Akiva Reads

by Jonathan Blum, Kate Orman

My feelings about this book are, approximately, "OMG OMG OMG OMG!!"

Yes, it's because of what happens to the Doctor and Sam, and their emotional development (which is wonderfully written, there's a reason people tell you this is the best book in the series, they are completely correct), but lezbehonest, there are also three other reasons I completely lost it over this one:

• JEWS IN SPACE. The planet's called Ha'Olam, and I liked that when it was name-dropped in [b:Dreamstone Moon|71398|Doctor Who Dreamstone Moon|Paul Leonard|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1206762531s/71398.jpg|69142]. But lo, Sam's roommate is Shoshana! Sam joins up with an activist group called Tikkun Olam!! Everyone uses Yiddish slang!!! One of the chapter titles is the godawful pun "Oy Gestalt"!!!!

• SAM DATES A WOMAN. Although the woman's name is Chris and you only know she's a woman if you, like me, noticed that in her only other cameo she was using a power drill and thought "ooh, I bet she's hot" and are thus equipped to make the purposely obscure connection much later in the book when there's a one-sentence flashback about Sam and Chris dating for years before Chris ran off with someone else. ...And it's bookended by Sam's relationships with two men, which are major parts of the story and last for whole chapters each.... So honestly, I have very mixed feelings about all of this, and I'm really sad that extremely coded references like Chris and "Free the Kinsey Three" are the only things Blum thought he could sneak into the novel, but I'm also completely jazzed that Sam is confirmed as bi. Such is queer life!

• The Doctor as a computer programmer is just an absolute fucking delight.