Aetherbound by E.K. Johnston

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Description:

Set on a family-run interstellar freighter called the Harland and a mysterious remote space station, E. K. Johnston's latest is a story of survival and self-determination. Pendt Harland's family sees her as a waste of food on their long-haul space cruiser when her genes reveal an undesirable mutation. But if she plays her cards right, she might have a chance to do much more than survive. During a space-station layover, Pendt escapes and forms a lucky bond with the Brannick twins, the teenage heirs of the powerful family that owns the station. Against all odds, the trio hatches a long-shot scheme to take over the station and thwart the destinies they never wished for.

Age Recommendation: 15+ or 10th grade and up

General Content:

Language: 4/10- A bit of derogatory language/ references sprinkled throughout the chapters.

Alcohol & Drugs: 1/10- A couple of mentions of others being drunk.

Violence & Gore: 4/10- Not overly violent or gory. There is mistreatment of family, mentions of human trafficking, and medical abuse.`

Sexual Content: 5/10- Some sexual content, not overly graphic but very straightforward. Most people in this world often artificially inseminate; this is talked about a few times.

Parent Guide:

Tropes: Family tension, humanity, tyrannical patriarchy/ leaders

Beginning of the book content warning: “This book contains a scene of medical violence. Characters also obsess about food and count calories”.

Ch. 2

-Pendt, the main character, discovers at 5 years old that her powers (being able to sense genetics and change them) are useless to her family. This is how that plays out: “‘I’m sorry I’m not better. For the Harland [her family name], ’ I’m sorry too,’ Arkady [her aunt, the captain of the ship] said. She spoke like she’d already forgotten who Pendt was and didn’t look in her direction.”.

-“‘You won’t be useful until you’re eighteen and can work legally under the shipboard rules,’ Lodia [her mother] continued…’Until then, you will be worthless. The captain will decide what you can do to earn your oxygen.’Pendt understood only that she was useless, and that she didn’t deserve to breathe as a result”.

-Pendt gets put on kitchen duty, preparing and distributing rations. “When she made mistakes, she was reported immediately for punishment.”, Punishment was usually solitary confinement.

-While in confinement, she overheard her cousins talking about her and if her mother was going to keep or get rid of her because of her uselessness.

-Everyone is addressed as “sir” regardless of their gender.

Ch. 3

-While working in the kitchen, Pendt accidentally rips off her fingernail, and she subconsciously uses her powers to grow it back. She passes out and gets brought to the medical wing to be treated. “Pendt was glad she’d been unconscious for the part where her mother and aunt debated whether or not she was worth treating”. Her mother often fought for her existence.

-Pendt's cousins often make fun of her, and talk badly about her and to her. This happens throughout multiple chapters.

Ch. 4

-Pendt thinks about the passengers below, if they’d been disembarked to work or “offloaded as corpses”.

Ch. 5

-Pendt begins to menstruate for the first time. She visits the medical wing to see Morunt [the doctor and her friend], Morunt gives her an injection to suppress her blood, so that no one finds out she’s already begun bleeding.

-Arkady orders Pendt and her cousin (Tanith) to follow her to the medical wing. Once they arrive, Arkady tells Pendt's cousin to strip. She lies on the medical table naked while the doctor is ordered to inseminate her. Tanith sheds two single tears in response but does not refuse.

Ch. 6

-Pendt describes her room as being barely big enough for her small cot and cabinet. It also had poor air circulation, so she often woke up gasping for air or would pass out in the hallway on her way out. Her brother was ordered by her mother to check out the air, but he did a “cursory job at best”, he said, she has what she deserves.

-As Pendt's little brother grew up, he also often mistreated her, sparking her with his electric abilities while she handed him rations.

-After Pendt had had enough of his sparks, she stood up for herself. Arkady heard and “struck her [in the head] with her tray”

Ch. 7

-As Pendt gets older, she’s realizing the extent of her magic. She’s realizing that her life is not hers by watching her cousin, who’s 10 years older. She’s realizing that the decisions made on her behalf will be for the benefit of her family, not her well-being.

Ch. 8

-Using her gene-sensing powers, Pendt changes her hair and nails and sneaks out of her family's ship as they are docked.

-Pendt ends up at a bar looking for food.

Ch. 10

-People came down to look through the port “no matter how drunk they were”.

-Ned suggests Fisher take a nap, “but I suppose you’re going to take a stimulant instead.”, he states. With no real food on the ship or stations, they have to request “something to stay awake” from the calorie dispenser.

Ch. 12

-“The Harland was gone. She was going to f*****g eat”, Pendt thinks to herself.

-Fisher suggests that Ned (his brother) and Pendt get married in order to both get freedom from the roles they were born into. Marriage is uncommon in their world, as nearly everyone artificially inseminates.

-Pendt says that she may be able to change a baby’s chromosomes, as long as it’s as early on as possible. Because of that, she states that she and Ned would have to have sex in order to ensure that she could adjust the baby’s chromosomes to make sure it’s a boy. This is how it plays out in the book:

“‘You mean sex?’ Ned said. Now he looked really uncomfortable. ‘Can’t you do it artificially…‘it’s hard to explain,’ Pendt said…’ Nope!’ Ned held up his hand. ‘Just skip to the part after ejaculation’”.

-“‘I'm trying very hard not to picture my brother having sex with a girl we just propositioned in a bar,’ Fisher told her. ‘It seems overly intrusive’”.

Ch. 13

-Pendt stays in Fisher and Ned's apartment, waiting for her 18th birthday to come so they can get married.

Ch. 15

-The week of their wedding, Pendt and Ned try for a child multiple times. Nothing more is mentioned at first, other than Pendt being unable to focus the first few times and that they “were both naked and he touched her gently, as though to remind himself that she was real”.

-Pendt confirms that she is pregnant with a doctor. After the medical exam, she mentions the paper gown she wore and thinks, “not being naked made a big difference when it came to medical exams”.

Ch. 16

-After confirming pregnancy, Pendt mentions that, “Ned no longer invited her to his bed”.

Ch. 18

-With Ned being gone for months, Pendt starts to realize that she is beginning to have feelings for his brother, Fisher.

Ch. 19

-While sitting on the couch, Pendt rests her head on Fisher's shoulder. She thinks to herself about her relationship with Ned: “She had become quite familiar with Ned’s body before he left, and he with hers, but there had never been this sort of comfort between them. There was always a task (getting pregnant).

-“Ned had never really kissed her. There had been mouths on skin and other things, but never the warm press of his lips on hers, the soft searching of his tongue”.

-“Fisher kissed her slowly, like he wasn’t sure he was allowed. He leaned down for an eternity before he touched her, and she thanked her lucky stars that she hadn’t skipped the steamy parts in the books Ned had left so that she knew to turn her face to his and wait.”

-Fisher pulls Pendt closer to him on the couch, “the shift in weight pushed him back against the arm of the sofa and pressed her chest against his. He laughed, breathless, and caught her in his arms, straightening his legs beneath her so that he could hold her body more comfortably. He kissed her again.”

-Fisher gets a message the next morning that the ship Ned was on had been captured and destroyed in battle. Ned is most likely dead.

Ch. 21

-Pendt discovers that her old family ship, the Harland, had been smuggling and trafficking people from other stations.

Ch. 22

-Pendt and Fisher kiss while lying on the couch again. “She settled between his legs, her hands on his thighs for balance as she dragged her tongue along his teeth”.

-“He laughed and pulled her body flush against his. Fisher never wanted to leave Brannick station, but he had finally found something he wanted to explore.”

Ch. 23

-“They’re your family and they treated you like s**t”.

-Ned escaped and is actually alive.

Ch. 24

-so that the “dying empire can fulfill their ancestors’ wildest colonial wet dreams”…

-“‘You like Fisher,’ Ned said. Pendt didn’t deny it. ‘That’s good. I like that you have each other.’ ‘I’m sorry I’m not, like, normal at being a wife,’ Pendt said. ‘Normal’s overrated,’ Ned said. ‘And anyway, I’m a rebel, remember? I’m against normal on principle.'”.

Ch. 25

-Pendt decides that the best way to evade getting taken by her family is to fake her own death.

Ch. 26

-While describing the heartlessness of Pendt's aunt, captain of the Harland, the author mentions that her daughter had given birth to a child that was useless, thus ordered to be put to death.