[Book Plot Summary]
Chapter 1: Saltwater City
So there’s this awful disease going around called the Tiger Flu that mostly infects men, but lowkey don’t discriminate
Kora Ko is a teenage girl who’s the last in her family to be healthy
She’s talking about this with her pet goat, Delphine, who we all enjoy
This BITCH named Stash is one of her brother’s friends that attacks her and tries to infect her cuz he S U C K S
On the roof, they tumble and almost fall to their deaths and I’m like “wow, this is chapter 1”
Chapter 2: Grist Village
Lol honestly kinda confused as to everything happening
Also, this chapter is gross
Apparently there’s a place called Grist Village where umm there are like these different copies of the same woman
Something about them being in the future
Someone named Auntie Radix wants a starfish (they’re clones that can regenerate body parts and so doctors like Kirilow can harvest their organs and give them to others) named Peristrophe Halliana’s eyes and previously took her liver and kidneys
So the protagonist here, Kirilow, removes them
I guess the Grist sisters are stigmatized for something or another, I’m so sorry I really don’t know what I just read lmao
Chapter 3: Saltwater City
Btw, Kora has a halo that like allows her to play music and insert memories and all types of shit
There’s like a large god thing named Chang in the sky, honestly girl idk
Anyway, she and Uncle Wai are on the roof and drop these jars. They’ve lost two jars — mainly cuz K2’s bitch ass friend Stash
It starts raining literal acid and so they grab the potatoes on the roof and dip downstairs
She sees her sick brother K2 and her mom Charlotte who’s a night nurse
She then goes to her room and dreams about her neighbors being thrown to the moon
She wakes to Uncle Wai and Charlotte arguing (it was unclear) something about them having to do something soon and how this is Kora’s opportunity since she’ll actually live
Chapter 4: Grist Village
Peristrophe is suffering and Kirilow hates that it’s happening
Auntie Radix has a new groom (think healer, that’s also what Kirilow is) and wants Peristrophe to give her a new heart, but also Peristrophe is literally recovering from eye removal so like..?!
Something about Eng and Chang which are the sky...?! And Saltwater City controls Eng or something [Update: Chang and Eng are satellites in the sky that orbit, so they’re kinda like the futuristic version of the sun and moon p much]
Auntie radix is the last doubler (I think they’re like a breeding class) and so lowkey Kirilow can’t say no :/
Kirilow blames it on Mama Glory being like, “girl, we need balance”
Some creature called a Salty (a slur for hoes who live in Saltwater City) just rolled up out of nowhere and reminded Kirilow of a militia attack, so she cut off its hand
It gets away and Kirilow’s like, “damn”
Chapter 5: Saltwater City
Kora gets up and goes upstairs to see her family has killed her best goat friend, Delphine
Charlotte is like, (to Uncle Wai) “we’re broke and I should’ve never left your brother, so we’d be rich”
Also, Everest, K2’s (who is Kora’s brother) twin we never met, is dead
Kora is devastated and runs away, with Uncle Wai running after her
She runs through the wet market and is stopped by these girls who accuse her of stealing
They try to get scrappy, so she whoops that ass and leaves
Chapter 6: Grist Village
So Kirilow and her mother double (like mentor basically) are picking forget me do (a medicine that makes you forget the tings) when Kirilow sees the salty from earlier with a slightly regenerated hand meaning it can be a starfish!
So she captures it naturally and wants to kill it since apparently salties oppressed, killed, and exiled the Grist species more or less
Also, I think the salty is just a regular human, but unclear
The salty wants them to come to saltwater to save hoes, but Kirilow doesn’t fuck with them niggas and doesn’t care lol
Apparently men aren’t a thing in Grist which like can I get an apartment orrrr???
The salty promises to help Kirilow and friends survive
Mother glory (Kirilow’s mother double) releases the salty when they receive news that Auntie Radix’s heart is actually going under
Chapter 7: Saltwater City
Kora goes home only to find the tin can girls and she’s like ugh...
So K2 has a little fort out back that he used to stay in, so she slides
Inside has been converted to a (creepy) shrine of Isabelle Chow, inventor and CEO of HoST Industries
She then sees a hologram?!? Of Isabelle talking about how she has to beat the cosmopolitan earth council and UMK otherwise they’re good as dead
After seeing this shit, Kora sleeps and then sneaks into her apartment
Also, Kora prayed to Isabelle which was...weird
Chapter 8: Grist Village
Auntie Radix has like a heart attack and Kirilow tries to save her, but auntie dies
Her groom is like pissed lmao
Chapter 9: Saltwater City
Kora comes home and her mom is like, “bruh wtf was with all those girls tryna jump you?”
Apparently they do illegal trades with the cosmopolitan earth council
Uncle Wai is really fucking sick
Charlotte made goat stew and Kira was like tf?!
So she listens to emo music and hours later eats the stew, throws up, and then sleeps at the foot of Uncle Wai’s bed
Chapter 10: Grist Village
Kirilow walks back to her cave with her mother double and finds Peristrophe dancing manically to a CD player that the salty is playing. So then everyone starts dancing uncontrollably
Peristrophe starts to show symptoms of the tiger flu and so they take the salty, give them forgetting tea, and throw their ass out
Chapter 11: Saltwater City
Kora gets accepted into the Cordova Dancing School for Girls and doesn’t wanna go, but Uncle Wai and K2 want her to take this opportunity
Charlotte, however, doesn’t wanna bear the weight of death and grief alone
Chapter 12: Grist Village
Peristrophe dies and it’s hella sad
But before she dies she requests that Kirilow find another doubler and starfish in saltwater city
Chapter 13: Saltwater City
So, context, the Dancing School isn’t actually a dance school, but instead a school that teaches young girls how to steal and loot since basically everyone’s in a post-apocalyptic hell atm
Kora gets to the school and meets a small girl named Velma
She’s taken to dinner where this girl named Myra who was in the market, like threw biscuits at her and was a hater
Kora eats beef bourguignon and lives for it
Myra accuses Kora’s family and specifically her grandfather, Lennox Ko, of starting the whole ass tiger flu
Madame Dearborn walked in and already we stan
Chapter 14: Grist Village
Kirilow goes to Peristrophe’s mourning rock
Glorybind groundsel (idk) tries to convince her to seek out the sisters they have in Saltwater, but Kirilow’s like “girl, I’m depressed lmao”
Kirilow leaves to get high and runs into Auntie Radix’s groom, Bombyx Mori, who apologizes
They get ambushed and escape into the forest
They end up at this overturned bus that was used to bring the first Grist sisters here and there run into a pregnant girl named Corydalis
Corydalis gives birth to, I think, 7 “puppies”
Literally everyone is dying outside, but the three of them (Bombyx, Kirilow, and Corydalis) nurse these damn kids
Chapter 15: Saltwater City
Kora is harassed by Myra and her friends and made to eat her own vomit and accused of dating her uncle and brother
Velma is loyal and takes her to Madame Dearborn who is sick and tired of these GOTdamn kids
Chapter 16: Grist Village
So Kirilow like goes back into the woods and eventually runs into a drunk sister and FINDS her other sisters trapped in this giant net
The giant ship that led this ambush takes all the sisters inside
Kirilow barely escapes after partially cutting the net
Back at the bus, Bombyx decides to start a new village and Kirilow heads for the city
Chapter 17: Saltwater City
Kora misses her family a shit ton
She goes back to the Isabella shrine after learning a little dance from the Madame
She sees a holagram scale thing of Isabella chow cussing some bitch out and being like, “HOW COULD YOU?!?!” I guess she got cheated on smh
Then Soraya (part of Myra’s shitty squad) and Myra show up and, of course, are awful
Chapter 18: Grist Village
Kirilow wants revenge and brings Calyx on her journey to Saltwater which why?
Umm idk, they stop at this one place and this bitch named Billy Johnson (whose grandmother was friends with their mother double) who’s with hoes called a Syilx, girl idk
Whatever whatever they need to leave
Something about the cosmopolitan earth council controlling the second plague ring and maybe host is trying to take the third and fourth? Girl, I don’t care lol
CEC maybe could stop host from expanding but were they defeated? Was a deal made? Who knows
Chapter 19: Saltwater City
Kora tries to sneak to see her family and finds creepy ass Stash along the way
He takes her to this bar and shows her the scales of hoes who’ve already gone over (talking to the dead?)
They talk to the dead and it’s weird
Soraya and Modesta are weirdly there and drag Kora back to school
Chapter 20: Grist Village
Kirilow and Calyx are walking and attacked by Tania and Myra from the dancing school
Kirilow is robbed of their tent, but captures and nearly murders Tania
They walk along and Calyx is friends with them strangely
Kirilow tries to strangle Tania again, but gets knocked out
She wakes to find everybody and they’re weirdly nice to her
Apparently Kirilow has been sought after by the Grist sisters in Saltwater, are Myra and them Grist sisters?
Chapter 21: Saltwater City
Kora, Modesta, and Soraya go to this underground market to steal cans
In the process, Kora kills an old man and steals his shit
Soraya and Modesta are literally the WORST since they kinda forced Kora to do all that
Chapter 22: Grist Village
Tania has some connections with CEC and is the like daughter of some influential bitch
All four of them (Tania, Myra, Kirilow, and Calyx) go to some archives and then try to cross the rings
Calyx and Kirilow are encouraged to be blindfolded
Kirilow takes it off at one point and sees the salty that killed her starfish lover
She’s wilin out and the soldiers let them pass ONLY if Kirilow takes the forgetting tea
Chapter 23: Saltwater City
Kora sneaks into the night
She finds K2 being attacked by dogs and saves him
He’s part of the tiger men now smh
They’re on different paths now, but decide to go back and see Charlotte and Uncle Wai one more time
Chapter 24
Kirilow is now the new doctor of the Cordova school and hates everyone and everything, so the stories finally CONVERGE in Saltwater City!
She asks girls she heals if they know about the host invasions and shit and they’re like’ “girl, whet?”
Madame Dearborn is like, “you’re being weird, please stop lol”
Chapter 25
Kora and K2 go home
The house is empty and everything is uncharacteristically tidy
She asks K2 if they were kidnapped and he runs away
Kora sadly goes back to the dancing school and realizes she lost the catcoat she stole
Oh yeah, Kora stole something called a catcoat that makes you invisible