Moon Dust in My Hairnet By J.R. Creaden

Blurb

Moon Dust in My Hairnet is a fresh, hopeful, and diverse sci-fi romp following an autistic lunar lunch lady as she juggles relationships and threatening corporate overlords, all while adjusting to life on Lunar Trust One.

20-year-old Lane was perfectly happy living in her big sister's shadow. The great Faraday Tanner, who invented the gravdrive and inspired the movement to found the moon's first independent colony, was the unequaled voice of the post-melt generation. That is, until an unimaginable tragedy cut Faraday’s legacy short.

Wracked with survivor's guilt and desperate for her sister's utopian dream to succeed, Lane embraces her job on the moon: lunch lady—which is more than her parents think she can handle. Her boyfriend's supportive at least, when he's not drooling over one of the new recruits. Lane tries to put the past behind her, committed to enjoying her kitchen work and dating her boyfriend and his new crushes. She even participates in planning Faraday's memorial, forcing herself to grapple with monumental loss.

But when colony goods go missing and vital equipment gets tampered with, Lane can't accept the events as mere pranks, banding together with new and old friends to save their home.

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Review

*Received a copy of Moon Dust in My Hairnet through BookSirens and am leaving this review voluntarily.

I’m glad this story has a diverse range of characters. The setting was cool and I thought romantic relationships skewed towards polyamory and laid-back views about sex were interesting tidbits about how intimacy changed because of “the melt.” If I remember correctly, the melt was a series of global catastrophes that ruined countries as the climate went to hell.

What I liked about Lane at the start was her ability to speak up to her parents. She doesn’t take their crap and she’s quick to harp on how they disregard her feelings and mishandle situations. Although Lane isn’t secure about her talents and her grief for Faraday muddies her confidence even more, I appreciated Lane’s outspokenness.

I was strapped in for ten or so chapters.

It’s just when V and Lane’s relationship was progressing, Lane’s thoughts about how hot and perfect she looked weirded me out. Lane will think about V’s skin, hair, her mannerisms, even during serious moments. In one scene Lane discovers V’s parentage, which should’ve been a surprising twist, but instead, Lane’s thoughts drift to her skin, eyes, and bra straps.

*Yes, they are sitting in a tub together, basically naked. My gripe with this is that the entire conversation is about Viveca’s hard childhood, then we get a huge reveal, and in the middle of that Lane’s thinking about V’s skin and ribbon-like bra straps. Lane is aware it’s the wrong time to think about that too, but it didn’t make it less weird for me.

And a lot of moments with emotional weight didn’t hit hard. There are–what I think are supposed to be–funny moments sprinkled into serious conversations that mess with the tone. For example, Viveca pulls Lane into a talk, and as she’s getting ready to explain her ties to Faraday, someone doing yoga nearby rips a loud fart in the middle of their talk. It’s a small paragraph but it took me out of what should be an important moment.

I also felt the resolution with Lane’s parents was too forgiving… or, it was resolved quickly.

In the end, I think this story will speak to readers who like character-driven plots and will follow an MC on her journey to regain her self-confidence.

2 stars from me.