So my wife is a huge Star Wars nerd, and one night she was like "Read this!" so I finished it today because she kept sending me screenshots of the text itself.

This is a middle grade novel of how Rey survives on Jakku. I skim-read it initially, only planning to read it enough to be able to hold a conversation with my Star-Wars obsessed spouse, but then I was pulled in and kept reading.

I think the genre of middle grade really lends itself to Rey's voice. I loved learning about her and her thought processes and how she made it out on this inhospitable planet. I didn't really care for the long passages about ship parts, but I love a story about a girl who's self-taught and hustlin'.

The illustrations were a really nice touch. ( )

LooOove these sorts of first-person in-character non-novel books. Some stuff felt a bit "off", but I'm willing to suspend disbelief. ( )

This was super cute, and chock-full of great information for folks who are hungry for more Star Wars information. Rey's characterization was also very adorable, and really rich here. It raises a lot of questions, but obviously it's not super intended that way because of the audience it's aimed at? I'm curious as to the appeal for kids (the actual audience)--the fold-out parts are really nice, obviously, but there's like a lot of text surrounding them, and details that detail-oriented baby fans might like, but I was never one of those kids/don't consume fandom in that way, so it's more difficult to imagine what, say, a younger version of myself would get out of this book. But I would still say it's definitely an accessible read for young people, and a good, engaging read overall! ( )