Yoss

This was a difficult book to rate since it's essentially a book of short stories. I was prepared to give this a low rating when I started, but I ended up enjoying the later stories far more. It starts off with alien sex and performative death, but later we get stories like people trying to escape earth undetected. I actually had to put the book down for a while after Performing Death - by far the most disturbing story in this collection (think a man disassembling himself with nanobots, starting in a weirdly sexual way) because I hated what happened in it. I'm glad I picked it after again because I enjoyed the later stories so much more. (If you hate often misogynistic inter-species alien sex and performative death I would honestly skip to the first story after this one because that's where I actually started enjoying this collection). Both my favourite stories were very close to the end, so it might worth pushing on a bit if you like the concept (maybe skipping chapters since it's not exactly a cohesive story) if you aren't enjoying yourself at the start - the plots becomes more diverse as the book continues (including a sports game that involves spine repair for the constant injuries, people who search through trash to find usable items and building a disguised ship to try leave earth).

While I may be critical of some of the stories Yoss decided to write, I did love the earth he wrote about. I know some other readers have been critical of it, but I can see this kind of scenario being all too believable should an advanced race find us. While I am not all that familiar with it, it is apparently based on Cuba's history. I can definitely recognise elements of how first world countries colonised poorer nations in general and the current dynamics between rich and poor countries in how the xenoids treat humans - basically cheap entertainment while making sure not to lose their power/wealth privilege (please note that this is not talking about individual people but rather the system in this comparison). As to whether I'd recommend this book? I honestly have no idea... I guess if someone asked if they should read it I'd suggest they just move onto the next chapter whenever things get too disturbing and see how it goes from there. While I'm definitely glad that I read this, there are certain parts I could really have done without.… (mer)