Gearbreakers by Zoe Hana Mikuta is one of those books that somehow passed me by when it came out in 2021. It follows two teenage girls, Sona and Eris, as they try to destroy the Godolia empire from the inside: Sona as one of the students from the Academy who earns a spot as a frightening pilot of a robot meant to level towns at the drop of a hat, and Eris as a gearbreaker, someone who gets inside one of these robots to render it useless and dead. Sona's whole community was slaughtered by one of these robots (called Windups) when she was younger, and she has never forgiven the empire that made that possible. She lets Godolia strip away part of her humanity so she can become a vessel for robotic connection, and she intends to use Godolia's ignorance to take revenge for the people she watched be torn apart as a child. Eris, on the other hand, is the captain of one crew within the Gearbreaker community, and she uses her sister's high-tech technology to destroy every Windup that crosses her path. When Sona and Eris meet, there is an instant connection, and Sona sees in Eris what she wants to see in herself: a girl who will bring the empire to its knees.
This novel alternates between Sona's point of view and Eris's. I'm not usually a huge fan of stories told through multiple POVs, but that's because a lot of what I've read just doesn't sound like it's coming from different narrators. I did not have this problem with Gearbreakers. Sona speaks in a noticeably different way than Eris speaks, and the two girls think differently as well; if you blindfolded me and read part of a chapter out loud, I'm nearly certain I could guess which girl was speaking. Sona's whole sense of self is wrapped around her ability to turn what the empire has put inside of her into a weapon she can use against it, and her narrative style is more direct, constantly warped around that one goal. Eris, on the other hand, is a girl trying very hard not to care about the people around her and failing miserably. She tries to keep herself closed off, but it's clear from her narration how much emotion she is grappling with. She loves her family, and the way she thinks is shaped by that. Sona and Eris sound like girls in different situations because they are, and Mikuta makes sure not to smear the line that separates them. Even the way they feel about each other reads differently on the page depending on whose POV we're in. I think this book absolutely benefits from the POV switches, and I adored the way Mikuta handled writing with two narrators.
The relationship between Sona and Eris is what got me to read this entire book in the span of a night. Reading along as they began to have feelings for each other was delightful. Really, all the relationships are a strong point in this novel. I never felt like any of them were trite or written badly. Whether it was Eris's relationship with her sister or Sona's friendships with the other pilots, Mikuta made sure that each character felt developed and like that relationship mattered to them. Eris's crew wasn't just a crew; they were her family, and each one of them held an important place in her life. Sona did not like the other pilots who had fully bought into Godolia's regime, but she made it seem as if she did in order to get what she wanted from them. Every decision Sona and Eris made throughout the novel was dependent on who was around them, and it all mattered. When Sona and Eris started to become more important to each other, it wasn't because the author was forcing them to catch feelings-it simply felt like the natural progression of their relationship which is my favorite kind of romance.
I use the term "romance" here pretty loosely. We don't get very much romance in the way of the girls becoming girlfriends, but it is clear that they care a lot about each other and are interested in the other person. I expect to see clearer romantic lines drawn in the sand when I read the sequel, and that feels like the perfect speed for Sona and Eris. These girls are truly going from enemies to friends to lovers, and I'm excited to watch their feelings for each other unfold. If you liked Crier's War, you will probably like Gearbreakers. These two books feel like sisters to me, even in the trajectory that the main characters take in their relationships.
Trigger warnings for: lots of death, violence, and descriptive details of dead bodies.