Me on Tin Star

Title: Tin Star
Author: Cecil Castellucci
Release Date: February 25, 2014
Publisher: Roaring Brook Press (Macmillan imprint)

Beaten and left for dead, Tula finds herself abandoned on a remote space station with aliens she must work to understand. One of the aliens, Heckleck, saves her and teaches her the ways of life on the space station. When three humans crash land onto the station, Tula's desire for escape becomes irresistible, and her desire for companionship becomes unavoidable. But just as Tula begins to concoct a plan to get off the space station and kill Brother Blue, everything goes awry, and suddenly romance is the farthest thing from her mind.

Tin Star is a story of survival and strength. What does it mean to be human? What will it take to survive, to keep on living when you have nothing? In the depths of outer space, on a station filled with different aliens and you're the only human, who will you give your trust to?

Tula was abandoned and beaten by someone she thought she could trust. Now, alone and forgotten, she's left to somehow survive on a space station where she's the only Human, a species that most aliens couldn't care less about. Trapped in a bleak situation, Tula somehow finds the strength to come back, to keep on living when most would give up and waste away. She does what she must over the years, but as much as the aliens on Yertina Feray have helped her to survive, she has one mission she cannot ignore. She must find Brother Blue and kill him for what he did to her.

After spending years on the station without any human contact, with only different aliens and their customs, habits, and rituals, her world tilts once more when Humans appear in her life again. But the differences between them are so distinctive. What does that make Tula? Is she still Human? Or is she more alien now?

For Tula, alone and not cared about, survival is crucial. She doesn't know anyone on the station, she can't find anyone willing to take her back to Earth or to her family for no money. She has nothing. But she's not willing to give up. Perhaps an alien or two help her out in the beginning, but it's her decision to continue on trading and pushing to survive on the lower decks. It's the hidden strength inside her that keeps her alive.

This is such a curious book. The space station was a rather interesting setting, but I never felt trapped or enclosed. Perhaps it was the vast openness of space that the station sits in, slowly orbiting a dead planet. I was so enthralled with Tula's journey, with her sort of coming of age, with her growth as a character. She starts off alone, afraid, and angry. I'm so glad that there will be a second book, but I'm not looking forward to the wait.

(I received an advance copy of this title from Raincoast Books.)