Audiobook Review – Moon Dust in My Hairnet by JR Creaden, Narrated by Sarah Kisko (4/5 stars)

Reading Level: Adult
Genre: Science Fiction
Length: 11 hours and 39 minutes
Publisher:‎ Mythic Roads Press
Release Date: April 19, 2024
ASIN: B0D14YY6F8
Stand Alone or Series: Stand Alone
Source: Audiobook for Review from NetGalley
Rating: 4/5 stars

“20-year-old Lane was perfectly happy living in her big sister’s shadow. The great Faraday Tanner, who invented the gravdrive and inspired the movement to found the moon’s first independent colony, was the unequaled voice of the post-melt generation. That is, until an unimaginable tragedy cut Faraday’s legacy short.

Wracked with survivor’s guilt and desperate for her sister’s utopian dream to succeed, Lane embraces her job on the moon: lunch lady—which is more than her parents think she can handle. Her boyfriend’s supportive at least, when he’s not drooling over one of the new recruits. Lane tries to put the past behind her, committed to enjoying her kitchen work and dating her boyfriend and their new crushes. She even participates in planning Faraday’s memorial, forcing herself to grapple with monumental loss.

But when colony goods go missing and vital equipment gets tampered with, Lane can’t accept the events as mere pranks, banding together with new and old friends to save their home.”

Series Info/Source: This is a stand alone book. I got this on audiobook to review through NetGalley.

Thoughts: For the most part, I enjoyed this. I did start to find Lane’s survivor guilt a bit overwhelming to the story and struggled with the immature way her parents were dealing with this. The story is slow in the beginning and then incredibly fast (almost overwhelmingly so) in the ending.

Lane is the younger sister of the great Faraday Tanner, who invented the gravdrive in her teen years and went on to become not only the founder of the moon’s first independent colony but the voice of peace and innovation for a whole generation. When Faraday is killed in an attack that Lane survives, Lane is left to deal with the guilt of her survival and the world’s disappointment that the “other” sister survived. Lane is autistic and her parents had to force a spot on the colony for her where she works as a lunch lady. Lane desperately wants to be involved with the Memorial for her sister but when strange “pranks” start happening in the colony her and some of her friends decide they need to do some investigating to help.

There were a lot of things I enjoyed about this book. I loved the idea of the open relationships these young adults are forming and how supportive they are of each other. I loved the idea of a moon colony where people go to escape corporate overlords and start a new collective way of life. I also really enjoyed a lot of the characters and the descriptions of life on the moon. I like how open everyone is about mental health and how they accommodate each other in suppotive ways.

There were a lot of things I didn’t like about this as well. There is a theme of the younger generation just assuming the older generation is stupid and not worth dealing with. Lane’s parents are portrayed as always attacking Lane and she attacks back just as aggressively; this was in contrast to what this community was meant to be. Same with how far under her sister’s shadow Lane continues to be. Also, the fact that Lane hasn’t under gone any counseling in the time since her sister’s death when the community is so open about mental health issues is weird. Then there were all the deep secrets everyone had from each other which again seemed opposite of what this community stands for. There were a lot of contradictions.

I also felt like we spend a bit too much time in Lane’s head with her angsting over one thing or another; it starts to feel repetitive and gets in the way of the overall story. I did enjoy how everything wrapped up but thought in some ways it didn’t feel very realistic. The “evil” guy in this book is supposed to be super smart and manipulative and to have him suddenly trust someone he’s been estranged from for years felt odd and unbelievable and just way too convenient.

I listened to this on audiobook and the narration was very well done; I have no complaints. I would definitely recommend listening to this if you enjoy audiobooks.

My Summary (4/5): Overall I liked this but didn’t love it. Some of the things in here are very cool; I loved the community formed on the moon and the openness around relationships and mental health. Other things were inconsistent. I also think we spent way too much time rehashing the main character’s internal thoughts and that the ending was unbelievable. I am on the fence about whether or not I will read more books by Creaden.