ANTI is the debut novel of Alexandra Atman, a Young Adult Science Fiction proposal that explores interesting themes while weaving together a character driven story with some soft-science elements that makes it a perfect read even if you are not a lover of the genre. A story full of feelings and quite unique.

Georgina Madalo is a brilliant seventeen-year-old girl, whose dream is to become a space pilot to escape from the utopia Negara was supposed to be; things are not easy, especially under the eye of her tyrannical mother, Andrea Madalo, who, apart from that, has created a sentient AI that threatens to take control over everything in the problem. Adding salt to the wound, it has been stolen by her boss, the charming Ceriel Droksik, star of the robotics field; Georgina is tasked with recovering it.

However, from this relatively simply premise, Atman takes the opportunity to paint a full portrait of our three main characters, and the complicated relationships established between them; Georgina will be forced to get closer to Ceriel, but that doesn't mean they will easily get along, starting a sort of enemies-to-lovers-to-enemies that is really sweet, especially in contraposition with the thunderous bond that exists between Gio and Andrea. Eventually, we will get to comprehend that while Andrea and Ceriel might be ambitious people, they are working towards what they consider the good goal, which may vary; not only that, but through Gio's eyes, we will see how behind the utopia of Negara is hidden a threaten to the whole humanity.

Atman has a writing style that creates a really accessible prose, allowing you to devour the book in a few sits; the pacing is fast, despite I feel it drags a bit in the middle part, especially when the book becomes more romance heavy. The science in this book is not too hard/dense, being more a complement to the worldbuilding, a utopia that in reality can be considered as a dystopia, as many of the basic freedoms are restricted.

A really solid debut, a young adult novel that can be enjoyed also by adults, and that will delight you with its strong and angsty female main character, with a world that you would love to explore. After how it ends, I can only ask for when the second book will be released!