Skipshock

I wish I could make a new cozy home inside Caroline O’Donoghue’s Brain

Every time Caroline O’Donoghue writes a new book, I am overcome with excitement and also dread – what if this book isn’t on the same level of mind-blowing brilliance as her previous books that make me wish I could live inside Caroline’s brain and frolic amongst the whimsy. She makes magical books that I simultaneously dread finishing, but can’t stand to put down.

But no fear! Skipshock was mind-blowing and brilliant, and I still wish I could make a new cozy home inside Caroline’s brain. I was so excited for her first adult fantasy book! I am so skeptical of space opera sci-fi (I will never read Dune), but I was so sure Caroline would pull through for me, and I was right. In an Instagram story, Caroline called the vibe of Skipshock “employment depression,” which had me even more pumped. The employment depression was so palpable – I have had jobs that felt exactly like Moon’s relationship with being a salesman. Perhaps not the bit where days in different worlds only last 6 hours, but definitely the parts where the job was making my body fall apart and living in an increasing dystopia. This fictional dystopia might feature space trains, but we all know the consequences of violent border maintenance in our own IRL dystopia.

Skipshock is not a long book, but Moon and Margo undergo so much character development (and without it feeling rushed). Moon is understandably apathetic and powerless in the face of the sweeping authoritarian regime that has bulldozed the universe and brutally cut off means of travel. Margo catalyzes his action, but is not the cause of it (no damsel in distress sexy lamp nonsense here!). She also needs a catalyst, as she is antsy about action, but has not found her direction yet. Moon’s universe gives her something concrete to focus on while she also figures out the more abstract specter of her insular childhood and secretive family. Moon and Margo are a team, not saviors.

“Things changed. They can change again.”

There is a lot of action, but it does not fall into the Marvel trap of showing three hours of explosions to cover up that there is no real plot. Their fight is so high stakes, but it brings them into contact with many interesting people engaged in different parts of the resistance. The resistance movement is already a fully-fledged organization operating for years, and Margo and Moon work to understand its internal workings and hierarchies while adding their input. They are not presented as independent saviors, and thankfully, do not try to insert themselves as self-important CEOs of performative liberation.