Brenna Raney

We know asexuals have dragons. Now what if we could also have dinosaurs? Enter Rex, an unintentional supervillain who claims she's neither villainous nor superpowered - just a genius. (Although she doesn't know she's ace yet since sex does feel good (although she doesn't quite understand the point of the other person) and besides, she hasn't even heard of the term! (A far too common experience)). Our story begins after she accidentally releases a rampage of clomed dinosaurs (whose very existence is a clear breach of the cloning clause) on Decimen City. Or at least that's what the authorities say - she says her incompetent lab techs let them escape #MoreToTheStory. When a real villain turns up and wants to take control, Rex is forced to work for those who have been fighting her and her work or she'll lose even more of the freedoms that the authorities haven't yet taken and maybe her supervillain twin brother and his team will rule them all.

This was such a fun book! So much chaos and I loved it. Maybe some parts felt a bit out of place (this will differ between people due to the wide range of plot points and general happenings). For me this was around the romance (which I know others will enjoy) but it was nice to see Rex struggling with her sexualiy and how this influences her relationships in this. And the cat world was just weird? I mean, it wasn't bad but why? As much as I enjoyed the chaos, I did find myself getting annoyed by some of the characters. I enjoyed the main ones - Rex, Flora and Aya (the AI whose name is the source of some confusion) but some of the others just frustrated me a bit. But the interactions between these three were incredible. And we get what is probably some of my favourite dialogue I've read:

"Am I having a gay crisis?"
"Why does it have to be a crisis? Maybe you're just having a gay"

Oh and the dinosaurs were fun although the way the narrator said "mom" was a little annoying, at least to me. But that's infrequent enough to not have a major impact on the experience. They weren't what I expected but they added a lot of comedic relief. I enjoyed Rex's frustrations around everyone else not concerning themselves with accessibility - all enrichment activities from sign language to baseball seemed to cater best towards those with arms (much to her annoyance).

I absolutely loved Rex as a character. I feel like she is the definition of chaotic neutral. With an emphasis on the chaotic. I'd definitely love to read about more of her misadventures. Think Gru from Despicable Me but the opposite. Although she often causes disasters (ranging from running zombies to a malfunctioning death ray to rampaging dinos) she doesn't mean to. And she sometimes also does unintentional good like curing cancer (Big Pharma is still out to get her). As an older sibling I also related a lot to some of her thoughts and experiences surrounding family and expectations, even though my family life may not have been quite as toxic. I could definitely see some of the things she said about expectations and the way her experiences were treated mirroring some of the things I have been told. Although the story was mostly chaos and mayhem, it does delve into darker moments at times and these felt incredibly real. I really felt for her in these kinds of moments. The author did an incredible job of capturing the pain of trauma between all the fun and action.

If you are the kind of person who enjoys chaos and intelligent dinosaurs and especially chaotic dinosaurs I can definitely recommend this book to you! I was excited to dive back in every time I picked it up. Does it always make sense? Probably not. But sometimes you need a book like this! It definitely made a great addition to a current much heavier book I'm reading (although this one does have its heavy moments too). Think Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy type absurdity, but with dinosaurs and some very real pain and struggles woven in.

I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. As always, all opinions are my own.… (plus d'informations)