A Complicated Love Story Set in Space

Rating: really liked it

reasons to stay alive: a) Shaun's long ass book titles and b) Claire from Bon Appétit

Rating: really liked it

Shaun can write a book about ham and I'll read it.

Never stop writing. Your books makes me feel a little more alive every day.

Rating: it was amazing

Ingenious, hysterical, hilarious, and laughing out loud. Confusing, complex, and intriguing. Sad at times. SDH is back!

First of all, I want to compliment Shaun and the publisher for the trigger warnings at the beginning of the book: this is how it should be done!!! Just a minor detail to make it even better: why not put small trigger warnings in the blurb? This way, people can decide if they want to buy the book when they get triggered easily.

As I said, SDH is back! I love the way he blends his stories with Sci-Fi/paranormal (or whatever you call them) elements, continuously leaving the reader guessing if it’s real or not. I’m not a regular Sci-Fi reader, but I crave stories like this. And this begins just like an ordinary Sci-Fi story while it isn’t. But don’t expect to get an answer soon about why Noa, DJ, and Jenny end up in a spaceship. Just dive into the story and enjoy the hysteria, the fun, the fast pacing, the friendship between the three, the themes SDH explores and of course the blossoming love between Noa & DJ:
I had been born with a broken heart, and Billy had shattered the pieces into tiny fragments, but DJ seemed determined to put it back together.

This book kept me on the edge of my seat, and I laughed so many times; the story was so witty and quirky. And I had so much fun when I found out Shaun gave fellow authors a minor role! But there’s much more to this story than only fun and banter. You just need to read on and on, and please do not DNF. I know you’ll be thinking at times: Huh? What the hell? Do I have the wrong printed version? OMG what happened? And look at the chapter numbers at the same time 😂. The plot twists at the end of the story are just brilliant!

When I read SDH books, I’d like to highlight so much! Noa never has inner peace:
If there’s nothing after this, then nothing matters. And if nothing matters, then what the hell is the point of everything?

I want to say so much about this story, but I can’t without giving too much away. When I read a book I like, I start googling in between, and look what I found on Shaun’s Twitter:
‘Maybe I can tell more of Noa, DJ, and Jenny’s story someday.’ So, Shaun, will you write a sequel??

Rating: it was amazing

Hutchinson is truly the only person who can write the perfect scifi-realism blend that he does, and with every book he knocks it out of the park. His latest novel, aptly nicknamed "Gays in Space", completely blew me out of the water and into the void of the cosmos. Three teenagers (and a holographic celebrity guide) are alone on a space ship with no idea how they got there-- our narrator Noa only remembers the awful day he had on Earth before waking up to his new life on board the Qriosity. What may at first seem like a typical space story gradually morphs into something far more mindblowing and intricate that I don't want to spoil. Shaun, you've done it again! A Complicated Love Story Set in Space is truly a masterfully executed voyage of true love that spans beyond memory and reality.

Rating: liked it

Although I enjoyed the premise of this one it kind of lost me halfway through. A Complicated Love Story Set in Space follows Noa, an American teenager, who one day just opens his eyes to find himself in space. On the spaceship, named Qriosity, with him are two other teens, DJ and Jenny. I thought that this would be more a mystery, possibly even a murder mystery, but the story is more intent on exploring Noa's state of mind. Not knowing why they woke up in this empty spaceship and what will happen to them Noa, DJ, and Jenny all find different ways of occupying themselves. Noa himself understandably does not cope well with the situation. As he spirals into depression he finds comfort in the presence of DJ. Alas, DJ's kindness and selflessness are also a source of discomfort to Noa who after a particularly bad relationship (his ex is a real piece of merda) does not trust others easily.

The action sort of picks up towards the end but prior to that there are many weird events that felt rather superficially explored. A few interesting threads (the murder, the alien) have little to no impact and a lot of the 'action' happens off-page.
The 'truth' behind the Qriosity and our characters' circumstances left me a wee bit disappointed. While I do appreciate the author's message it just didn't work for me. The few answers we get are rushed and I was left wanting a more in-depth explanation. The story is, as the title suggests, a love story. The relationship between Noa and DJ, although certainly sweet, wasn't particularly 'complex'. Perhaps this is because the characters themselves weren't very layered. Noa is kind of typical. His angst and selfishness, however, understandable given the situation he was in and his past, were a source of frustration. While I recognize that DJ and Jenny call him out on his behavior, his actions and thoughts were still irritating. It would have been nice to have DJ's or Jenny's pov as they end up being very one dimensional. Jenny is the classic female secondary character who appears in YA m/m romances. She's strong-willed and a feminist...and that's about it.
Still, why this novel did not hit me in 'the feels' like Hutchinson 's At the Edge of the Universe, I am sure that YA aficionados will find it more A Complicated Love Story Set in Space more rewarding than I did.

Rating: really liked it

Thank you netgalley and Simon and Schuster for providing an ARC of A Complicated Love story set in Space by Shaun David Hutchinson for an honest review.

This book had everything. Action, mystery, love and friendship. It even caught me off guard and went in a place I never seen coming and things happen that I never seen coming. Shaun David Hutchinson is a wonderful writer with wonderful stories. This story is diffently one I would have to reread to catch the things I've missed or to see how I missed what was going to happen.

Rating: really liked it

hell yeah

Rating: really liked it

i will always love Shaun for giving me this gay space love story.

Rating: really liked it

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

This is a such a quirky but emotional book, all while still being adventurous and entertaining! Noa wakes up in space, with no idea how he got there. We, the reader, also have no idea why Noa is in space. Seems sketchy, right? Well, it is. Especially since one of the first things he finds himself tasked with is saving it from exploding. Soon, he finds DJ, who talks him through the whole "not blowing up thing", and things get... more bananas from there, really.

What I Loved:

►Oh this was just fun. The other spaceshipmate, Jenny, is so beyond funny. But DJ and Noa also have their own brands of humor that are delightful. Basically, if you have to be trapped in space, this is the trio you'd like to accompany you. There's also a wacky AI named Jenny Perez (and yes, that confused me a bit but alas) who was so completely glib and infuriating to the characters that I could not help but enjoy her because of it. She was apparently a failed actress at some point, and the only entertainment on board was starring or made by... you guessed it, Jenny Perez. Cracked me up, frankly.

►I was so confused! I mean- this probably will go in the negatives section a wee bit too, but as a reader, we're clearly supposed to be confused. Noa is lost, and as such, so are we! I liked it in the sense that it was definitely a trip- and the more we learned, the more we realized we had no idea, same as Noa. I appreciated that approach.

►The relationships of the characters were really compelling. Obviously, they're stuck on this ship together trying to figure out how to get home, they're probably going to become important to each other. DJ and Noa of course fall in love. Jenny is a great friend to them both. But tugging at Noa's brain is his memories of his past relationship, which was incredibly troubling and horrific. I don't want to go into too much detail in a review for fear of spoiling other aspects, but be aware that there is talk of past sexual violence.

►Tons of great commentary throughout the book. Again, I don't want to give much away, and a lot of the points I'd love to discuss I worry would spoil stuff as they happen later in the book, but just be aware that it is there, so you look for it!

►It's a great mix of action and character development, of fun and seriousness. The bits of humor and general wackiness are fabulous, but the book is also really heartfelt and emotive, so you really get the best of both worlds.

What I Didn't:

►Back to the confusing bits! So again, this isn't anything terrible, I just thought the ending was kind of quick- in fact, I wondered if there was a possibility of a sequel because of it (from what I can tell, there doesn't seem to be). For such a complex story (and one in which bits are revealed piece by piece), I wanted a little more closure, perhaps. But that could also just be a "me" thing, so take it for what it's worth.

Bottom Line:  A perfect balance between fun and emotive, I was hooked on finding out both why the characters were in space, and what would happen to them next.

Rating: it was amazing

This book proved to me that if I just trust my instincts and pick the most out-there, bizarre, messed up story, I will be rewarded with a book so gripping I sat down and read two thirds of it in one go. And this book is nearly 500 pages long.

My favourite style of Doctor Who story is what I call the 'Flat Pack Spaceship', where the Doctor and companion/s find a spaceship, and extremely strange goings on to solve. This follows the same idea, swapping the Doctor out for a gay teenager.

This book kept me guessing, trying to work out how Noa, DJ and Jenny ended up travelling from Earth to suddenly appear on a space ship, and I doubt anyone could guess what was going on. It just seemed to get crazier and crazier and I was fully on board for the ride.

Combining dark humour, unpredictable events around every corner, an annoyingly perky hologram and more Nutreesh bars that a space ship should be able to hold, this story questions what makes us human, with a romance that broke my heart over and over.

Rating: liked it

2.5 perhaps?

I don't know how to feel about this book. The mystery had me SUPER DUPER HOOKED but sometimes the writing felt kind of... amateurish? Or not amateurish but idk, off. The characters would process things too fast, for example, making things feel inauthentic. It's hard to explain. :/ Noa, the narrator, was irritating, too. Thankfully he got better as the book progressed but dang, I nearly dnf-ed the book several times because of him. OTL.

Rating: really liked it

can't wait for shaun to save my gay life with his very specific brand of sci-fi stories Yet Again !!

Rating: it was amazing

One of the funniest, scariest, romantic, surprising, adorable, and most heartbreakingly, breathtakingly beautiful books I have ever read in my entire life.

It combined my guilty pleasure genre, romance, and my love and wonderment of space, with LGBTQ+ characters. The romance did not overshadow the main storyline, and it wasn’t the main storyline. And the plot was endearing and mysterious. The romance was adorable and I would literally give anything to have the relationship that DJ and Noa have.

I want to next mention the trigger warning at the beginning of the book. And although I am fortunate enough to not have been affected by that scene, I was entirely grateful for that warning, just so I was aware that it had happened.

The structure was immaculate. There was a point where I had to double check to make sure I didn’t have a damaged copy (I didn’t) or that it was printed wrong (it wasn’t).

It was wonderfully written, the words just flew off the page like a spaceship (bad metaphor, sorry!). It was quirky, different, and utterly real, despite the unreal aspect of being in a floating spaceship and the technologies that come with that. The story was real, the characters felt real, the relationship was real. It was flirtatious, had me rooting for DJ and Noa from the start. But it was real, it was a perfect example of healthy, trusting, and loving relationship, more or less.

I can talk about this one for hours and hours on end. Hutchinson is an author you need to add to your shelves, and this is one you need to start with.

Read it. Read it right the *bleep* now.

Rating: really liked it

SHAUN I SEE

SHAUN I WANT

Rating: really liked it

[For some reason I expected for the kids to return to earth, back to their lives and their parents and somehow work out the long distance situation. The fact that they didn't return to earth at all left me a little disappointed, not gonna lie. But that ending? it wasn't hor