I haven't been able to inspect the hardcover of book 2 yet, but I would hope for more of that.
Oh, and thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan-Tor/Forge for providing me with the ebook for review. I ended up reviewing this late, so, as an audiobook fan, I bought myself the audio version, too, before wrapping up my first read and review. Now I'm impatient for Book 3 of the Unstoppable.
External links to the review
Goodreads: https://bit.ly/3jF7Pua
Twitter: https://bit.ly/3xHZdLR
Audible: https://adbl.co/3KKKnri
