Toxic

By: Lydia Kang

Narrated by: Vikas Adam, Amanda Ronconi

Hana isn't supposed to exist. She's grown up hidden by her mother in a secret room of the bioship Cyclo until the day her mother is simply gone - along with the entire crew. Cyclo tells her she was abandoned, but she's certain her mother wouldn't leave her there to die. And Hana isn't ready to die yet. She's never really had a chance to live.

Fenn is supposed to die. He and a crew of hired mercenaries are there to monitor Cyclo as she expires, and the payment for the suicide mission will mean Fenn's sister is able to live. But when he meets Hana, he's not sure how to save them both.

As Cyclo grows sicker by the day, they unearth more secrets about the ship and the crew. But the more time they spend together, the more Hana and Fenn realize falling for each other is what could ultimately kill them both.

©2018 Lydia Kang (P)2018 Tantor

Aptly titled Toxic delivers thrills N chills

As I listened, my mind kept humming The Cure’s Tainted Love:
Once I ran to you
Now I run from you
This tainted love you give
I give you all a [girl] could give you

“What must it be like … to be a bee who has lived in only one hexagonal shell?”
Hard sci-fi meets YA romance then turns towards horror in this genre mashing book. There’s no cussing and only fade to black sex, but the violence gets appropriately gory once the gloves come off and the reality of the situation sinks in.

“We are ash and stars”
There were a lot of science concepts thrown down, not to mention some fascinating world building and references to a character with blue skin or with giraffe legs. On the one hand, I’d have loved a deeper dive, but on the other, good sci-fi is tactically vague, making you think. I loved the idea of sentient ships and the various questions of what it means to live. It was a bit of a slow burn and the characters weren’t quite developed enough for me to get invested in them. Overall, however, this was an entertaining listen with a fascinatingly toxic vibe.

I just love Lydia Kang

How the fudge does Ms.Kang write so many great books? I hope she continues to write for a very long time because every time I need to shut off my real life and get my stuff in order again, I pop on one of her audiobooks and tell myself "I'm not done until Lydia is done telling this story" and I just put my whole house/garden/laundry pile monster in order. I feel so productive. I could do that with any audiobook but many of them I totally tune out for sections then I have to go back and re-listen. This is not the case with Kang's books. I'm totally engaged the whole time.

Bioships!!!?!?!? SO COOL

Love it love it love it. THANK YOU!!!!!! HOPING FOR A SERIES!! I am in love with Hana, Cyclo, and Phen. What an interesting story! And told from 2 different points of view!"

Same Bones, Different Characters

I was excited to see that this was available on the Plus Catalog after listening to "The November Girl", which I absolutely loved.
Unfortunately, this book has the same structure as The November Girl. The nieve, sheltered girl, the troubled young man, the overprotective mother figure, falling in love and overcoming impossible odds.
It quickly became VERY predictable. It's great, as long as you haven't or don't listen to The November Girl.

Technically Interesting But Boring

The narration was, of course, wonderful. The ideas were interesting, the writing proficient, the characters likable. I wanted to like this book, but something was always lacking. Ultimately, it was just kind of boring—not compelling.