Diving into this book was a bit scary for me because it was given to me by the author herself, and what if I didn't love it? Luckily for both of us, I did love it, and I'm very glad to have a signed, personalized, inside joke-ified copy on my shelves. 
 Not only is the main character biracial, which you don't see much in YA, but she's also autistic. (!!!) This is already exceptionally diverse, and I haven't even gotten started on the side characters. It's amazing that there's a book out there that biracial and autistic people can see themselves in -- and not as a quirky best friend character, but the hero. 
 Denise loves cats, and that made me love Denise. But that's not all that I loved about her. She's a strong female character, one of the best. She fights her butt off to not let her disability stand in the way of getting to where she needs to be. She doesn't usually tell people that she's autistic because she doesn't want them to treat her any differently, which unfortunately results in people thinking she's lazy and crazy. (I rhymed. It feels weird to not acknowledge that.) 
 On the Edge of Gone is very much about what it means to be useful, what it means to be worthy of survival. The last line of the synopsis describes it very well: "When the future of the human race is at stake, whose lives matter most?" Many apocalyptic and dystopian novels deal with this subject, but none as well as this one did. I really liked reading about what the world outside of the generation ship was like, what people did to help each other, how they functioned trying to survive. 
 Especially recommended to people living in or familiar with the city of Amsterdam and its surroundings! Who knew it was so fun to read about your city being destroyed?