I picked this up because I am a big fan of Lindsay Ellis's. The first few chapters were admittedly pretty rough, but once the action got going - once Cora got implanted by the alien - it got good. The central relationship between Cora and the alien Ampersand is really well done, and I ended up caring more than I thought I would. The book touches on some heavier themes - genocide, government incompetence (it's set in 2007 Bush presidency era), what it means to be human - but never in a way that feels heavy-handed. There weren't as many pop culture references as I was dreading at first (there were some in the opening scenes) - though there is a surprisingly poignant Star Wars imagining scene somewhere in there. There were some flaws here, but the way the book left off makes me really excited for the next one!