Review: "Junker Seven" by Olive J. Kelley

The Breakdown:

✦✦✦✦✦ 5/5

Pacing: fast

Mood(s): adventurous, hopeful, inspiring, tense

Genre(s): science fiction, romance

TL;DR:

🚀 T4T space romance with tons of action

💥 Explicit activism and connections to (nonfiction) contemporary issues

💅 Loveable characters that grow throughout the novel

Review:

Junker Seven is described as a "romantic, queer sci-fi epic about changing the galaxy, one girl at a time," and it delivers. The main character and narrator, primarily referred to as Junker, is a freelance bounty hunter aiming to skate by as a nonbinary person in an increasingly-openly trans- and homophobic and generally bigoted society. Their foil, Juno, is a trans activist who needs to be snuck out of the planet Junker just finished a job in, leading the two of them to embark on a month-long trip out to Adrestia. This gives ample time for character development, homoerotic fight scenes, near-misses, and more that highlight why and what Juno is fighting for.

Olive Kelley, a nonbinary, disabled lesbian author, has debuted with an outstanding story of a disabled, autistic, nonbinary lesbian, in space. Taking contemporary issues of climate change, transphobia, homophobia, etc. and transporting them into the distant future shows us a glimpse into both our present and an alternative sci-fi future while maintaining a level of hope. Kelley challenges complacency, intentional or not, and highlights the intersections of marginalization and the ways people experience them, from Juno explicitly recognizing her white privilege to Junker acknowledging their privilege of an upper-middle-class upbringing before their childhood tragedy.

Every page of this book has something to further the characters and/or plot, leaving you always saying "Just one more page," even when you're in class or supposed to be going to bed or whatever else gets in the way of reading. While Junker starts with some serious flaws in this novel, they remain loveable from the start. I appreciate, as well, that Kelley doesn't insta-fix Junker - their changes come gradually and are not fully resolved by the end of the novel, because change is constant.

This is ultimately an uplifting novel but balances well with the realities of end-stage, accepted bigotry. Death is given the space it needs but doesn't drown out the hope and capacity this story's universe has for improvement. Junker Seven is the first of a duology, and I can't wait to read the next part.

Content Notes:

Kelley includes a list of content warnings on the first page:

• Transphobia, including misgendering, systemic transphobic violence, and censored deadnaming
• Police brutality
• Sexual assault (brief mention only)
• Gun violence and an attempted mass shooting
• Character death
• Child death (past)
• Sexual content
• Ableism, including internalized ableism by a disabled character

To this list, I would add:

• Graphic depictions of injury and death, including of a child
• Moderate depictions of various kinds of bigotry, both on a systemic and individual level