ARC Review: A Song of Salvation by Alechia Dow
Expected Publication: 11 July 2023
Genre: YA Science Fiction
Series: Standalone, but loosely connected to A Sound of Stars and The Kindred
Pages: 352
Rating: 5 stars
At this point, I’m convinced that Alechia Dow literally cannot write anything less than a five-star book! A million thanks to Alechia for sending me an ARC of her latest novel, A Song of Salvation, especially because I don’t know that I would have survived the wait for its publication!
This phenomenal YA SciFi novel follows Zaira, a girl who also happens to be the reincarnation of the god Indigo; Wesley, a smuggler who was shunned by his family; and Rubin, a famous podcaster. When the evil Illori try to take over the universe, the three are thrown together and tasked with saving the universe…no pressure!
Everything about this novel is absolute perfection! If you’re a person that reads books based on their tropes, all I have to say is that this novel has the best found family trope I’ve ever read, and it has a GAY grumpy-sunshine relationship, the trope we didn’t know we needed!
One thing I especially loved about this book was that it ties in Dow’s first two books, The Sound of Stars and The Kindred, but it can also be read as a standalone. The fact that we get to see so many characters from her first two books is so exciting and helps develop the universe Dow created.
Additionally, Dow does an amazing job of showing two opposing sides of human (or in this case, alien) nature. With Zaira’s character, we see the power of a god inside a seemingly ordinary girl. The fact that Zaira is neither god, nor girl, but a mixture of the two adds a sense of strength to the story and makes her identity more personal. Likewise, throughout the novel different characters showed the way pessimism and optimism play off each other, both being an important part of life.
Finally, the themes throughout the novel are extremely moving. The entire book is simultaneously lighthearted and serious. On the surface it is a fun intergalactic adventure, but when you read closely, you’ll notice that Dow weaves in questions of how we should live our lives, the way prejudice affects humanity, and the importance of history (both living with it and learning from it).
Underneath it all this story is about hope and what it means to be alive in the world. It’s about acceptance and love. Alechia Dow is so much more than an author, she is a voice that is powerful enough to change the world if we only listen to the beautiful stories she shares with us.
