Do You Dream Of Terra-Two by Temi Oh

Have you ever read a book that made you go “wow I would have loved this when I was 15.”? That’s how I felt about this book.

And truly I mean this in a good way! I’m not trying to dog on this book I just couldn’t help but think this as the story was progressing.

Do You Dream of Terra-Two takes place in a time where a new habitable planet has been discovered. Humanity has figured out a plan to get humans to this planet to begin colonizing it. Britain has decided to get the best of the smartest teens in the country and send them on a ship to head to the planet. Each student would specialize in a certain area (captain, biologist, medic…etc.) and by the time they were in their 30s they would land on the planet and begin the work of colonizing.

I had expected this novel to get to the part where they are on the planet and what goes on in attempting to colonize a new planet, however, that was not the focal point of the story. The story was following these teenagers as they come to terms with this life changing decision they have made at such a young age. Themes that are explored here are grief, survivors guilt, mental health, family dynamics, regret, imposter syndrome, and much more. This is why I say I would have loved this at 15. I would have loved to have read of teenagers who were tasked with such an unimaginable life plan. In high school there’s so much pressure to have your full life planned out. Every one is asking you what school you’re going to go to, what do you want to major in, what jobs are you applying for, oh and also are you dating anyone??

I liked how sexuality was talked about amongst the characters and I think that would have been very beneficial to younger me. Temi Oh handled these scenes with a whole lot of care and you can tell that she was very purposeful when it came to this topic which I think that younger readers could really value from. Especially when it comes to telling someone no, or not feeling ready, or not feeling that type of attraction.

A heartbreaking plot in this story is one of the girls right before the mission takes her own life. The team is wracked with this happening and are expectedly feeling conflicting emotions when realizing “oh shoot we are about to get on this spaceship in a few hours”. We see each character’s grief, including the girls’ boyfriend. He experiences depression, anxiety, and at times hallucinations. No one was allowed the time or space to process their grief. They immediately got launched into space. This really broke my heart. I think this was a good commentary on the world as a whole. A traumatic world event will happen and capitalism demands that we press on, no time to process, nah just get desensitized so you can keep showing up to work, cause that’s more important…

This is a really big book as well, clocking in at 529 pages. There is not much sci-fi within the story because again we are following the inter-connectedness of these kids. It’s just that the story takes place on a spaceship. The book switches between each of their POV’s, so totaling 7 points of view throughout the story. I would have really loved a time jump, like let’s see what they are up to when they are in their mid 20s and then 30s, the timeline instead is just shy of a year onboard. Whenever there was an intense moment of ‘are they going to survive?”, it gets wrapped up in some bubble wrap and everyone is relatively safe and the situation handled. I recognize that this was part of the story and it was intended for all the characters to learn how to work together and stick together as a team. Adult me just wanted there to be some real stakes and risks to their decisions.

If you have a teenager in your life I think this book would make a great gift to them. I think there is so much relatability within the story and comfort among that.