Satellite by Nick Lake: A Review

Satellite by Nick Lake is one of the picks for the 2019 MUHSD Battle of the Books.

Leo, Orion, and Libra are three teenagers.  What makes these teenagers unique is that they were born in space on an international space station.  They have lived there for their entire lives.  Even though they all have astronauts for parents, they aren't able to see their parents very often.  Adults cannot spend too much time on the space station because of the effects of zero gravity. They have been raised by a rotating set of astronauts have been stationed in space.

Just like all teenagers, the three pursue their various interests on the space station.  They attend school online.  But really, they are looking forwards to returning to a home that they have never visited:  Earth.  They must wait until their sixteenth birthday.  Doctors have determined that their bones are unlikely to handle the crushing effects of Earth's gravity until they have reached their sixteenth birthdays.

Any story set in space will be filled with suspense because when things go wrong on a space station, people's lives are at stake.  And boy!  Do things go wrong on this space station.

Eventually, the three teens move to Earth and are separated.  Leo goes to live with his grandfather, while Orion and Libra, the twins, go to live with their family.  All three teens are like fish out of water.  They are human, but they have never known what it is like to be on Earth.  Natural elements that we all take for granted, such as wind and the sky, are strange and new to the three teens.  Part of the conflict that drives this story is the struggles that these characters face as they try to cope not only with Earth's gravity, but also with the strangeness of a foreign land while being apart from one another.

What I really loved about this book was how it explored the nature of family and belonging through the stories of the three teens.  This book is suspenseful, beautiful, and thought-provoking.

Highly recommend!

Available at AHS, BCHS, ECHS, GVHS, LHS, and MHS.