Review: Pastel Pink by Nikki Minty
Massive thank you to BooksGoSocial and NetGalley for providing me with a free ARC in exchange for an honest review.
I adored this book - it had everything you could truly need from a YA sci-fi/fantasy novel. And isn’t the cover just stunning? Pastel pink follows Harlow, a reincarnated Pastel Zeek living on Zadok, who was previously murdered on Earth as Ruby, a human. It follows her life in both of these locations - and how they intertwine. The book starts straight into the action - with a graphic depiction of Ruby's murder in the human world, which hooks you into the story straight away.
First of all, I loved the reincarnation aspect, I'm fairly sure I've never read a book which has quite done it justice? But this certainly did! It was so easy to tell between Harlow's chapters and Ruby's chapters, as they had such different storylines and 'personalities' (even though it's technically the same person).
One of my favourite aspects was the world building; Nikki Minty did a fantastic job at developing a complex new world. Zadok is a planet which has 4 unique 'realms' based on the seasons, with different races and kingdoms. Each of these, especially the one based on Winter, where Harlow lives, are based on a hierarchical caste systems by skin colour, which dictates their 'place' in society (i.e., where they can work and who they can form relationships with). I appreciated this aspect as it seemed to reflect, and be a critique of racism in society (which is an especially relevant topic of discussion in current society). However, I do wish some of the other kingdoms were explored a little bit more, but I can see why they were not, as the book would have potentially been too long (hopefully the next books do so!)
The only small issue I had was with some of the side characters and love interests, I found some of them to just be annoying and unnecessary - and to be honest it was quite hard to figure out whether they were supposed to be unlikeable? However, some of the other characters, such as Jax, who I loved, definitely made up for this - I would protect this man with all of my being.
The ending is painful. It ends on a true cliffhanger, right after an extremely dramatic event, which just left me needing the second book in the series now (which is released in July btw, woohoo! I'll be keeping my eye out for that).
I would definitely recommend this book to any sci-fi and fantasy fans. I think fans of Marissa Meyer and the Lunar Chronicles would especially love this book (and series!).
If you've read this, let me know what you think in the comments!
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