Satellite Review

(Published: 2019/07/04)

Yesterday I started and finished reading Satellite by Nick Lake. I’ve been wanting this book for about a year and I was so excited when I spied it on a book shopping trip for my library club at school. I was at first very offended by the sans serif font that was eternally burning my eyes (my friends actually dismissed the book when they saw the font), but lucky you, Nick Lake, your writing won me over. I think Satellite is the closest I am ever going to get to space. The book is about a boy and two other teenagers who were born in a space station and are going to be brought “back” down to Earth when they’re 16. It sounds sort of cliche, but you have to overlook that. You also have to overlook the terrible abbreviations that occur throughout the book (e.g. i c u). But please, I beg you to stick with it. When you realise how good the book actually is, we can all start a petition for Nick Lake to republish the book properly. Anyway, the way Nick Lake describes space and Leo’s thoughts and emotions is so immersive and it feels as if you are really this character lost in a world without a home. You feel like you know the characters and they are not just Leo’s friends, but your own. You go places they go, and somehow, Nick Lake has turned this seemingly cliche idea into an inspirational, philosophical novel I am so pleased to have read. There’s something about the characters and what they go through that makes the book beautiful. I can’t really describe what I mean other than to say, you need to read this book. I cried reading this book. I cry pretty easily to books and movies, but I can promise you, you’ll feel something.