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Eek, sorry I'm late in adding this discussion topic. I didn't have multiple choices for the book club this month, because I was real excited about Inheritance being released, and Malinda is also being rad and answering any questions we have for her. So if you have any, post them here and I'll send them her way later in the month. But how did you feel about this sequel? What did you think about the ending? I'd also love to hear thoughts about the novella that's also available, Natural Selection, if anyone has read that.

** spoiler alert ** SPOILERS!

I wanted so badly to like this book... I really liked Adaptation , and I was eager to find out how the story ended. Inheritance delivered on finishing up the plot points nicely, but the pacing felt off, as did the characters.

Much of this book was dedicated to describing how attracted Reese is to David. I know I'm biased because I was more interested in Reese being with Amber, but even beyond that, the endless descriptions of the "warmth in [Reese's] stomach" when she touched David got really, REALLY old for me. Perhaps Lo did this because the first book was more about her attraction to Amber? And she had to make Reese's bisexuality and eventual polyamory believable? It actually served the opposite purpose, in my opinion. Reese deciding to date both David and Amber seemed rather odd after we spent the whole book reading about how into David she was. How amazing he is. How perfect. And yeah, and here's Amber, and she's okay too. It was a total after-thought, and it made it so the polyamorous relationship seemed completely unbelievable.

I also feel like I never really got a sense of Reese as a character. I feel like I know David the best, then Amber, and last of all Reese. I even feel like we got a better picture of Julian than we did of the main character! So much of the book was spent describing David and Reese's feelings for him, and I felt like that really took away from the time that should have been used to develop Reese's character so we could really see her growth and progress from the awkward, shy girl from the start of Adaptation who would never date anyone to the possibly-homicidal bisexual Imrian/human hybrid in a polyamorous relationship in outer space.

And while we're on the topic of possible homicide... so yeah... Reese and David likely each killed a guy. No fall-out from that? It felt like I was watching an episode of Pretty Little Liars for a moment!

Overall, I think Lo is a wonderful writer (I've loved her other books), but this one fell short for me. It felt like it couldn't pick a focus, and the piece as a whole suffered for it.

First of all, I did not make the mistake as in previous months and jumped to read this book without having read Adaptation first. Once I finished that one I was really excited to read Inheritance and clear up so many of the questions that popped up on the first book.

However, Inheritance felt all wrong. Like it had left so much of what had made Adaptation a great book behind. The pace was not that great, it felt really repetitive and not really providing answers and the ones it provided were farfetched at best, and come on, this is science fiction where farfetched is a plus. I still liked the story and would like to read more by Lo, but this was not her best work.

Now going to Reese, I got tired of reading about how all the rest of the people, mainly David felt. Again, repetitive for me. It also made me sort of angry that Lo would put the main character into such stereotype. I warn the following is a SPOILER but making Reese bisexual was really cool, making her incapable of making up her mind on who to date was stereotype. I spend a bit of time working to educate people about gender diversity and see this reflected in such a way just felt wrong.

In any case, I would recommend the book but as long as you read it as part of the series and not as a stand alone.

SPOILERS!

Johanna, I totally agree that Reese not being able to decide between Amber and David is really problematic. I think Lo was too eager to put a political defense of polyamory in there that it actually obscured the issue she introduced. Actually, there are a number of things in the book that just read like Lo tossing in political rants rather than actually serving as plot points. I found it to be distracting.

And I just want to say that I am not condemning polyamory in any way. If it works for you, I say good on ya. But in this book, with these characters, it just didn't seem to make sense to me.

Man, all your comments have been really interesting so far! I hear you about the pacing. I feel like Adaptation started out at such a fast pace, only slowing down a little for Reese and Amber's relationship to develop. And since so much happened at the end of Adaptation, I was a little disappointed when the pacing of the beginning of Inheritance was much slower. But after a while I accepted that she just wanted to really dig into the history/explanation of things before a lot of the action took place, and it worked for me.

I also wanted a lot more Amber in this (which is partially why I'm still interested in reading Natural Selection). Maybe Lo felt she had to include so much David to convince us that Reese really did feel strongly about him, since so much of the passion in Adaptation was focused around Amber. But I totally get if the bisexual polyamory thing wasn't well enough executed for a lot of people. For me, I was just so shocked/excited at the end because I don't know if I've ever seen that before in a YA book. I feel like it was a bold move, and one that I appreciated Lo making.

I'm not good at writing this stuff up, that's why I read, not write, but what hurt me the most wasn't the Amber-Reese-David relationship. Yes, it's weird that you would choose a character and make her bisexual AND poliamorous without any concern for stereotypes, but if that's the way she feels she wants to go then is cool.
What I lacked the most on this book was actually resolving the action. So how was the Goverment stealing DNA and how come Plato and Blue Base are right next to each other and no one knew or did something about it? How come the Imria almost get killed when we know they have better tech and could have seen it coming? And most of all, you are been trailed by Men in Black, the Imria, people trying to kill u, who knows how many US Agencies and you still chat on your cell phone as if nothing happened? Did she get her script from PPL?. I still will read her next one though ; )

Jill, I hear what you're saying about Lo making a different choice for her ending. Perhaps it was because I had already read Natural Selection, which makes some pretty obvious hints about Imrian polyamorousness, but I saw the whole triangle coming almost immediately. I just wish it had been done in a less stereotypical, unbelievable way.

Johanna, you make a lot of good points about the holes in the plot. If she hadn't spent so much time with the Reese/David stuff, Lo would have had the space to do her plot justice. This is sort of what I was trying to get at when I talked about the lack of focus and pacing issues.

SPOILERS!

Am I alone? I loved it! Just finished and am floored by the queer poly-positivity. I can't overstate how important this is -- not just in YA, but in any fiction, at all. How many non-erotica books can you name with a queer poly protagonist, much less one with a poly-positive portrayal? Beats the shit out of the abusive lesbian triad in Kathleen Bryson's Mush.

Obviously there is a lot more to comment on in Inheritance, but if I may: Something has to be portrayed many times to become a stereotype. Do stories about bisexual people "stereotypically" depict them in multiple consensual relationships in which everyone is communicating and happy? Absolutely not. They stereotypically depict bisexuals as dishonest and unsatisfied, making their partners miserable. Inheritance's portrayal is not stereotypical. It's revolutionary.

I'm a bit surprised that most people preferred Adaptation but also not. For whatever reason, it's often the case that the "first" of something is the favorite among books, movies, and TV, but it's usually not my favorite. I found Adaptation evocative, to be sure -- I even recreated Reese's painting of the chamber -- but I found this one more satisfying, probably because it contained so many answers. I liked the twist that humans descended from Imria and didn't see it coming. The descriptions were super vivid. I felt that this book did a better job than Adaptation of balancing the sci-fi elements with the human interest elements, in regards to friendships and familial ties in addition to romance. It did start out a bit slow, but after the first 1/3 or so, I couldn't stop reading. And I loved the ending. Kurra ahoy! There doesn't need to be another full book about these characters, but if there is, I'll be excited for it. I'm reading Natural Selection next.

Here's a question for Malinda Lo: Is Daniela Torres an homage to Gina Torres, particularly her character in Firefly? They seem to look and act fairly similar. If so, cool, and know that some nerds spotted it! ;)

I liked Natural Selection as well. Good short story, and it stands fine on its own. For some reason, I'd heard it was about the same events as Adaptation, but I'm glad it wasn't. The imagery was especially beautiful. The only part that puzzled me was the last line. If I were reading the short story on its own, it might've worked ("Everything changes!"), but since I know that Amber does stay blonde, I felt like I missed something.

Courtesy **SPOILER ALERT**, but if you've reached this far you've practically spoiled the whole book anyway :)

I loved this book. I had trouble reading the first half because didn't have enough time for reading but after I reached the first 50% today I literally couldn't put the book down, so I dropped everything and from 9pm to 1:30am there was only me and this book.

I read comments about the pacing of the book, I can't say I didn't like the pacing, specially after starting Inheritance right after I finished Adaptation, it didn't feel like a sequel, it just felt like a "Chapter 2".

But it was weird to watch Reese go from "I don't want to date anyone ever" to "I want to date you both" in what, 6 months? That was fast.

Also, bisexuality = polyamory? Couldn't she just be bisexual and leave it at that? I personally didn't like the polyamory angle. She could have saved those paragraphs where Amber was trying to sell Reese on the idea of dating them both and used those paragraphs to add more geekiness to the story, which I know it had it's fair share (loved the "He Han Solo'd you"), but you can never have too much geekiness in my opinion. Also, I think Amber should consider a career in politics or marketing, she convinced David to give the polyamory thing a go while they were kidnaped and running for their lives? Now that's some skill. I want her on my sales team.

To Johanna: I thought the same thing about the cell phones, even yelled at my Kindle a few times "DON'T DO THAT OVER THE PHONE!!!". So the government can bug your home but can't tap your cellphones? Right...

About how the government was stealing DNA and how come the Imria didn't stop this, we could say that the Imria was peaceful to the point of being naive? They're not violent apparently. I don't know, just trying to make sense of the thing.

I really loved it, I had to read both Adaptation and Inheritance in a short amount of time just to be able to participate in this conversation, read Ash and Huntress a few weeks before, so it has been a Malinda Lo marathon, and all 4 books have kept me up late at night to finish them. I can't wait for ther next book :)

I did enjoy this book enough to keep me interested. I agree the pace was much different than Adaptation and was a little to get used to. I appreciated that Lo took a lot of time in this book to develop the plot and twists involving the Imiria, government, and history of humanity. Although, it did sometimes feel very tedious and cumbersome. Especially when the kidnapping plots and rival secret organizations came in to play. And I found myself annoyed that in the middle of all of this, Reese and David were concerned about finishing their homework. But overall it was a good continuation of the initial story.
The big issue, I suppose, given the nature of this book club, is the bisexual and polyamory plots. I did enjoy that Reese didn't seem overly concerned with the fact she was bisexual, until she worried about what other people would think or say. Which, I believe, is a very true, human response when you realize that you are gay or bisexual. Unfortunately, our society is still very rigid about definitions and confining us in boxes. I like how Lo used the Imiria culture here to acknowledge that it doesn't always have to be like that. An entire society can exist with a very blurred concept of sexuality and identity.
The polyamory I had more trouble with. Reese, David, and Amber threw the word "love" around a lot. And of course throughout literature the most passionate are the youth; the teenagers. But it seemed to me that polyamory is really too complicated a institution to have brought up in the middle of this already complicated novel. I think I would have been more comfortable if Reese just acknowledged she felt something for both Amber and David and decided to casually date them both. I did not like Lo taking it to the level of giving us a pc lecture on polyamory and then have her teenagers decide to play it out.
However, overall I think it is a great YA book with a strong female, bisexual protagonist. Reese does have her flaws, but she seems to find her strength when needed. The book does present bisexuality in a positive way, mostly, and I appreciate that a novel like this does exist, especially one targeted to young adults. It gives me a bit of hope for our future, sans any alien technology.