I really wanted to love this book, but couldn't quite get there. I mean, it's Eurovision meets Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, so this novel should be exploding with music and glitter and wacky space antics from beginning to end.

And though Valente remains at the top of her game when it comes to having a way with words, the story (has-been glam rock band must compete in intergalactic singing competition to save all of Earthy humanity) itself spends most of the novel as a barely-there thread to justify spending a lot of time doing a lot of infodump world(universe?) building. We really don't get to go on an adventure until the final third of the novel, which is a shame, because this novel has a lot to offer if it didn't get bogged down in its own structure.

While we are being fed the tiniest slivers about the why and how of saving our little planet, we are treated to very large, very wordy chunks regarding the other key players in the contest, complete with their histories and memorable past performances. So much time is devoted to these infodumps that huge sections of the novel turn into walls of text that succeed in burying the fun and wit and humor. And because the opening half of the book is so damned heavily-loaded with just these primers and histories, I felt like I was locked into reading a textbook or encyclopedia instead of going on an intergalactic adventure full of song and special effects. Which is not at all how Eurovision in Space should feel.