SPSFC4 Review: Chloe's Kingdom by Gregory Michael

Blurb:

Six Motivated Thieves. One Deadly Heist.

Chloe Espinoza is a wild-haired petty thief aboard the Kingdom, a drifting city spaceship. Once rich but now poor, Chloe is determined to break free from the Honeycombs and return to her life in the Gardens. Only one problem: she hardly has enough koin for a burrito, making a lavish apartment seem as distant as the stars. All that might change, however, when Chloe is offered a heist that could make her unimaginably rich. But she can’t break into the impenetrable Koin Vault alone…

A young mastermind who can’t let go of her past.

A mathematical genius in desperate need of koin.

A privileged kid from the Gardens with a debt to pay.

A bartender who’s serving revenge.

A mischievous raccoon with a bottomless appetite.

A battered soul who’s been wronged by the council.

Gone are the days of stealing snacks. Chloe’s crew is aiming for the ultimate prize: the Koin Vault. Their plan? To rob the Treasury and bring down the corrupt council. But in a game where the stakes are jail or death, every move could be their last.

A thrilling Young Adult Science Fiction Heist novel set in the unforgiving void of outer space, perfect for fans of 'Six of Crows' by Leigh Bardugo and 'Artemis' by Andy Weir.

Review:

I would like to file a motion that all heist stories henceforth feature a very hungry pet raccoon.

A good heist story is always a sum of three parts: the building of the team, the execution of the plot, and the fallout from the heist, whether good or bad. In Chloe’s Kingdom, Gregory Michael absolutely nails the first two parts of the task, featuring eclectic and motivated characters, a wealth of tension, and a thrilling ride filled with twists and turns. It’d be a strong contender for one of my favorite reads of the year…if not for a rough landing at the end.

Chloe is a small-time thief in the Honeycombs district of the city spaceship known as the Kingdom. Once a child of privilege from the rich Gardens district, she has been reduced to poverty after her parents’ untimely deaths, stealing protein bars from the nearby bodega with her friend Penny. The dream of returning to her life in the Gardens becomes closer to a reality when the score of a lifetime is presented to her: robbing the impenetrable vault of the Kingdom’s koin. If Chloe and her crew can pull it off and bring down the Kingdom’s corrupt council, they’ll be rich beyond their wildest imaginations. But if they fail, the consequences will be all too dire. Also there’s a raccoon named Mojito and I love him.

The setup for Chloe’s Kingdom is simple enough: rob the vault, walk away rich. But for such a simple and well-worn concept, Michael pulls it off extremely well. It starts with the cast of characters, all of whom have well-realized motivations to see this heist work out. The stars of the show are our two leads, Chloe and Penny. Where Chloe wants to return to her life in the Gardens and own a lavish apartment with a freezer filled with burritos (which seems to be one of the only two sources of food in the Kingdom, along with protein bars), Penny is on the brink of financial ruin when her mother is victim to a devastating workplace accident. The crew they assemble along the way is motivated by debts to pay or vengeful desires, and they all balance each other out well with multi-dimensional relationships and fun banter. It’s a good crew.

The buildup to the heist, and the heist itself, are all set up and put down perfectly. The stakes are laid out, the consequences of success or failure are clear, and there is a tension that grips you and pulls you forward, eager to see how it all shakes out. Everyone has well-realized specialties, from Chloe’s preparedness to Penny’s mathematical genius to Dutch’s triumph over his PTSD. And when the heist kicks off in earnest, it’s a blast to read through, a white-knuckled pulse-pounding read that has you cheering and bracing all at once.

Which is why the third act’s faltering is all the rougher to read through. There are some shocking and well-executed twists, but so much of where Chloe’s Kingdom falls for me is in the reveal of the main antagonist, who, in a story with multi-dimensional characters and plotting, comes off as woefully cartoonish to the point that a dastardly twirling mustache wouldn’t have been out of place. And in a book that’s fast-paced enough already, the pace kicks into overdrive over the last 20% until it’s brought to a screeching halt with barely the time to breathe. It’s a shame, because the first 70 to 80% of Chloe’s Kingdom is brilliant, but I thought it just couldn’t stick the landing.

I’d still highly recommend giving Chloe’s Kingdom a read, though. It remains a really fun heist story with lots of heart and fun, twists and turns, thrills and chills, and the best boy of a raccoon. It’s unfortunately just brought down by a less-than-stellar ending that sets up a sequel, but didn’t quite land this book as well as I’m sure the author hoped.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m busy googling where to adopt my local trash panda. I’ve already decided to name him Whiskey Sour.